Amazon.Com Case Study 3
Amazon.com, Inc.
Case Study
Chirag P. Gandhi
Introduction
During 1994, a man, Jeffrey Bezos, who after completing graduation from Princeton University was hired by D.E. Shaw, a Wall Street firm. During his occupancy there he was astonished to learn an interesting statistic on the Internet. Bezos had learned that the Internet was growing at the rate of over 2300%! Bezos was no fool; he quickly decided to venture out of D.E. Shaw to create a new company. Bezos made a list of items that he could potentially sell on the Internet in which he narrowed down to books. Bezos then moved to Seattle, WA for its proximity to high tech work force as well as being in reach of large book distributors. Not only that but because of high sales tax in larger states like New York and California, Washington seemed perfect to conduct business. Initially, Bezos and his software engineers worked in a garage with desk built out of doors and held meetings at Barnes and Nobles. During this time period Bezos worked on developing funds and working with the engineers at that time website named Cadabra.com, but because of the similarities to the word cadaver Bezos renamed it to what is now named Amazon.com, after the world’s largest river. The website was officially launched in 1995 and did not take to long to became popular.
The website was so hot that it earned a spot on, at that time, Yahoo’s “What’s cool list?” When the site first began it only carried close to 2,000 book titles at the Seattle warehouse compared to Barnes and Nobles inventory, which had retail outlets in a majority of cities. Having warehouse inventory was not a big concern for Amazon because the orders were directly placed through vendors. Amazon.com used JIT (Just In Time), when the order is placed it then is conveyed to wholesalers and publishers who mail the customer the product, to place orders. Bezos realized that the company was on verge of being a success because within a month time the online
Case Study
Chirag P. Gandhi
Introduction
During 1994, a man, Jeffrey Bezos, who after completing graduation from Princeton University was hired by D.E. Shaw, a Wall Street firm. During his occupancy there he was astonished to learn an interesting statistic on the Internet. Bezos had learned that the Internet was growing at the rate of over 2300%! Bezos was no fool; he quickly decided to venture out of D.E. Shaw to create a new company. Bezos made a list of items that he could potentially sell on the Internet in which he narrowed down to books. Bezos then moved to Seattle, WA for its proximity to high tech work force as well as being in reach of large book distributors. Not only that but because of high sales tax in larger states like New York and California, Washington seemed perfect to conduct business. Initially, Bezos and his software engineers worked in a garage with desk built out of doors and held meetings at Barnes and Nobles. During this time period Bezos worked on developing funds and working with the engineers at that time website named Cadabra.com, but because of the similarities to the word cadaver Bezos renamed it to what is now named Amazon.com, after the world’s largest river. The website was officially launched in 1995 and did not take to long to became popular.
The website was so hot that it earned a spot on, at that time, Yahoo’s “What’s cool list?” When the site first began it only carried close to 2,000 book titles at the Seattle warehouse compared to Barnes and Nobles inventory, which had retail outlets in a majority of cities. Having warehouse inventory was not a big concern for Amazon because the orders were directly placed through vendors. Amazon.com used JIT (Just In Time), when the order is placed it then is conveyed to wholesalers and publishers who mail the customer the product, to place orders. Bezos realized that the company was on verge of being a success because within a month time the online
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