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Amazon.com’s E-Business Model

The Business Enterprise BUS 508

Amazon.com’s E-Business Model

Discuss whether or not Amazon has lost its identity by expanding into markets well beyond books.

Amazon.com, Inc. is a US-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is America's largest online retailer, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010. The company, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos debuted as an online bookstore but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 (Bezos, 2008).

According to the CNET news article (Dignan, 2002) Amazon turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million or 1¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the modest profit was important in demonstrating the business model could be profitable. Today, Amazon has a globally recognized name, a customer base of 25 million, and, as of 2009, posted net sales increased 28% year over year to $24.5 billion (Bezos, 2010).

In discussing on whether Amazon, a company that has acquired a vast amount of financial success, has lost its identity or not would require us to define how identity is recognized. If a company’s identity is classified by the products and or services, then it can be argued that Amazon, who initially began as an online bookstore, has certainly lost its true identity. However, if we look at the growth and success that Amazon has achieved over its history, a more thorough assessment into corporate identity is warranted. In researching Amazon’s corporate philosophy, one discovered that the Amazon’s corporate philosophy is simple, if it is good for our customers; it is worth doing (Bezos, 2008). Amazon’s mission statement, according to Bezos (2008), “Our vision is to be the world's most consumer-centric company, where customers can come to find anything they want to buy online.”

Amazon has not lost its identity by expanding into the...