1. How Amazon Works
1. Introduction to How Amazon Works
1995
2006
country
companies
In 1995, Amazon.com sold its first book, which shipped from Jeff Bezos' garage in Seattle.
In 2006, Amazon.com sells a lot more than books and has sites serving seven countries, with
21 fulfillment centers around the globe totaling more than 9 million square feet of warehouse
space.
The story is an e-commerce dream, and Jeff Bezos was Time magazine's Person of the Year in
1999. The innovation and business savvy that sustains Amazon.

2. 2.Amazon Technology
Linux-based
largest
data
capacity
security
The massive technology core that keeps Amazon running is entirely Linux-based.
As of 2005, Amazon has the world's three largest Linux databases, with a total capacity of 7.8
terabytes (TB), 18.5 TB and 24.7 TB respectively.
In the 2003 holiday season, Amazon processed a top-end 1 million shipments and 20 million
inventory updates in one day. Amazon's sales volume means that hundreds of thousands
of people send their credit cards numbers to Amazon's servers every day, and security is a
major concern. In addition to automatically encrypting credit card numbers during the checkout
process, Amazon lets users choose to encrypt every piece of information they enter, like their
name, address and gender.

3. 3.Amazon E-commerce
retailers
Marketplace
zShops
Auctions
sellers
Large retailers like Nordstrom, Land's End and Target use Amazon.com to sell their products in
addition to selling them through their own Web sites.
Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace, Amazon zShops or Amazon
Auctions.
At Marketplace, sellers offer goods at a fixed price, and at Auctions they sell their stuff to the
highest bidder.

4. 4.Amazon Tools, Marketing and Community
structure
cost
value
customer
tracking
Amazon's marketing structure is a lesson in cost-efficiency and brilliant self-promotion.
Amazon's associates link to Amazon products in order to add value to their own Web sites,
sending people to Amazon to make their purchases.
It costs Amazon practically nothing.
The level of customer tracking at Amazon.com is another best-of-breed system. Using the data
it collects on every registered user during every visit to the Web site, Amazon points users to
products they might actually be glad to discover -- and buy.