Amazon.com Inc is an online global retailing company based in Seattle, Washington. With 117,300 employees, Amazon was established by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as an online book store. 59.8% of its total revenue is generated within North America (Amazon.com). Locating its headquarters in Seattle, Amazon built hub distribution channels in major cities such as Los Angeles and New York, testing various new strategies or goods before launching worldwide. Starting from 1999, the company rigorously expanded its territory by acquiring stakes of drugstore.com, HomeGrocer.com, Shopbop.com, Pets.com and Exchange.com and aligning with well set up existing global businesses such as Toysrus.com, NBA, Bombay Company, located in Canada, and joyo.com, located in China (Marketline). Now Amazon has headquarters in China, Japan, France, India, UK, Luxembourg, Germany, Costa Rica, Ireland and is about to launch another one in South Korea (OneSource).
Amazon’s priority is its customers. Jeff Bezos loves to say, “Above all else, align with customers. Win when they win. Win only when they win.” (Readwrite) Amazon was the first on line retailing company that allows customers to leave reviews on its website, even though some sellers were uncomfortable with negative comments about products. Amazon believes that their effective marketing is a consequence of their focus on continuously improving the customer experience. Part of their mission statement is to be “Earth’s most customer-centric company” Amazon tries to offer anything a customer could possibly imagine online with a low price, which results in a low margin, high volume structure. However, unlike common discount retailers offering poor quality, limited item selections, and bad service, Amazon keeps the quality of products and service at high-end while cutting the price down.
Amazon.com will probably continue to post strong revenue growth going forward, though it is expected that the bottom line will
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