Contents

• Overview
• SWOT analysis
• Financial Position of the company
• Relationship Marketing Strategy of Amazon.com
• Relationship Commerce
• References

Description

Amazon.com was started by a man named Jeffrey Bezos, former Vice President of investment banker D.E. Shaw and Company. Rebecca (2002) has stated that Bezos was looking for a good internet company to invest and got a company where the number of visitors was increasing by 2300% every month. He thought of selling books and music on the Internet, but finally narrowed down to books as there was no major online book seller in the market and the competition was much less. Rebecca (2002) mentions that in 1995, Amazon started selling books online and by the year 1998, their annual revenue reached the target of $1640 million. Their customer base increased dramatically from 180,000 in 1996 to 12 million in 160 countries by mid 1999. It was in the year 1999 that the company decided to increase its line of products. Besides books, the company at present sells toys and video games, electronics and software, electronic greeting cards, home improvement supplies, online auctions, DVD’s and an online mall called zShops.
The company’s mission is to provide the customers the best shopping experience on the Internet with the help of technology and expertise of its invaluable employees. With this mission, the company plans to move ahead in the future. Going by the reports published by the company, their sales was best ever during the holiday season of 2008. Kathie Kroll (2008) has mentioned that the peak day was December 15th, when more than 6.3 million items were ordered and 5.6 million units shipped. To any retailer, holiday sales account for 30 to 50 percent of their annual sales and during the last season, there was supposed to be less economic activity in spite of the economic recession. Let us have a SWOT analysis of the current business situation of Amazon.com.