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Executive Summary

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American organization and the biggest e-commerce company in the world dealing with e-commerce, artificial intelligence (AI), digital streaming, and cloud computing. The company is considered as the world’s biggest online retail store. Offering over 120,000,000 products ranging from basic groceries, electronics, machinery, beauty products, health and personal care products, jewelry and watches, kitchen supplies, garden items, and musical items. This is done through their website, where manufacturers and sellers will offer descriptions of the products being offered, including an accurate description of the commodity and then sold. 

The company is one of the big four tech companies, including Apple, Google, and Microsoft. The company also offers other services like cloud computing, digital advertisement, and artificial intelligence. The company has various market segments for different customers and different products and services provided. The majority of the company’s customers are digital-savvy consumers. They form over 90% of the 320 million customers of the company, including 150 million registered users and 150.6 million App users. The number will keep increasing based on the increase in revenue annually. The annual income of $280.52 billion requires an expanding market with emerging nations and teenagers being the best options. Amazon.com, Inc. has competitors in the e-commerce industry with Alibaba and Pinduoduo dominating the Chinese market leaving only 1% for Amazon. The other competitors include Walmart, eBay, Apple, and Costco. 

Advancements in technology will allow the company to tackle issues like counterfeits and cybersecurity. The main advancements should also be in increasing the number of physical stores to fulfill all the customer demands.

Introduction

Amazon.com, Inc. is a global corporation whose headquarters are in the United States. The company has over 750,000 employees worldwide. The tech company is considered one of the most successful companies dealing with e-commerce, artificial intelligence (AI), digital streaming, and cloud computing. Amazon’s core business is e-commerce, where the company is currently ranked as the biggest in the world with its online retail store. The company also has a footing in cloud computing, digital advertising, groceries, prescription drugs, movies, and television through its Amazon Pride Video platform.

The company has an active marketing unit that can develop strategies that allow the company’s revenue to grow annually. The company has seen its revenues grow for the past 15 years at an average of 27% annually. The company has five components on its marketing strategy, which are Amazon marketing services, Amazon SEO, direct marketing, affiliate marketing, and reviews.

Objectives, Purposes, and Goals of Amazon

Amazon’s mission statement is to “serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience.” Amazon’s vision involves being the most customer-centric company on earth by building a place where people can find anything they want online. The idea has led to the growth of Amazon, guiding the company into being the most extensive online retail store in the world. People can find and order virtually anything from their online retail store. The company is guided by four principles that have enabled the company to be successful over the years. The laws are; customer obsession rather than competitors, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long term thinking. The mission and vision of the customer have a focal point, which is the customer.

The focus on customers rather than competitors has been the driving force for marketing the company. The marketing is customer-oriented as even sellers on the Amazon platform are encouraged to develop strategies that are customer-oriented to attract more customers. The whole purpose of the vision is to focus on the customer. Which has proven effective over the years leading to a rise in the company's sales at a rate of 27 percent annually. The linking of the company’s vision, goals, and objectives to the marketing strategy is seen as the main driver towards penetrating new markets and increasing its market share in e-commerce. It is the same reason why the company is the largest online retailer, with over 320 million active users and 100 million subscribers.

SWOT or SCOT Analysis of Amazon

Strengths

The company has a hard brand name being the most prominent online retailer in the world. This is important to the company as it can help in building its financial value. Amazon is a publicly traded company in the stock exchange, and a strong brand allows for future businesses as the company is in the position to borrow funds for expansion. Innovation is one of the strengths of Amazon as the organization values innovation. Amazon’s employees are encouraged to be innovative as the company is ranked as one of the most innovative companies. Innovation leads to improved productivity for the company and reduces costs.

Weakness

Amazon’s business model that has been the forefront for the success of the company is also a weakness. This is a challenge as the business model can be imitated easily with rival firms are giving the company a rough time using their model. The online retail business is becoming familiar with firms trying to imitate the Amazon success story. Government regulations are another weakness in the company, as some regulations being implemented are impacting negatively on the company. Tax regulations controversy has impacted negatively for Amazon.

Opportunities

There are new emerging markets that the company can gain the chance to penetrate. These markets include Africa and teenagers. These two can offer growth for the company in increased revenues, especially in an already competitive online retail industry. The growth in technology is supporting e-business while teenagers represent an untapped market for the company. Technology offers a new opportunity for the company with advancements that can reduce counterfeits sales.

Threats  

The emergence of retail firms like Walmart into online retail is a threat to Amazon. These competitors are stocking up and using the same business model as Amazon. The increased competition will cut down on the revenue of the company. The controversies the company has been involved in have led to a decline in the company’s reputation. This has made it feasible for competitors to get a niche in the online retail business.

Organizational Structure

Amazon has a hierarchical structure due to the size of the organization, with the chief executive officer being on top. The senior management team includes two CEOs, three senior vice presidents, and a worldwide controller, all reports to the CEO Jeff Bezos.

DIGITAL MANAGEMENT

CORPORATE AFFAIRS GLOBAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS

SVP & CFO

FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION

SVP HUMAN RECOURCES HR ADMINISTRATION

CEO WORLWIDE

CONSUMER

CEO AMAZON WEB SERVICES

SVP & GENERAL COUNSEL, LEGAL

VP TECHNICAL ADVISOR TO CEO

SVP INTERNATIONAL

RETAIL

Chief Executive Officer

SVP & CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

Geographic Range

Amazon.com, Inc. is an international organization whose headquarters is in Seattle, Washington, United States. The company occupies around 10 million square feet of office space and a total of 288 million square feet of office, warehouses, retail stores, and data centers. In Washington, the company has seven retail stores, including others that are geographically disbursed within Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. The company offices are also located within Arlington, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, and Bellevue. The company has 75 offices in North America. These offices handle delivery and handle queries and customer issues. Globally the company has over 60 delivery stations, sortation stations, and Prime Now Hubs. 

Economic Structure of the Organization

Amazon.com, Inc. is the biggest online retail company employing over 750,000 employees globally. The company has also diversified into other businesses, including digital streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. The company’s competitors vary with the industry. The company leads in e-commerce and is considered the biggest in terms of revenue and over 50% domination of the U.S. market. Some of its competitors in the e-commerce industry include eBay, Walmart, Home Depot, Etsy, Kroger, and Alibaba. The company has a strong financial position, which has enabled it to expand in a different market. In the Chinese market, the company faces intense competition from companies like Alibaba, which is called the Amazon of China. Pinduoduo and Alibaba have taken over the Chinese market.

The corporation's average revenue for the past three years is $230.43 billion, has reported revenues of $177.87 billion in 2017, $232.89 in 2018, and $280.52 in 2019 as the revenue. The company is publicly traded and requires profits to sustain itself. The company needs a lot of earnings to grow and expand. The company’s customers are offered two credit options, which are Amazon rewards credit card, which is a Visa card that offers cash back with no interest, and Amazon Prime Store Card, which gives customers access to special financing options.

Strategic Plan

Mission

Serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience.

Core values

Amazon is guided by the four principles of customer obsession rather than competitors, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long term thinking. These principles reflect on Amazon’s vision of being a customer-centric company. They allow for quality control on Amazon’s products where customers’ interests are placed on top of the company’s values. The aim of shopping at Amazon’s online retail store and the other physical stores is to make the customer experience better.

Customer segments

The company has an estimated 120,000,000 products that can attract 150.6 million mobile App users and over 300 million other customers. The company has over 320 million active users and 100 million subscribers. The target market is increasing the customer base for teenagers aged between 13-17 years. These have the most massive media audience at 26%, with the figures growing annually. 

Technology 

The company has deployed technology to its supply chain management to improve its effectiveness. This has provided the company and ensure it stays ahead of the competition. Inventory management has made it simple for the company to track any products in all their warehouses. The use of technology in fulfilling orders can create different options for customers, making it easy for customers to select commodities as they save on time. The use of technology can be used in curbing counterfeit sales in the company, which is one of the major issues reducing sales. The major problem in e-commerce in cyber-crime and an improvement in cybersecurity can create a competitive edge for the company. This will include putting up measures to mitigate any threats that may be seen by the company.

Cyber-security remains one of the significant issues in e-commerce with the advancements in technology, bringing new threats. The advanced technology to mitigate security threats will be able to increase productivity within the organization. This is because most tasks are geared towards information security. This will create more time for other functions within the company, especially towards improving customer experience and increasing their market base. This will also offer a competitive edge over the competitors as buyers and sellers will want to deal with their organization as their data is safe.

Assumptions

There are very many assumptions being made by both companies and customers engaging in e-business. It is a proven assumption that word of mouth is the biggest marketing tool, and if the customer is treated right, they are bound to spread the words about the business. It is safe to assume that customers will give negative feedback for lousy service. And some customers would instead move to another competitor than give feedback on bad services.

Project Management

Six principles of project management will be used in implementing the strategic plan, which are vision and mission, business objectives, standards of engagement, intervention and execution strategy, organizational alignment and measurement, and accountability. These principles will be used in steps in implementing the organization’s strategic plan. Training and education of the employees will be necessary as the technological advancements in the strategic plan will require both basic and advanced knowledge. The company should come up with a contingency plan for dealing with contingencies and any revision and updating the strategic plan.

References

Krishnamurthy, Sandeep. (2005). Amazon.com - A Comprehensive Case History.