CMNS 261 Writing Assignment Paper 3: Amazon.com, Inc

CMNS 261 ASSIGNMENT 3
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Introduction
Amazon.com, Inc is an online retail provider targeting the content creators, consumers, enterprises and sellers (MarketLine, 2015). Even though, there have been other online platforms that have emerged to challenge Amazon, the company remains one of the most visible on the internet. Amazon allows online advertisements and targets the customers with emphasis on convenience, pricing and selection (Klaus, 2013). Amazon has differentiated itself and allows third parties to sell through the company’s platform. The Amazon Web Services targets the developers and enterprises that use the company’s technology infrastructure to conduct business.
The North American is still the major market for Amazon, but with the company facing stiff competition, Amazon has increasingly focused on the international market and the Amazon Web Services segment (MarketLine, 2015). To deliver cloud services it different regions of the world, Amazon has also relied on multiple partners, partnering with foreign partners who provide infrastructure and network capabilities. Rather than invest heavily in IT infrastructure or rely on the data center capacity of other vendors, the AWS section does not incur high capital and up-front expenses in the Chinese market (Business Wire, 2013). The paper highlights the operation management of Amazon and also examines the board of directors’ profiles.
Conclusion
Buyers and reviewers influence the sale and popularity of products at Amazon, and this is especially for books. Buyers have more bargaining power, while user experiences are reviewed by other users. Amazon has sought to improve e-commerce experience, while users have the opportunity to be in groups of online communities as buyers and reviewers of products. Nonetheless, Amazon still retains the right to post the product reviews, and it is no guarantee that each review will be accepted by the company. The use of online technology has opened a window of opportunities for Amazon for domestic and international markets.
As a global e-commerce, Amazon is customer centric, and sometimes focusing on pleasing the customers rather than short-term profits (MarketLine, 2015). Customer loyalty and catering to customer needs is basis for the philosophy underpinning many of the strategic solutions. Even as shareholders seek to maximize profits and value, Amazon has been able to leverage customer loyalty to increase sales and revenue. Offering value to different stakeholders and pouting customers first gives the company a competitive edge. Typically, tech companies do not provide refunds when there is slow service delivery including poor internet connection when streaming videos, but Amazon still retains the option to give refunds when they detect that problems arising are associated with the Amazon online platforms.
Company operations
Amazon is primarily an online retailer, mantaining operations at all times of the day, the week and the year (MarketLine, 2015). To ensure that there is efficient distribution of the products provided, the company has distribution centers and warehouses. The strategic decision to focus on meeting customer expectations and emphasis on long-term growth has been crucial to continued improvement in the company’s revenue. Even as more companies have opened up online stores, it is the choice of channels that affects the efficiency of the system. Amazon targets consumers where the design of goods and the services maximizes the organizational output, and the use of technology has helped the company to achieve this. The advanced information technologies facilitate the online retail services to target the customers.
Since Amazon places a high premium on customer loyalty the operations management has over time sought to improve the quality of products and services. Customers expect good quality services, and to satisfy this quality management has been prioritized where there is emphasis on continuous improvement of the e-commerce business (MarketLine, 2015). The role of designers in the growth of operations is prioritized while the Company also encourages the employees to suggest creative and innovative ideas. Improving operations management also requires that the employees are more involved in meeting the customer needs as they understand the company’s philosophy and values.
The warehousing system at Amazon has played an important role in the supply chain management where the products are stored randomly to ensure there is efficient shelf space (Parker, 2012). Nonetheless, since there is efficient movement of goods, the system enables the company to move merchandise continuously (Parker, 20120s. Despite using humans and not robots Amazon is still responsive to the customer needs, as the employees sought out the merchandise when required (Parker, 2012). At the same time, the use of scanning technology has been valuable in facilitating the sorting process, where orders are then packed and shipped to different destinations. In this way Amazon has been able to improve operations with emphasis on efficiency in the American market rather than relying on third parties or contractors to undertake the sorting and processing system.
Even though, Amazon began as an online bookseller, the company has diversified the range of products and services. Through the seller fulfilled prime, Amazon has allowed sellers who have consistently provided high quality services and shipping speed an opportunity to use the Amazon Prime platform (Amazon, Annual Report 2015). This has provided a wide range of services for Prime users who pay a subscription to use Amazon services. Additionally, Amazon has provided funding to the small, medium and micro enterprise businesses in the U.S. UK, as well as Japan (Amazon, 2015). For Amazon international expansion has been an important avenue to improve growth that they now comprise almost a quarter of sellers through third parties (Amazon, 2015). The global logistics network has enabled the company to target the global customer base while product listings are available in different countries (Amazon, 2015).
The primary source of revenue for Amazon through the company’s website is the sale of products to customers, including the merchandised and content that are sourced from vendors and third parties. Amazon has increasingly manufactured and sold electronic devices to diversify operations. Besides products the services provided include publishing, advertising, computer storage, digital content subscriptions and the co-branded credit cards (Amazon, 2016). In 2015 the net sales in the North American market was $ 63,708 million compared to $ 35,418 million in the international market and $7,880 in the AWS segment (Amazon, 2016). Nonetheless, the Amazon Web Services -AWS recorded the highest growth on a year by year basis increasing by 70% in 2015 (Amazon, 2016).
The AWS platform allow Amazon to target customers as the option focuses on simplicity even AWS is part of a complex distributed system (Newcombe et al., 2015). Since the launch of AWS in 2006, Amazon has sought to expand its operations in different markets, while there are efforts to identify bugs in the design system to improve software development and support quality customer service. AWS handles more than 1 million requests per seconds highlighting the need to improve the platform to cater to diverse customer needs (Newcombe et al., 2015).
According to Ritala Golnam & Wegmann (2013), Amazon has relied on collaboration among the competing firm entities to reduce risks and share costs. Amazon not only leverages the benefits of collaborating Amazon Marketplace and Amazon Services and Web Services, but also working together with Apple to grow in the digital text platform market (Ritala, Golnam & Wegmann, 2013). Competition and collaboration efforts have been associated with value creation in Amazon since there is emphasis on improving efficiency and growing into new areas of operations. Additionally, through networked governance and reliance on alliance Amazon has been more competitive by collaborating with some competitors as the entities have more influence in the market and may share capabilities.
Despite the international market offering a great opportunity for growth the year-over year percentage growth has followed in the financial years 2013 to 2015 from 14% to 12% and 6% (Amazon, 2016). The operating loss in 2015 in the international market was lower than the previous years, while higher unit sales and expansion in fulfillment capacity and technology infrastructure is projected to improve growth sales (Amazon, 2016). Efforts to launch similar sites in differ niche markets is an option hat is likely to expand Amazon’s operations. Speedy delivery service has allowed the company gives the company a competitive edge, even a...