Denis Sickert

Business Report


BUSINESS REPORT !1
 Table of Content

1. Amazon’s business models & strategy

2. How Amazon benefits from Data-Net-Content Synergy

3. Amazon’s competitive advantage comparing to classical

retailer

4. Bibliography

BUSINESS REPORT !2
1. Amazon’s business models & strategy

Even though Amazon is the biggest retailer in the world it is rather a market place
than a traditional retailer. While selling products mostly at the lowest possible price
consumer can find on the internet it also acts as a gateway for other retailer of new
and used products and thus in some ways outperformed eBay as the market leader
in that segment (Paris, 2014).

Furthermore Amazon didn’t limit its business only to classical e-commerce retailing.
It recently came up with six new developments for their business strategy such as
Amazon fresh (a grocery express delivery service, which is yet only available in
some parts of California), Amazon FireTV (a webTV based system that allows its
users to stream television programs, movies and also app based games on their
TV) and the Amazon Phone (Hallam, 2014).

With these and many more services provided, Amazon manages to get loyal
customers as well as profitable sales figures, even though their margins are lower
compared to classical retailers such as Walmart (Mourdoukoutas, 2014)

This underlines that Amazon is not only acting as a platform to purchase things but
as an innovative developer and retailer combined, involved in markets such as
television (Instant-Prime), Music and Cloud-Services.

„The company itself defines its lines of business in terms of product sales, service
sales, AWS, fulfillment, publishing, digital content subscriptions, advertising, and
co-branded credit cards“ (Noren, 2013)

According Haydn Shaughnessy Amazon’s success is based on five factors: The

new business platform, The Amazon ecosystem, Amazons leadership values,
universal connectors and Amazons cloud.

„These five dynamics allow Amazon to make radical adjacency moves and to bring
vast ecosystems of small businesses and independent creatives along with them.
Amazon allows people in the ecosystem to grow too. […] When these dynamics are
in place a company like Amazon can build a complex portfolio of options. Whereas
many other companies are still stuck in an innovation mindset […] Apple and

BUSINESS REPORT !3
Amazon are proliferating options and giving themselves the opportunity to respond
to fluctuating market conditions.“ (Shaughnessy, 2014)

BUSINESS REPORT !4
2. How Amazon benefits from Data-Net-Content Synergy
3. Amazons competitive advantage comparing to
classical retailer

Amazon converges Interactivity, Time-Space Interdependency and Digitally into one

functional, intuitive market place.

Regarding the topic of Interactivity Amazon managed to establish the comment and
rate function which greatly contribute to the success of the company due to its
pioneering role - Amazon is social and it encourages participation.

Concerning Digitality it has to be mentioned that it’s not only virtual as it is a e-

commerce website but also personal because people can individually personalize
their preferences and their shopping.

Respecting time-space interdependency Amazon is available almost all over the

world. There are no boundaries for the usage of Amazon neither a time where you’re
not able to use it. (Polat, 2014)

Concluding all these factors, Amazon was able to succeed immensely in the market
segments they are targeting. By being consequently innovative in ways that people
rather prefer online-shopping or watching movies online than in real life at any time
and in any place, Amazon was able to build up a strong competitive advantage
against its competitors, both online and offline and is now in the position of the
market leader in online-retailing segment.

BUSINESS REPORT !5
4. Bibliography

Hallam (2014). Amazon’s Business Strategy: 6 New Developments retrieved

19.11.2014 from http://www.hallaminternet.com/2014/amazons-business-strategy-
new-developments/

Mourdoukoutas, P (2014). What’s wrong with Amazons Business Model? retrieved

25.11.2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2014/10/27/
whats-wrong-with-amazons-business-model/

Noren, E (2013). Analysis of the Amazon Business Model retrieved 24.11.2015 from
http://www.digitalbusinessmodelguru.com/2013/07/analysis-of-amazon-business-
model.html

Paris, C (2014). Amazon vs. Ebay – Which Site Is Best For Selling Used Goods?
retrieved 24.11.2014 from https://www.udemy.com/blog/amazon-vs-ebay/

Polat, I (2014). Presentation Slides

Shaughnessy, H (2012). Why Amazon Succeeds. Retrieved 26.11.2014 from http://

www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2012/04/29/why-amazon-succeeds/2/

BUSINESS REPORT !6