How To Be as Successful as Amazon
In 1994 Amazon was only an idea in the mind of Jeff Bezos. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, and a year later the site went live, although at that time it was simply an online bookstore. Today, Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and Jeff Bezos is a billionaire.
There are several key elements to Amazon’s success, and they are all concepts that can be applied to other businesses. There will surely be a new success story that will dwarf the rise of Amazon in the years to come.
Branding
Bezos wanted a name that would begin with ‘A’ in order to appear high in alphabetical listings. After much consideration, the name ‘Amazon’ was chosen for its ‘exotic and different’ nature, as well as the fact that it was the biggest river in the world – a fitting name for a company that Bezos intended to dominate the globe. Amazon has become a household name.
A core business
Amazon was originally an online book store, and is still ‘the biggest bookstore in the world’. Rather than trying to be all things to all people from the beginning, Amazon was founded to fill a single gap in the market – even the largest bookstores did not offer greater than 200,000 books, but Bezos believed that his online retailer could offer many more. While today they offer a variety of products and services, the bookstore element is still an important part of the business, with innovations such as ‘search inside’ and the Kindle keeping them at the cutting edge of the industry.
A realistic business plan
The 90s dot com bubble saw all kinds of online businesses promising quick and easy profits. However, Amazon did no such thing. The business plan was realistic, forecasting profits only after four or five years of growth. The success of this strategy is clear from Amazon’s survival through the bursting of the dot com bubble.
Partnerships and acquisitions
Amazon’s spread across the world was aided by their extensive industry research where they identified the best providers and business partners, such as using Goodman Logistics to provide some of their warehouse needs in the UK and acquiring Bookpages.co.uk to gain entry into the UK market. Amazon has recognised that sometimes they can do better by partnering with other businesses than by directly competing. For example, they have partnered with ToysRUs, Borders bookstores, Target, Marks & Spencers, Sears Canada and more.
Flexibility
Amazon auctions was launched in 1999, intended to compete with eBay. However, the website never took off. Many businesses would have continued on with a failing service or simply given up on the market. However, Amazon altered its approach by setting up a fixed price marketplace, knows as zShops. Auctions and zShops were then merged to form Amazon Marketplace, the now familiar broker for the sale of various products such as used books, CDs and DVDs.
Amazon’s success was not due to sheer luck or even amazing brilliance. Rather, it has always read the market well and sought to expand its reach while sticking to a realistic business plan.
Rachel is a business blogger with a background in online business.
Related posts:
- Amazon to Sell Cheaper Kindle W/ Built-In Ads – NYTimes.com
- Oxford University Press: Global Good Samaraitans – Human Rights as Foreign Policy | Global Good Resources
- Groupon IPO is on the way
- XML.org – Advancing Open Standards Through Online Communities | Global Good Technology
- Kindle ‘Fire’ Ready For IPad Ambush
Comments