Amazon Evaluation

Amazon.com® Evolution

BIS/219

March 7, 2011

Joseph Mills

Recently emerged global web-based platforms span the world and are represented through Internet and World Wide Web capabilities (Rainer & Turban, 2009). From its humble beginnings in 1994 Amazon.com® has grown into one of the most widely recognized names in online shopping. In response to the intense competition from Microsoft® and Google®, Amazon.com® has taken steps to expand its business solutions beyond its core competency of online retailing. The strategies of Amazon.com’s® competition revolve around making the best use of its extensive database capabilities by translating the relationships among data and information into useful knowledge. For Amazon.com® to stay ahead of the competition it must flourish in its online endeavors with its business-to-business (B2B) ventures as well as maintain its popularity with its online retail business-to-consumer (B2C) platform.

Amazon.com® is striving to maintain its status as the leader in online retail, but is not free of competition. Google’s® froogle.google.com and Microsoft’s® bing.com/shopping are causing Amazon.com® to reinvent itself. Whereas Amazon.com® continues to provide online retail by allowing sellers to list products with Amazon.com® for a small fee, these sellers are offered options to handle more aspects of their recreation and business through Amazon.com’s® other online endeavors. Amazon.com® provides entertainment services such as commercial-free TV and movies available to prime members through instant streaming (Amazon.com, 2011). Another way for Amazon.com® to generate income is its feature that allows users to download books to their Kindle® e-reader, which costs less than hard copy books yet still keeps Amazon.com® a leader in the sale of the printed word. Services such as these provide Amazon.com® a means to edge out in front of its competition. Although these services are not aligned with Amazon.com’s® core...