AMAZON CASE ANALYSIS
Amazon is an American multinational technology firm based in seattle.
The main focus areas are e-commerce, cloud computing, digital
streaming and also artificial intelligence. The CEO of the firm is Jeff
Bezos. The entire case study summarises that how the CEO evolved the
leading enterprise Amazon. Amazon starts its operations as a book
retailer, later the company expanded in this form. In the year 2017
Amazon become the most wealthiest retailer and Jeff Bezos become the
wealthiest person. Amazon started diversifying its business into new
categories in fashion like apparels and accessories stores. In 2005
amazon launched Amazon Prime and moved to digital content by
releasing an online service that allowed browsing also Amazon have a
grocery shop. Amazon product lines belongs to several media, apparel,
baby products, groceries, electronics, jewellery, toys and games etc.
The Competitive advantage
Amazon's adaptable innovation stack permits it to offer customers a
more extensive item combination, greater convenience, highly
competitive pricing. The company’s primary competitive advantage is the
low pricing that it is able to offer from digital media to grocery and
convince of shopping from home or mobile devices with the “same day
delivery” option. All of which make Amazon an imposing competitor for
conventional multi-channel retailers. Having focus on a small segment
makes it easier for the company to focus on its consumer needs. Once
it has become a leader in a niche market, the company can expand to
the other sectors.
Amazon offers its consumers greater ease of use over other retail e-
commerce web-sites. It’s superior search and query, recommendations
based on past purchases, one-click ordering at check-out, multiple
consumer reviews and ratings, and most recently dash buttons for
automatic re-ordering are key differentiators. When combined with the
Prime membership, Amazon has a broader 360-degree view of
consumers including insights into on-line transactions, purchase
frequency, entertainment preferences, and regional demographics. All of
which helps Amazon tailor its online experience to the needs of
consumers, and continually experiment with and improve upon its
functionality.
Amazon has been performing hundreds of activities to ensure the unique
value proposition to the customers. The company customizes these
activities to meet the low-price guarantee and a greater value of
convenience to their customers. Over a period, these activities have
become unique to Amazon and laid a foundation for sustainable
competitive advantage.
PRODUCT ANALYSIS – AMAZON ALEXA
Situational Analysis
External Environment: Amazon Alexa or Echo was released in
November 2014. Even though there is a fairly new product, it is
very advanced. Amazon always tries to advance their products to
be in the best. Alexa is a feature in the Echo speaker and has the
capacity to play music, search the use, create a shopping lists,
shop online, check the weather etc.
Internal Environment : Amazon is a multi-billion dollar company and is
one of the most powerful companies in the world. Amazon’s most
powerful innovation: Prime membership, which offers a lot of beneifits
that encourage consumers to consolidate as many of their purchases as
possible within Amazon’s ecosystem overall Amazon has the capacity to
incorporate their innovation into the website, in which millions go
everyday.
Maketing Mix Programme:
1. Product: As it currently stands the Amazon Alexa spots a very robotic
and non human voice. This is the default state of Alexa. Program was
made in January as Amazon rolled out ‘more natural voice’ for news
article and Wikipedia snippets.
2) Place: Amazons distribution network was made up to 333 buildings,
spending around 127.8 million. Most of the bases are located in the
deferent states of USA. Amazon has developed number of mediums for
fast and accurate delivery of products to the customers reach.
3) Promotion: Amazon has used variety of media for promotion:
Social media- Amazon has made use of social networking sites
such as Facebook and twitter for connecting with customers
instantly.
Use of celebrities – Recently Amazon has interviewed Alia Bhatt
and Arjun Kapoor asking about their choice in footwear. Through
the interview Amazon was able to create interest among the
customers for the variety of footwear’s available I the website.
Affiliate program – Building affiliate links or banners on the website
for earning money. It also provides Banners Tool which helps to
connect categories and promotions on Amazon.in
Emails – Using the huge database of the customers Amazon can
connect to the users through emails.
Other promotions are:
Advertising
Sales promotion
Publicity
Personal selling
Direct marketing
Evets and experiences
4) Price: Amazon significantly reduces prices of its products by providing
various deals to its customers online. The major source from which the
revenue is generated is from the fee charged to the sellers. Amazon also
provides value added services where the customers gets an early
access to the deals through paid subscription. Prices are adjusted based
on the time of the day and different seasons.
The main competitors of Amazon are:
Walmart- This American multinational retail corporation generates
about $514.41 billion in net sales per year. Walmart.com gives a
wide variety of items that are of unique quality. They provide
friendly assistance and day to day offers. This association also
gives various vouchers, which can be recovered at Walmart
stores. Therefore, Walmart is considered as one of the major
competitors of Amazon.
Alibaba.com – Alibaba is a top e-commerce-based business
organization, which has its root from China, and it was established
in the year 1999. The international giant works in wholesale selling
on the web, which is a separated factor contrasted with amazon.
This business association is accessible at whatever point and
wherever through the innovation stage that they provide for the
customers. In view of its center trade and use of advancement like
circulated figuring and electronic media in the business, it is
considered as Amazon significant contender.
Otto - Otto is a trading company that sells products of other brands
through the internet. It uses diverse gadgets that cause the
customer to explore to their buys. The customer can pick the item,
identify the item in the web-shopping basket, and proceed for
payment. It is evaluated that Otto has produced around 80 percent
of their incomes through on the internet.
Other competitors of Amazon are eBay, Flipkart, Costco, Kroger,
Home depot, JD.com, Priceline.com etc.
Amazon has been a major success when it comes to the retail sector.
Amazon was not only able to maintain its profitability but it has been also
been successful in in attracting customers from rival due to several
competitive advantages.
Traditional retailers Competency
Platform structure
Designing the sites or platforms in such a way that it attracts the
customers and creates the urge in the customer to buy the products
offered. The excitement in shopping is when you find is very attractive
and engaging while doing online shopping which is something amazon
has a competitive advantage over all the platforms available
Price matching:
Customers visit stores to test products and learn about them, but look
out to buy it at lower prices.by matching the prices of the products in
Amazon, can help retailers compete with the company.
Faster Delivery
The most popular aspect of Amazon’s Prime loyalty program is free two-
day shipping on millions of items. More than anything else, that offer has
helped accelerate the company’s e-commerce growth and pressured
brick-and-mortar retailers. However, more retailers today are responding
with their own delivery initiatives.
Better customer services
Customer service is all about fulfilling the questions and quarries of the
customer. The right to information is being fulfilled with customer service.
Getting advice online isn’t always so easy. Of course, an employee has
to be readily available and knowledgeable to help a shopper in the store,
but more retailers seem to be coming to this conclusion and investing in
customer service. Under CEO Hubert Joly, Best Buy recognized this
opportunity, prioritizing advice and making it easy for customers to
understand technology.
Making checkout easier:
Checkouts are often one of the most frustrating shopping experiences.
Retailers are starting to tackle this bottleneck. Amazon is the most
advanced in this area with the Amazon Go store, which allows
customers to punch items from the shelves and easily walk out from the
store
The above-mentioned are some of the solution to compete with a retail
giant like Amazon.
