Amazon

Amazon

BIS 219

August 17, 2010

Gregory Hearne

Amazon

Business strategies illustrate the foundation of how a business can produce, distribute, and confine its economic value. Online services have taken a large role in the way the public does business and companies need to have a solid information system to support their efforts. Amazon is an online retailer that sells books, videos, toys, electronics, kitchenware, computers, and more. Information technology is one of the primary attributes in the way Amazon provides their services to consumers and other businesses. Technology allows Amazon to create system applications to monitor inventory, customer satisfaction, and profit. These system applications provide reports for top executives to make business decisions. Amazon has a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) approach to the way they do business. B2B transactions are aimed to businesses and other wholesale purchasers. B2C transactions aim toward individuals. The contents of this paper will discuss how Amazon uses information systems to monitor their data management, B2B and B2C transactions, their core competencies, and how large competitors like Google and Microsoft are surpassing Amazon.

Amazon has one of the largest product information databases in the world. It holds thousands, if not millions, of products and customers. It stores visitors browsing and purchase histories, payment types, wish lists, orders, and digital downloads. The product information contains rankings, reviews, and prices from other sellers. The database also provides recommendations such as “Frequently Bought Together” and “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” (Amazon). Consumers may also use this website, hence the database, as a research tool to compare prices, products, reviews, or search for similar products.

Amazon’s data is the item a customer is searching for, such as a computer. A customer can search for a laptop or desktop...