Amazon began as an online bookstore in 1994 and has since expanded to become the world's largest online retailer. It sells a wide range of products including books, electronics, apparel, and more. Amazon also offers services like Amazon Prime for shipping and Amazon Web Services for cloud computing. The company has built a large user base and generates revenue through various models including commissions from third-party sellers on its marketplace. Amazon's success is driven by its personalized recommendations, extensive product selection, and focus on customer experience.

1. Amazon.com Business Case
Presentation
Qibin Xiong
Marketing 476

2. Amazon’s Overview and History
• The world's largest online retailer.
• Product and Service: Retail goods, Consumer
electronics, Digital content, Amazon Prime, Private
labels and exclusive marketing
arrangements, Computing services, Content
production and Donations
• An American
multinational electronic
commerce company
with headquarters in
Seattle, Washington, Un
ited States.
Amazon.com, Inc

3. Amazon’s Overview and History
• Amazon.com was established in
July 1994 and the site went online
as Amazon.com in 1995.
• The company began as an online
bookstore. In the first two months
of business, Amazon sold to all 50
states and over 45 countries.
Within two months, Amazon's
sales were up to $20,000/week.
• Amazon has separate retail
websites for United
States, Canada, United
Kingdom, France, Germany, India,
Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and
China, with international shipping
to certain other countries for some
of its products

4. Amazon’s Decentralization
• Retail goods: Amazon product lines
include books, music CDs, videotapes and
DVDs, software, consumer electronics,
kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden
items, toys & games, baby products,
apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food,
jewelry, watches, health and personal-care
items, beauty products, musical
instruments, clothing, industrial & scientific
supplies, and groceries.
• Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime is a
service of free two-day shipping on all
eligible purchases, for a flat annual fee, as
well as discounted one-day shipping rates.
• Computing services: Amazon launched
Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002,
which provides programmatic access to
latent features on its website.
• Etc.

5. How Amazon works
• Order product
• Chooses the most typical means of
payment, by credit card.
• Amazon asks the credit-card company to
verify the card and cover the payment.
• As soon as payment has been settled, the
order goes to the supplier
• Supplier send Amazon a confirmation that
the product is ready
• Amazon contacts a logistics company, in
this case FedEx. FedEx delivers the product
to the customer.

6. Amazon’s Key Competitors
• ebay: an American multinational
internet consumer-to-consumer
corporation, headquartered in
San Jose, California.
• Best-Deals.com: Allow customers
to compare prices on largest
selection of
Music, CDs, DVDs, Videos, Electr
onics, Video
Games, Computers, Cell
Phones…
• Instant Finder: a global online
market place for buyers, sellers
and advertisers. As a next-
generation marketplace…

7. Amazon’s Key Partners
• Amazon.com operates retail websites
for Sears Canada, bebe
Stores, Timex, Marks &
Spencer, Mothercare, and Lacoste.
• DC Comics: On October
18, 2011, Amazon.com announced a
partnership with DC Comics for the
exclusive digital rights to many
popular comics
• ToysRUs.com: Until June
30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into a
browser would bring up
Amazon.com's "Toys & Games" tab;
however, this relationship was
terminated due to a lawsuit.

8. Amazon’s User Base
• According to Business Week, the retail side
of business has around 121 million active
users worldwide in 2013.
• Target Users:
– People don't want to waste a lot of time shopping
and comparing prices
– People who pretty much know what they want.
– People who like the safety and security of
shopping
– People who want to get their item, then move on
with their lives.
– For them, the "best price" is the price in the "Buy
Box" on Amazon for the item they want.

9. Amazon’s Stakeholders
• Amazon's Stakeholder Management Matrix

10. Amazon’s Decentralized Structure
in Eco-System
• The company's ecosystem has been built to
last and will allow Amazon to dominate the
retail space in the coming years. Amazon's
business model is very similar to the razor-
and-blade concept investors are familiar
with, with the main difference being that once
Amazon sells you the razor, it can sell more
than just the blades to go along with it. That's
something that many of the other dominant
players in the technology world can't do.

11. Amazon’s Assets
• Amazon.com Total Assets: 28.38B for March 31, 2013

12. • Intangible assets: Acquired intangible assets, included
within “Other assets” on Amazon’s consolidated
balance sheets, consist of the following (in millions):
Amazon’s Intangible Assets

13. Amazon’s Funding
• Initially funded by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire
founder of Amazon.com.
• Amazon raises big money with debt offering
Amazon.com said it is offering a whopping
$1.25 billion in convertible debt to institutional
investors.
• Wall Street analysts speculate that Amazon
will use the proceeds to build new highly
automated distribution facilities and to fund
international expansion.

14. Amazon’s Unique Features
• Shopping at Amazon.com is fast and
safe, incorporating a simple ordering system, secure
credit card transactions, e-mail communication with
customers and direct shipping worldwide.
• WindowShop: presents some of the store’s newest
and most popular movies, books, and video games in
a way that makes browsing the online megastore
actually fun.
• Single Sign-On: Integrate your own authentication
system.
• Analytics: Understand the who, what, when and how.
• Custom Themes: Create your own look and feel.
• Real-time: Enable live conversations.

15. Amazon’s Personalized Results
• One of the most powerful characteristic of Amazon’s
service is the recommendations it gives to customers
who are looking for books and other products they
purchase.
• Having all sorts of options such as being able to see
great photos of products and knowing that shipping is
free is nice, but being able to know what other
purchased can do the most in helping you decide what
product is best for you.
• Birds of a feather do indeed flock together. Although
Amazon.com and other retailers have the money to fine
tune their personalization recommendations systems
these types of services are not out of range.

16. Amazon’s Revenue Model
• Amazon generates revenue primarily by selling books, videos, el
ectronics, and kitchen equipment on domestic and international
Web sites, such as Amazon Marketplace.
• Amazon Marketplace is Amazon’s fixed price online marketplace
that allows sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon’s offeri
ngs. Buyers can buy new and used items sold directly by a third
party through Amazon.com using Amazon Marketplace.
• Amazon charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a tr
ansaction fee, and a variable closing fee. Which are sales revenu
e model and transaction fee revenue model.
• Amazon.com also generates revenue by Affiliate revenue model.
Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affilia
te marketing program, which website owners can use to create a
n online store on their site. The store does not allow website own
ers to sell their own products directly.
• The fee structure is currently the same as for the other affiliate lin
ks and ranges from 4% to 10% of the product price.

17. Amazon’s Intellectual Property
• The United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) issued US 5960411 for this technique to
Amazon.com in September 1999.
• Amazon.com also owns the "1-Click"
trademark, which is the technique of allowing
customers to make online purchases with a single
click, with the payment information needed to
complete the purchase already entered by the user
previously.

18. Reference List
• http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-06-12-amazon-
toys_N.htm?csp=27&RM_Exclude=Juno
• http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11641703/ns/business-us_business/t/toys-r-us-wins-suit-
against-amazoncom/#.UcJDp6CcuuM
• http://milkmom.blogspot.com/2008/06/revenue-model-for-google-amazoncom-
and.html
• http://www.smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2008/08/selling-with-personalization-
w.html/
• http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/97/97664/reports/123198_10k.pdf
• http://news.cnet.com/Amazon-raises-big-money-with-debt-offering/2100-1017_3-
220886.html
• http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Amazon.com_%28AMZN%29/Data/Total_Assets
• http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-reportsannual