Preview

Amazon Long Tail

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
730 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Amazon Long Tail
{Do you think Amazon uses the long tail model? Through independent research, compare and contrast Amazon 's approach to offering a "limitless selection" and that of Netflix}

The long tail is a phenomenon whereby firms can make money by offering a near-limitless selection the term was coined by Chris Anderson, an editor at Wired magazine, and I feel both Amazon and Netflix have a long tail model since they can offer things that many stores don’t carry so there is always something for someone. (Gallaugher)
I feel like Amazon has done a great job of using the long tail method and have a limitless selection of anything someone could ever want or need. I find that I can see things I have never even dreamed about. I only buy books there but it is good to browse.

Amazon “Offer{s} a nearly limitless selection and something interesting happens: there’s actually more money to be made selling the obscure stuff than the hits. At Amazon.com, roughly 60 percent of books sold are titles that aren’t available in even the biggest Borders or Barnes & Noble Superstores”.(Anderson 2004)

“ Amazon.com is a Fortune 500 e-commerce company based in Seattle, WA. Amazon was one of the first big companies to sell goods over the Internet. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995. They started out as an online bookstore and then quickly diversified by adding other items, such as VHS tapes and DVDs, music CDs, software, video games, electronics, MP3s, clothing, furniture, toys and even food items.”
(Schneider)

“Amazon took its long tail strategy in a totally new direction, offering its Prime customers (those who pay a $79 annual fee for free 2-day shipping) a wide selection of streaming movies and television shows, for free. The move is a direct slap at Netflix, a company that started with a focus on renting hard-to-find, long tail DVDs but which has moved increasingly toward popular blockbusters as its video streaming operations ramp up. Amazon



References: Anderson, (October 2004), “The Long Tail,” Wired 12, no. 10 Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html. Gallaugher, J. Information systems. Schneider, L. (n.d.). Amazon.com company research. Retrieved from http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/companyprofiles/a/Amazon.htm Wunker, S. (2011, Feb 23). Long tail business models -- amazon on offense and defense. Retrieved from http://www.newmarketsadvisors.com/blog/bid/36296/Long-tail-business-models-Amazon-on-offense-and-defense

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Amazon.com is a publicly traded worldwide online retail company founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1995 in Seattle, Washington. The company originally began as an online bookstore as Bezos felt there was a high demand for literature, and books had a low price point and a huge selection of titles available in print. Technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently and at lower prices. Since 1995, Amazon has significantly expanded its product selection, international retail websites, and worldwide network of fulfillment and customer service centers. Today, Amazon retail websites offer everything from toys and video games to MP3 downloads and collectible items (amazon.com, 2014). Amazons business model is fairly simple; to sell various products and goods online at an affordable cost to consumers. Amazon has managed to not only achieve this business model but they have also managed to consistently expand and become the largest online retailer to date. To keep up with global demand, Amazon had to expand its products and services offered while continuing to forecast consumer’s needs. “In 2000, Amazon.com began to offer its best-of-breed e-commerce platform to other retailers and to individual sellers. Today, hundreds of thousands of world-class retail brands and individual sellers increase their sales and reach new customers by leveraging the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform. Partners work with Amazon Services to power their e-commerce offerings from end-to-end, including technology services, merchandising, customer service, and order fulfillment. Other branded merchants leverage Amazon.com as an incremental sales channel for their new merchandise. Over 2 million third-party sellers participate in Amazon where they offer new, used, and…

    • 891 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Case Study Netflex

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Perform a SWOT analysis for Netflix. What are its biggest threats? Which opportunities should it pressure?…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Capstone Project Bus599

    • 2781 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Amazon.com is an organization that offers a broad range of services to consumers and is considered an online leader of pure-plays - pure online merchants. Amazon.com was founded in July of 1995 with a mission to fully utilize the Internet to make book buying fast, easy, and all in all, a very enjoyable experience. They currently have 29 million customers in 160 different countries, making Amazon.com one of the leading online merchants. It is rated third in business-to-consumer online revenue as of June 20, 2000. Amazon.com represents the ideal e-Commerce company. It was one of the first to demonstrate the potential for "virtual" upstarts and turned the market on end - even leading the "bricks and mortar" companies.…

    • 2781 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Amazon is a website offering numerous product categories ranging from books, to videos, to music, to technology products, to health and beauty products, to sporting goods, to automotive and plumbing products (the list goes on and on). It is like stepping into a virtual Wal-Mart with an emphasis on books, entertainment media and entertainment products. Amazon has distinguished itself as a leader especially in these categories by delivering products quickly, cheaply, and with no hassle guarantees. The site is laid out in a very intuitive way that makes it easy to understand and follow. Features like browser history which tracks what you have already looked at, one-click check out, and Prime membership which offers reduced shipping to its members have proven to be extremely effective. Perhaps the weakness of Amazon, if there is one, is that it is a website is designed for “everyone.” The actual appearance of the…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Amazon as a business have done many things to get their business to where they are now, from this they have achieved a lot success. If there had been any internet…

    • 828 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Selling nothing but books is how Amazon.com started its business in 1995, now is acknowledged as the leading online retailer in the world. In addition, its new line of products is the compact disc, digital video disc and movie videos, to include many other products from retail partners from around the world as partnership agreements, which sell their goods through the Amazon.com website. This agreement known as “powered by Amazon,” allows partnered companies to use Amazon.com website capabilities and technology to order and purchase products. Retailers that have played a part in powered by Amazon partnership are Toys ‘R’ Us and Target.…

    • 3537 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Global Management

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Amazon's firm-specific resources and capabilities in the United States consist of their ability to offer products at a discounted rate of 20% to 30% which entices their customers to order products through them opposed to off of the manufacturer's website. Not only does Amazon sell books, but they also have a wide variety of electronics, appliances, furniture, dvds, clothes, etc… The ease of ordering multiple products at discounted…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ebay vs Amazon

    • 2137 Words
    • 9 Pages

    5. Mike Molesworth, Janice Denegi-knott. (2008) “Journal of Macro Marketing, the Playfulness of eBay and the Implications for Businesses as a Game Maker.”…

    • 2137 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Beginning in 1994, the widely popular Amazon was just a small, unknown online bookstore. Although you wouldn’t have known it back then, but Amazon soon became the business model for online retailing (Kroenke 29). But books weren’t…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Amazon

    • 2005 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The company was founded in 1994, after Bezos left his employment at a Wall Street firm, and moved to Seattle. It was founded in Bezos garage, which has grown to be a Fortune 100 company. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, VHSs, CDs, video and MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. In 2002 Amazon launched a new business model for web services platform, identifying a new area of potential growth and new customer, which grew into the seventh largest in the world within five years. In late 2007, it set up Lab125, whose first product the Kindle e-book reader disrupted the entire publishing industry. Since then, the company also produces consumer electronics – notably, Amazon Kindle e-book readers, Kindle Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire Phone – along with being a major provider of cloud computing services. 1…

    • 2005 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Executive Summary of Amazon

    • 3297 Words
    • 14 Pages

    2. Gregory T. Huang. (2010). How Amazon Innovates: Lessons in Strategy for Microsoft and Others. Available: http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/02/25/how-amazon-innovates-lessons-in-strategy-for-microsoft-and-others/. Last accessed 25th Jan 2011.…

    • 3297 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Amazon was a pioneer in the use of software that monitors each online customer 's preferences, enabling the company to suggest other products that may be of interest to the individual, either on their personalized web page or via e-mail. A book customer who walks out of a bookshop, with or without a purchased book, is effectively `lost ' to the store, but Amazon can target registered customers — with their permission — with messages such as `Recommended for you ' or `Customers who bought this item also bought '. Like other successful websites (e.g. eBay and TripAdvisor), Amazon has worked on creating a community feeling by allowing registered customers to upload reviews, create lists of their favorite books, etc. In this way, it has personalized the online shopping experience for mass-market products.…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Task 2

    • 2058 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Today, Amazon.com is the place to find and discover anything you want to buy online. Amazon offers the Earth’s Biggest Selection of products to 29 million people in more than 160 countries across the world making them to be among the leading online shopping sites…

    • 2058 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    There are both pros and cons to this growth and diversification of Amazon. Since Amazon 's growth and diversification was done gradually, there was little chance for it to backfire on Amazon. Giving them the time needed to work out the problems. “The design of the marketplace can help to influence success by improving the flow of information, thereby reducing stress and enabling buyers and sellers to function more effectively”. (McMillan, 2002) By setting the main page to show consumers favorites based on prior purchases, Amazon was able to build a loyal customer base from which they could try different marketing and selling strategies. The company uses this customer base in their to expansion and diversification, based on their needs and wants. Amazon have also allowed many small businesses to partner with them to provide services, Expanding their business even more. By expanding and diversifying their business amazon has helped to pioneer the Business to Consumer e-business during a time when many dot coms were falling short.…

    • 1918 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Amazon.Com Inc.

    • 2201 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably the Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Fire tablet computer—and is a major provider of cloud computing services. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company (as Cadabra) in July 1994, and the site went online as Amazon.com in 1995. The company was renamed after the Amazon River, one of the largest rivers in the world, which in turn was named after the Amazons, the legendary nation of female warriors in Greek mythology. Amazon has separate retail websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and…

    • 2201 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays