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The scepticism that Amazon has amassed over the media This leaves Amazon with strong industry positions as a leader
isn’t shared by its investors, nor does it contribute to corrod- with an outstanding track record with being able to sell prod-
ing investor confidence in the retail giant. Amazon’s mission ucts at cut-throat prices and world class warehousing and
is to be the world’s most customer centric company (Ama- distribution systems, achieving eonomies of scope and scale.
zon, 2014). Streitfeld (2013) further highlights that “Bezos (Jeff This could allow for Amazon to establish a physical presence
Bezos, CEO of Amazon) has chosen to run Amazon to be and increase revenues through its subscription plans. Despite
the biggest, most powerful and successful retailer on Earth 20 this it faces profitability challenges and threats and attacks to
years from now. Any fool could run it profitably today”. its security systems.
Amazon has branched into many forms of commerce and Furthermore, Amazon faces intense competitive pressure
technology but at the core of this ecosystem, it sells goods from industry players who are more experienced and are
cheap and delivers them cheap. The analysis of this ecosys- more resourceful. Amazon also faces organizational complex-
tem is beyond the scope of this report. Instead it focuses on ity, proportional to its growth. Mismanagement could result in
the core of this ecosystem- online retail in the United States. growth restrictions, damage reputation and also affect operat-
The purpose of this report is to identify Amazon’s next best ing results. Amazon also faces issues with seasonality in Q4 of
move. This report will do this by conducting a situational anal- every year with a spike in unanticipated demand and shipping
ysis, closely examining its business model and the dynamics delays.
of the online retail industry.
Amazon has attempted to counter these strategic challenges
At an impressive $200 billion, this online retail industry is set by minimizing costs wherever possible and drawing in sales
to grow to over $371 billion by 2017 in the USA. Competition from its ecosystem. It has also had to execute countermea-
in this industry is primarily dominated by the behemoth Apple sures such as offering discounts to unsatisfied customers.
and Walmart along with Staples, EBay and Best Buy. Amazon has inadequately addressed its growth strategies by
failing to rectify human resource issues and logistics misman-
A broader, macroeconomic look at the online retail industry agement, particularly in the high demand Q4 period.
reveals that the 2008 financial crisis and the credit squeeze
have had a negative effect on the industry however this has Amazon should consider entering a new market with a new
directed consumers to seek out cheaper online retail alterna- product to boost customer loyalty. It should continue to devel-
tives. A fury of tax issues regarding online retailers have added op this ecosystem that keeps customers engaged and loyal.
to legislative woes in the industry. The rapid growth in busi- It can do this by developing a smartphone, proprietary built to
ness intelligence has resulted in firms becoming more cus- focus customers back to Amazon’s own retail services, much
tomer centric. like the Kindle. This will give it considerable edge over com-
petitors because it will enable Amazon to capture the growing
Amazon relies on three integral streams of revenue. It has smartphone and mobile shopping trend, understand custom-
amassed huge growth in the sales of its online products, ers better by collecting intelligence from this personal device
charges usage fees to users who sell on Amazon and charges based on user behavior to anticipate and forecast demand.
a commission. Amazon also earns revenues through the sub- This customer centric tactic is strongly aligned with its mis-
scription fees accumulated from its Prime, Mom and Smile. sion, is future proof and a logical product extension of its own
electronics product line such as the Kindle.
A Business Model C Amazon.com, INC
A1 Target Client Base 7 C1 Value Chain Analysis 15
A2 Value Added Proposition 7 C1.1 Logistics 15
A2.1 Subscription Plans 7 C1.2 Marketing 15
A2.2 Price Leadership 7 C1.3 IT and HR Support Activities 15
A3 Cost Driven Structure 8 C2 Core Competencies and Capabilities 16
A3.1 Distribution Center 8 C2.1 Price Leadership 16
A3.2 Automation 8 C2.2 Third Party Ecosystem 16
A4 Revenue Streams 9 C2.3 User Experience 16
A4.1 Asset Sales 9
A4.2 Usage Fees 9
A4.3 Subscription Fees 9 D Strategic Challenges
A5.1 Revenue Drivers 10
A5.2 Online Retail Industry growth 10
D1 Competitive Threats 18
A5.3 Online Traffic Growth 10
D2 Operational Complexity 18
A5.4 Profit Margins 10
D3 Seasonality Issues 18
Photo: An Amazon.com employee grabs boxes off the conveyor belt to load in a truck at their Fernley, NV warehouse. Scott Sady/AP
4
E Addressing Challenges G Recommendation 23
E1 Competitive Threats 19 H Additional Material
E2 Operational Complexity 19
H1 Reference List 15
E3 Seasonality Issues 19
H2 List of Tables & Figures 15
H3 Supplementary Appendix 15
F Strategic Options
F1 TOWS Matrix 20
F2 Generating Strategic Options 21
F2.1 New product in New Market 21
F2.2 Existing Product New Market 21
F2.3 Existing Product Penetration 22
F2.4 Evaluating Options 22
5
Introduction
Online Retail
Online retail is a $200 bilion industry which consists of revenues
generated by the sale of goods on online retail channels. The
sector is expected to grow healthily to $371.4bil by 2017 as it
has been since 2009 (Figure 1).
Online Retail:
$371bil by 2017
6
A. Business Model
A1Target Client Base Ultimately, the results of its efforts has led to Amazon securing
higher consumer satisfaction scores than other retailers in the
ACSI online retail industry benchmark (ACSI, 2013). Further-
As of 2013, Amazon has a mass market client base of 143 more, Amazon has performed better than other retailers and
million active customers throughout the US for its online re- beat the industry benchmark for the last 10 years (Figure 3).
tail (Compete.com). The Wharton School of Finance highlights
that its target client base is unclear. Amazon is “part retailer,
part shopping mall and part landlord to third party retailers
who leverage Amazon’s existing resources. Wharton futhers
on to highlight that this makes Amazon a “mass market player
with niche products”.
Despite this Alexa breaks down its online traffic between male
and female consumers with an over representative females
along with equal dispersions between no college education to
graduate school and a minority with a college education (Al-
exa, 2014). See Supplementary Appendix J for a more com-
prehensive breakdown.
Figure 2: Breakdown of
Subscription Plans, Source:
McKinsey, 2012
Figure 4: Amazon’s Price leadership over competitors, Source: McKinsey, 2012
7
A3 Cost Driven Structure A3.2 Automation
A3.1 Distribution Centers Economies of scope are also characteristic of Amazon’s cost
driven business model. In 2012, Amazon acquired Kiva Sys-
Amazon have announced that they plan to open a 1.2 million- tems, a company whose software and hardware systems
square-foot logistics center in Moreno Valley, North America, streamline the process of picking, packing and shipping e-
this warehouse would need more than 1,000 employees commerce products (TechCrunch, 2012). This decision to
(Press Enterprise, 2012). Warehouses like these are part of incorporate Kiva Systems into its own business model has
Amazon’s huge scale of supply chain components. The veloc- allowed for more cost savings which can be passed on to on-
ity at which Amazon shifts stock is almost half that of physical line retail consumers; thereby supporting its customer centric
retail stores and contributes to significant cost advantages for mission.
Amazon through economies of scale (Tutor2u, 2012). Table 1
details the end results of its logistics power compared to typi-
cal multichannel retailers, specifically in terms of distribution
centers in the United States (Mckinsey, 2012).
8
A4 Revenue Streams A4.2 Usage Fees
Amazon charges usage fees to sellers online, thereby earning
commissions from the sale of third party products. Amazon
Amazon’s revenue streams rely on fixed menu pricing strate- earns a 0.99 USD fee per successfully sold item plus a sales
gies and dynamic ones such as real time market pricing (RTM). fee, which is a percentage of the final sale value (Amazon,
Prices will adjust based on Amazon’s competitive analysis 2013). Examples of some of the highest and lowest sales fees
technologies to compare prices across retailers and deliver are detailed in Figure 8.
the best possible price.
Figure 7: Stronger sales compared to last year, Source: Amazon, 2013 USD per person
Figure 9: Over half of Amazon’s sales come through the Prime program,
Source: McKinsey, 2012
9
A5 Revenue Drivers
Figure 12: Tablet sales to double by 2016 (millions), Source: IDC, 2013
Figure 11: Broadband adoption in the USA at 70%, Figure 14: Amazon’s profit margins compared to competition
Source: Pew Internet and American Life project Surveys, 2013 Source: Statista, 2013
10
B The Online Retail Industry
B1 Macroeconomic Analysis
B1.1 The US Economy
The Economic state in the US is both an advantage and a
disadvantage to online retailing companies as there is less ex-
penditure due to the results of the credit squeeze from the
2008 financial crisis. People have turned to online retailing as
a means to saving money by comparing goods as well as sav-
ing money on travel expenses which proves beneficial on an
environmental front.
B1.2 Legislation
There have constantly been new regulations within the online
retailing industry requiring companies within this industry to be
aware of these ever changing factors. If companies are not
careful they are likely to constantly face legal charges because
of the fast growing market within the online retailing.
11
B2 Players in the Online Retail Industry
B2.1 Characteristics of different groups B2.2 Strategic Mobility
12
B3 Industry Forces
is
13
B4 Critical Success Factors
B4.1 Logistics
Efficient distribution systems are a hallmark strategy of this
industry. Amazon must keep up a well-configured distribu-
tion strategy. It has a number of warehouses that are geo-
graphically spread within the country and caters to every
market. Amazon must compete with other industries that
also require logistics to be a critical success factor such as
Walmart where every store is at the maximum, a day’s drive
from the distribution center. These centers operate 24x7 us-
ing cutting edge stock processing IT systems along with a
fleet of over 12,00 trailers, all of which are satellite tracked for
centralized information relay (BoozandCo, 2002).
Figure 17: Amazon comes into 3rd in brand value, Source: Interbrand, 2013
14
C. Amazon.com, INC
C1 Value Chain Analysis C1.3 IT and HR Support Activities
Amazon’s primary marketing activities were supported by up
to $4.5bil of technology investments and up to $1bil of human
C1.1 Logistics resource and administrative expenditures. These investments
Taking into account customer centric approach of the com- have been necessary to further deliver value to the customer
pany, one of the key aspects of value creation for Amazon is by providing a secure online web service and the ability to
order fulfilment, which is when the product is actually received personalize a customer’s shopping experience. Search engine
by the customer. This process is tightly connected with sup- optimization investments have also led to Amazon’s website
ply chain and is supported by outbound and inbound logistics competing with the worlds top 10 most visited websites (Al-
(Figure 13). In inbound logistics, the company reduces costs exa, 2013); enhancing its brand equity.
by ordering the products from distributors, which contributes
to optimization of stock management processes. Outbound Figure 18 illustrates the positive impacts of Amazons’ best in
logistics consists of picking, sorting, packing and shipping. class logistics systems (McKinsey, 2012). Amazon spends up
Here, the costs are being constantly reduced by technological to 300% more in RandD than the top 5 retailers in the US to
improvements. deliver the maximum value at the end of its value chain (Figure
19).
Investment in expansion of fulfilment space brings Amazon
ever closer to the customer. Amazon ensures even faster or-
der fulfilment using its supply chain partners, which deliver
items packaged in Amazon packaging directly to customer.
This also contributes to increased product range, product
availability, and minimization of transportation costs in fulfil-
ment. Technological improvements, drop shipping, and broad
fulfilment space help Amazon realize its swiftness potential
and to provide a wider range of products ensuring company’s
C1.2 Marketing
Amazon utilize traditional forms of marketing such as print,
internet banners, television and also leverage its participatory
network (see section C2.3) to great promotional advantage.
This includes Pay-per-click advertising on search engines
such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, E-Mail direct marketing and
a dedicated customer service (Amazon, 2013)
Figure 18: Amazon’s spends 300% more on R&D, Source: McKinsey, 2013
15
Table 7:Threats to Amazon’s operability, Source: Amazon, 2013
C2.1Price
Amazon is adept on offering low prices to boost sales and
retain customers. One of the key ways it is able to do this
is to minimize logistics costs. Amazon reduces its overheads
by only stocking a small percentage of its products. The effi-
cient cost effective distribution and work capital management
(Figure 15) allows Amazon to pass on the savings to custom-
ers (Sapinhower, 2004). If the top 10 retailers had Amazon’s
abilities to cut these costs in distribution, they could save over
$150bil which makes this a key, unique competency (McKin-
sey, 2012).
Figure 19: Amazon’s superior work capital management, Source: McKinsey, 2013
16
C3 SWOT
“Hoverdrones right to
your door,
your delivery in 30
minutes”
17
D. Strategic Challenges
D1 Competitive Threats D3 Seasonality Issues
Amazon faces intense competition as illustrated in the strategic Seasonality is another key strategic concern. As shown in pre-
group analysis. Amazon faces multiple competitive threats both viously, in figure 13, Amazon experiences a spike in Q4 of ev-
inside the online retail industry and outside, from other industries ery year. Amazon highlights the following reasons which may
such as digital content, digital media devices and web services. cause fluctuations in operating results and fluctuations (Ama-
Many of Amazon’s current competitors such as Apple and Ama- zon, 2013):
zon have greater resources, longer histories and greater brand
recognition. The ability to retain and increase sales to existing customers,
attract new customers and satisfy customer demands
This competition can intensify if competitors choose to venture
into industries where Amazon already faces competition, for ex- The ability to retain and expand its network of sellers
ample, Apple competes in online retail and cloud storage ser-
vices with its iCloud against Amazon’s retail and Web Services. The ability to offer products on favourable terms, manage in-
ventory and fulfil orders
Traditional brick and mortar firms such as WalMart and Best Buy
are rapidly developing their competencies in online retail. Despite Timing, effectiveness and costs of expansion and upgrades of
this, “merchants and marketers not renowned for their techno- Amazons systems and infrastructure
logical skills have more to do to catch up with the way people are
shopping” (Jopson, 2013). Variations in the mix of products and services Amazon sells.
18
E. Addressing Challenges
E1 Competitive Threats E3 Seasonality Issues
Amazon has already established itself as a leader in low cost Addressing seasonality issues is something Amazon also strug-
online retail. This offers significant competitive advantages over gling with. Despite having state of the art business intelligence
other competitors in this industry. The key strategy which Ama- processing capabilities with its cloud infrastructure, it has been
zon deploys to compete is a “platform strategy” (Saughnessy, unable to prudently forecast and anticipate heightened demand
2012). Similar to Apple, Amazon’s core business is online retail. and this has caused adverse effects on its profitability, for ex-
The tactic used to attract customers to online retail is by creating ample, issuing discounts and gift vouchers after failing to deliver
an ecosystem with other products such as the Kindle and Ama- orders in December 2013.
zon Web Services- Amazon’s cloud storage system.
In other perspectives, Amazon has been successful in attract-
Amazon’s value propositions of cost leadership and loyalty ing new customers. Figure 20 shows Amazons inclining trend
schemes also help gain bigger market share. Despite this, Ama- in the number of website visits which currently stands at 143mil
zon’s growth strategy is long term oriented and still has a long in the United States, up 19% from last year (Compete.com,
way to go before it reaches the profit and revenue levels of Apple 2014). Amazon has been able to maintain its online retail at-
and Wal-Mart. It is still in the early phases of developing a fully tractiveness.
functional ecosystem like Apple has done with its iTunes store,
electronic products and developer community.
E2 Operational Complexity
Another area of concern is Amazon’s new expansion into Ama-
Amazon has recently been having issues regarding scalability,
zonFresh, a service that delivers fresh groceries for a yearly fee
especially regarding its fulfilment centers. December 2013 con-
of $299.
cluded in a mass of undelivered orders due to third party de-
livery failures (Walters, 2013). Furthermore, Amazon states that
Although this may add to Amazons revenue streams as a sub-
this could have been the result of unintended consequences of
scription plan, it needs to be noted that this new venture will
its Prime program. The key value proposition discussed earlier
require extensive resources such as new warehousing, delivery
received 1 million new customers in December and Amazon is
and IT systems. Given Amazon’s already low profitability and re-
restricting the number of new subscriptions so that the quality of
peated inability to successfully meet cyclical demand, the tim-
service to older members does not deteriorate.
ing of the launch of AmazonFresh is questionable.
Amazon has already issued $20 gift cards to those who did not
On the other hand, in the longer term, the combined resourc-
get their deliveries in time for Christmas. A spokeswoman re-
es of Amazon as a whole with the addition of AmazonFresh
cently stated that Amazon could not forecast the spike in or-
may help combat seasonal pressures in demand. Therefore,
ders. This clearly shows mis management given that Amazon is
although it may not seem like an evident countermeasure, cur-
expected to have spikes in Q4 of every year. In addition to this,
rent diversifications may prove beneficial in the long run.
amazon also faces woes in its distribution centers from union-
ized workers who protest against poor working conditions and
health risks (Young, 2013).
19
F. Strategic Options
F1 Putting the SWOT Lack of physical presence(W1)+Grow subscription
Best customer Incredibly low Grow subscription Scalability issues satisfaction scores(S2)= Customer loyalty may incur an accept-
satisfaction scores margins (W2) plans (O2) (T2)
(S2)
able amount of damage if Amazon were to increase its margins
Cost Leadership IT systems at risk
(S3) of cyber attacks
(W3) to facilitate scalability for future growth.
Leaders in distribu-
tion (S4)
20
F2 Generating Feasibility of implementing required organisational changes
The SWOT shows that Amazon has the necessary skills and
Strategic Options competencies required to develop its own smartphone. Given its
Kindle success, it has the necessary industry relations in order
to research, build and develop a smartphone. The same Android
F2.1 New Product New Market operating system can be ported into the phone.
This option recommends that Amazon venture into the smart- Robustness under different future scenarios
phone market. Its Kindle device propels Amazon’s retail of This option is highly robust for future scenarios, smartphones
books, music and video. Amazon can accelerate and increase are emerging technologies and as a result, they are commonly
online retail of these by generating sales through a smartphone. priced at a premium such as the iPhone and the GalaxyS4 by
Samsung. Amazon can expend into the low cost smartphones
Consistency with strategic objectives & vision market.
As analysed before, Amazon chose to pursue an ecosystem
strategy to maximize online sales. Amazon’s vision is to be cus- F2.2 Existing Product New Market
tomer centric. A smartphone will be used by consumers on a
regular basis and delivering Amazon’s online retail experience Consistency with strategic objectives & vision
through the phone will be highly customer centric. Bensinger (2013) highlights that Amazon can use this as a strat-
egy to drive sales of general merchandise which can bring high-
Creation of competitive advantage er profit margins. This contributes well to Amazons long term
Amazon already uses Kindle to drive online retail sales. This ef- strategy of becoming the biggest retailer in the future. This also
fectively enables it to compete with Apple in retail against the entrusts shareholder confidence who are already sceptical at its
iPad. Launching a phone at breakeven prices like the Kindle will razor thin margins.
ensure fast consumer adoption rate and in turn, increase online
retail revenues through Amazon’s own app store. Creation of competitive advantage
Provided that Amazon is able to scale this operation effectively
Financial Viability and manage entry into new markets, this will create consider-
Amazon can gain considerable cost savings by using the same able competitive threat to others. The Amazon Fresh service will
manufacturers it uses to build its Kindle line. This diversification bring along with it the brand image and recognition Amazon has
should be able to achieve capital from investors because of its already built. Despite this, many consumers may still prefer self-
close link to Amazon’s mission. Despite this, a delayed R&D ex- shopping at traditional stores.
penditure be more advisable due to the cash flow strains Ama-
zon has experienced over December 2013. Financial Viability
New IT infrastructures will need to be developed to cope with
Satisfaction of current and future customer needs the additional demand, and a scaled logistics network will also
As analysed before, smartphone trends are expected to con- be required. Additional human resources will be required in the
tinue to grow, as online shopping shifts to mobile mediums, management and delivery of this service such as warehouse
Amazon will be able to satisfy this customer need with Kindle personnel. It is advised that Amazon progress from one market
tablet and Smartphone. Furthermore, Nielsen (2013) states that to another at a point in the financial year when it will not create a
smartphone penetration in the USA stands at 61%. This provides drastic impact in other core operations.
Amazon ample opportunity to cater to a low cost segment of the
market and ultimately achieve its mission of customer centricity Satisfaction of current and future customer needs
Groceries are commodities and therefore there will always exist
Potential response of competitors demand for them. Amazon brings same day door to door gro-
Kindle posed a threat to Apples iPad in the US and developing a cery deliveries as a value proposition and provided it can meet
smartphone can be perceived as an additional threat. Other re- future demands by expanding its grocery range, it should grow
tailers in the US such as Wal-Mart have the financial resources to its loyal customer base.
develop their own products however, unlike Apple and Amazon
who have an ecosystem of services developed to increase online
retail sales, Wal-Mart may be unable to compete here.
21
Potential response of competitors Feasibility of implementing required organisational changes
Wal-Mart, is most likely to see AmazonFresh as a threat to its High costs and organizational changes will be required to oper-
grocery business. It is likely that it will imitate Amazon’s value ate a duplicity of online and retail channels.
proposition with same day door to door deliveries given its re-
sources. Robustness under different future scenarios
Poorly oriented for future however traditional retail channels will
Feasibility of implementing required organisational changes exist but cost-benefit may be unsatisfactory to pursue this op-
Amazon will need to scale its logistics capabilities and its busi- tion.
ness intelligence capabilities. It needs to be able to make ad-
equate storage for grocery products, manage the delivery of
F2.4 Evaluating Options
products and forecast order demand adequately.
Physical stores can become customer centric such as Apple Financial Viability 4 3 1
1=Extremely high
and can contribute to Amazon’s vision to become the biggest costs, severe im-
retailer however a physical presence is not Amazon’s compe- pact on finances,
5=Acceptable level
tency. of risk
Satisfaction of 4 3 4
current customer
Creation of competitive advantage needs
1=Inadequate sat-
Minimal competitive advantage to be gained here other than isfaction, 5=Meets
brand image development and recognition. needs well
Satisfaction of 5 4 3
future customer
Financial Viability needs
1=Inadequate,
Highly capital intensive in setting up physical stores and add to 5=Meets future
depreciation of assets on balance sheets. Can severely impact needs well
Total 35 27 16
Table 10: Option 1 ranks the highest after evaluating options
22
G. Recommendation
The comparison table shows that Option 1 is the most attractive
option. Launching a smartphone to channel customers into Ama-
zon’s online retail service meets strategic objectives of customer
centricity because it is a highly personal product, creates strong
competitive advantages because it acts as another channel to
grow its customers and revenue and the intellectual property rights
associated with the device will minimize duplication of this advan-
tage.
23
H1 Reference List Bishop, T. March 2012, , Inside Amazon Prime’s ‘explosive’
growth: 10 million members and profitable. Available: http://
www.geekwire.com/2013/amazon-prime-10m-members-
Fair comment [Homepage of Economist], [Online]. Avail-
counting/ [2013, December].
able: http://www.economist.com/node/13174365 [2013,
January].
Compete.com, [Online], January 2014. Available from:
hhttps://siteanalytics.compete.com/amazon.com/
Inside Amazon [Homepage of Amazon], [Online]. Available:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Careers/b?ie=UTF8and
Denning, S. , Apple’s Retail Success is More Than Magic
node=203043011.
[Homepage of Forbes], [Online]. Available: http://www.forbes.
com/sites/stevedenning/2011/06/17/apples-retail-stores-
Internet World Stats [Homepage of Internet World Stats],
more-than-magic/ [2013, December].
[Online]. Available: http://www.internetworldstats.com/am/
us.htm [2013, December].
Donici, A.N. “E-commerce accross United States of America:
Amazon.com”, [Online], vol. 15, no. 1/2012, pp. December
Alexa , Top Visited Sites [Homepage of Alexa], [Online].
2013. Available from: http://www.internetworldstats.com/am/
Available: http://www.alexa.com/topsites [2013, Decem-
us.htm.
ber].
Owen, L.H. August 2012-last update, Amazon says Kindle Fire Yarow, J. (2013) Former Amazon Employee Explains How
makes up 22% of U.S tablet sales [Homepage of paidConent], the Company Business Model Really Works. Available at:
[Online]. Available: http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/30/ama- http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-profits-what-peo-
zon-says-kindle-fire-makes-up-22-of-u-s-tablet-sales/ [De- ple-dont-understand-2013-10 Business Insider. (Accessed:
cember, 2013]. 01/02 2013).
Pick, T. 2012, , 101 Vital Social Media and Digital Marketing Young, A. (2013) Amazon.com’s Workers Are Low Paid Over-
Statistics [Homepage of Social Media Today], [Online]. Avail- worked And Unhappy; Is This The New Employee Model For
able: http://socialmediatoday.com/tompick/1647801/101- The Internet Age? Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/am-
vital-social-media-and-digital-marketing-statistics-rest-2013 azoncoms-workers-are-low-paid-overworked-unhappy-new-
[2013, December]. employee-model-internet-age-1514780 International Busi-
ness Times. (Accessed: 01/01 2013).
Rao, L. March 2012-last update, Amazon Acquires Robot-Co-
ordinated Order Fulfillment Company Kiva Systems For $775
Million In Cash [Homepage of TechCrunch], [Online]. Available:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/19/amazon-acquires-online-
fulfillment-company-kiva-systems-for-775-million-in-cash/
[2013, December].
25
H2 List of Tables and Figures
Item no. Description Page
Business Model
Amazon.com, INC
Tables
Distribution Centres p.6
A3.1 Table 1 Automation p.6
A3.2 Table 2
Comprehensive Table p.9
B1.4 Table 3 Characteristics of strategic groups p.10
B2.1 Table 4 Strategic Mobility p.10
B2.2 Table 5
26
H3 Supplementary Appendix
27
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