When I think about my online shopping habits, before specific stores come to mind, my usual go-to spot on the Internet is Amazon.com. From textbooks to makeup to music and more, Amazon really has it all. They've customized their site in so many ways, with an incredibly intuitive and easy-to-use user interface, that the site really offers something for everybody.
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| Above: Searching for a BBQ on Amazon, results from more than just a plain ol' BBQ |
Within my lifetime, Amazon has gone from having five product categories to thousands. Today, its market value is $86 billion with a stock price of $191.07 ("Amazon.com, Inc.," Forbes.com). Its status as a market leader makes it clear what kind of impact Amazon has on all consumers everywhere. Amazon's users' Customer Reviews, What Other Customers Are Looking at Right Now section, and Related to Items You've Viewed section make Amazon a one-stop shop. A customer looking for a BBQ will find out…
- If he or she has found a good BBQ for its price,
- What other customers who also wanted to purchase a BBQ looked at while they were browsing for barbecuing supplies, and
- Which items Amazon deems relevant to BBQs, like cooking books or picnic supplies.
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| Above: Part of an e-mail I received from Amazon to reward me $2 in MP3 credit |
Amazon creates even greater value for its customers by offering various rewards programs using its Prime Membership program, which is offered in different tiers: regular, student, mother, etc. As a college student, I particularly benefit from my Prime membership, because if I shop carefully, I can avoid shipping costs, thereby giving me savings of up to 50%. As a prime member, I also earn credits on various different purchases, especially when I choose to purchase mp3 files from the Amazon Music site. It's a very welcome surprise when I open an e-mail to find out that I can go download my new favorite song from Amazon because of a previous purchase I made there. As a way to market the Amazon music site, it's genius, because the free credit is so precious to me that I usually spend quite a few minutes just browsing through the Amazon music library to determine which song I want to download, which inevitably results in me falling in love with more songs than just one, and I, as their ideal customer in this sense, go on to download more music from the site on my own dollar.
Everything Amazon puts on its site has cross-sold its business to most of its customers. If customers are uncertain shoppers in need of some advice from a friend or just some window shopping, or if they have the urge to make some money of their own, Amazon has become the place for all of these things to happen. As opposed to other sites, like eBay, which lost many of its customers to sites like Amazon when PayPal payment services was the culprit of fraud, thereby putting several thousand accounts at risk, Amazon has never surprised its customers for the worse (knock on wood).
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| Above: Screenshot of Amazon.com Homepage, markets reached on left |
In fact, Amazon has only surprised its customers with more and more features to keep them coming back. Amazon's acquisitive nature has brought in partners from Audibles, Zappos, and Shopbop (among others), which help diversify Amazon's product offering's scope. Amazon's Kindle, far less expensive than Apple's iPad, has also been performing considerably well, and nearly all media content that can be purchased and downloaded from Amazon.com can be sent straight to one's Kindle using a Wifi connection. The Kindle is also slowly becoming responsible for the migration from hardcover and paperback to ebooks, so in that way, Amazon has certainly made an impact on transforming the consumer market.
To describe Amazon as anything else than a game changer in regard to e-commerce would be naive and misguided. Amazon's very centralized business model to provide its customers with a one-stop shopping experience makes the Internet-shopping-tycoon a household name. The question that remains, however, is how much more can the firm grow, when it has reached its arm into nearly every cookie jar? How will it provide greater sustainable value to its customers? With a company so focused on a reputation for excellence and creative talent, it will be exciting in the next couple of years to watch what the company will come out with next.
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