Evaluation of Amazon Australia's Marketing Strategy

This essay evaluates Amazon Australia's marketing strategy using Cravens & Piercy's marketing strategy theory. The essay suggests marketing options that Amazon Australia can adopt to remain successful in the future.

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Executive Summary
The primary goal of this essay is to conduct an evaluation of the online retailer Amazon
Australia’s marketing strategy. The organization offers an array of retail services and products,
not excluding web and storage services. Cravens & Piercy’s Strategic Marketing text has been
used in examining Amazon’s historical background. This corporate framework consists of the
business composition, resources, and the objectives. The organization’s marketing strategy has
been reviewed using the Cravens & Piercy’s marketing strategy theory. The marketing strategies
that are used by Amazon Australia consist of cost-leadership, customer differentiation, and
customer focus strategy.

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Introduction
Amazon’s shift of focus has made it to be the world’s biggest store. The organization has
over 40% market share compared to the other online retail companies. Over the past two years,
Amazon’s international business has doubled. The organization’s primary value chain consists of
sourcing, distribution, as well as offering after-sales services that consist of returns and
exchanges from customers who are unsatisfied. Amazon’s primary focus is the process of
sourcing and distributing products to the consumers. The organization’s investments are geared
towards warehousing in crucial areas as well as having an efficient delivery and distribution
system in serving all its clients. This essay aims at conducting a marketing analysis to identify
the marketing strategies that are applied by Amazon Australia since it was created. Additionally,
the essay seeks to suggest the marketing options that Amazon Australia can adopt if it wishes to
remain successful throughout the next decade.
Amazon’s Background
Amazon Inc. is a United States multinational e-commerce organization. The organization
is considered to be the leading online retailer firm that is associated with cloud hosting services
as well as electronic products. The organization came into existence in 1994 with its founder
being Jeff Bezos (Ualberta.ca, 2018). However, the company’s website which is its primary
selling and marketing platform was launched in 1995. Amazon’s headquarters are found in
Seattle, Washington. The organization makes use of many websites that target several markets
such as the UK, Australia, China, Germany, or even Japan among others (Encyclopedia
Britannica, 2018). Amazon also has got plans to launch other websites that will target other

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markets such as Sweden, Poland, and the Netherlands. Besides dealing with electronic products,
the organization as well offers cloud hosting services to firms across the globe.
The organization got its name from the Amazon River which is believed to been named
after the female Greek worriers (Hartmans, 2018). Despite that Amazon is associated with
phenomenon circumstances, Bezos made the decision to use the name because, in an
alphabetically arranged list, it would appear high. Additionally, the logo chosen by Bezos
represents the catalog (A-Z). The arrows that bridge A to Z resembles a smile and it shows the
organization’s primary objectives which include making the clients happy through the provision
of high-quality services.
Marketing Analysis
Amazon Australia’s business strategy is dependent on intensive research as well as the
use of strategies that aim at achieving a competitive advantage thus promoting their services and
products through the online platform. The company has applied integration and backward
integration with the intention of promoting its services and products (Ashley and Tuten, 2015,
pp.19). Amazon’s success is dependent on reliable and sustainable management of its services as
well as the application of information technology. The company’s business model can be
reflected by its chain of clients, including its brand, with an increasing customer database, the
company’s distribution channels, and the user-friendly internet storefront.
Amazon’s Australia Marketing Strategy
Amazon Australia applies three basic marketing strategies which result in an increased
competitive advantage. These strategies include cost-leadership, customer differentiation, as well
as focus strategy. The first strategy is based on the fact that the company offers the same quality

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at lower prices in the market. Amazon’s Australia second marketing strategy is related to the
bigger amount of selection compared to its rivals such as E-bay and Alibaba (Jaraba, et al., 2013,
pp.6337). The third strategy involves focusing on niche customer by using one of the two
strategies mentioned above.
An essential element of Amazon Australia’s marketing strategy is its customer-centric
approach. The organization offers lower prices, 24/7 customer service, inclusive of frees
shipping. Additionally, customer experience is improved through personalized web pages and
recommendations. The company’s strengths in delivering service to the consumer have helped
Amazon Australia to increase its customers’ loyalty, repeat purchases, and website traffic since
the time it became operational in Australia (Davcik and Sharma, 2015, pp.772). The organization
has made use of several marketing methods that consists of email campaigns, online advertising,
including the organization’s Associate Program. This program makes it possible for the outside
websites to make products available to the organization’s customers. The marketing tool that
Amazon Australia has adopted shows that the organization has the capability of expanding
beyond the website and concentrate on the company’s other strengths such as order fulfillment
and order distribution.
Amazon Australia’s other marketing strategy aspect has been established through the
organization’s strategic relationships with several retailers globally. Such alliances improve the
customers’ offering value, improves the organization’s competitive advantage, and enhances the
market share of the involved firms (Feige, 2013, pp.23). Example of Amazon Australia partners
that ensure availability of products includes the Gap for clothing, Drugstore, and Toys ‘R’.
Amazon Australia profit by availing a diverse array of products to its customers. These products

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are grouped according to departments and they consist of Toys, Music & Video, Sports & Home
Improvements, Amazon Publishing, among other products.
Nonetheless, creativity and innovation is an essential detail for Amazon Australia’s
marketing strategy. Verna Allee, in her article The Learning Organization, she suggests that for
any organization to sustain its growth and enhance its competitive advantage, there is need that
the Western companies integrate innovation into their structures and cultures as an important
condition of creating value. For instance, Amazon Australia’s offering of the EC2 and S3 digital
makes the organization improve on its competitive advantage within the software platform
marketplace.
According to Bezos, Amazon’s innovation strategy consist of five primary rules that
include measuring everything, keeping the development teams small, not being afraid of weird
ideas, opening up to outsiders, and watching customers and not the rivals. The organizations
technological advances, including Bezos’ forward-thinking, has been used as a marketing
strategy in Australia (Felzensztein, et al., 2014, pp.841). This is because it has facilitated the
organization to come up with ground-breaking products. These products include the Kindle and
have enabled it to compete with Apple iTunes which is the top digital online music provider. If
Amazon continues to encourage innovation, the organization can become international leaders,
beyond Australia in internet-based businesses.
The e-commerce marketplace can also be considered as Amazon Australia’s marketing
strategy. The company is capable of gaining from the several opportunities that are offered by e-
commerce. Such opportunities consist of technological advances and new trends. Within the
Australian market, the organization has competed well and its digital e-book market is growing,

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which has been as a result of Amazon’s Kindle product. If Amazon Australia wishes to remain
competitive, it may consider investing in technology (Granot, Alejandro and Russell, 2014,
pp.71). Generally, the e-commerce is experience growth and the organization is in a better
position to benefit from this rise. The e-commerce site offers one-click payments and payment
security, friendly features, including other technologies that will make a new web-based venture
hard to compete with. Overall, Amazon Australia makes use of strong marketing strategies
which can be noticed in the companies enhanced marketing costs according to GlobalData
reports. Nonetheless, the company faces several marketing problems. This is because the firm is
seasonal in nature whereby it has got more shoppers during holiday seasons. Thus, there are
many users that access Amazon’s website at the same time, resulting in system interruptions.
Strategic Marketing Options for Amazon Australia Moving Forward
Since Amazon became operational in 1994, the company has made great business
progresses. The organization has been able to expand into other markets with a lot of ease.
Usually, this is not the case with every firm that tries into other foreign markets. Additionally,
the organization sells versatile products which are easy to sell and they can be delivered to any
part of the globe (Martin and Isozaki, 2013, pp.1547). Despite that many other firms have made
the marketing strategies used by Amazon, the organization is much more established compared
to any of its rivals across the globe. Amazon has already established its marketing mix and it will
be difficult to lose it. Several other firms offer the same products as those offered by Amazon.
However, Amazon’s superiority, including the wide range of products that it offers makes it hard
to be overridden by any other firm in the coming days (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014, pp.705).
Moving forward, Amazon Australia may make use of the following marketing strategies if it
safeguards its market interests:

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First, Amazon Australia should consider getting more reviews for their products. In most
situations, people purchase a product on the online platform depending on the number of positive
reviews that it has received (Schmidt, Spann and Zeithammer, 2014, pp.1222). When individuals
are scared about making a decision, their brain fall back to specific factors and the brain makes
use of that limited information to make a decision. This first factor that individuals fall back on is
the social proof. A person looks around at everyone else and sees what they believe is the best
idea. For instance, if Amazon’s products have got 10x more reviews compared to those of its
rivals, customers generally tend to resist their biology to purchase products that have got fewer
reviews. Amazon Australia should thus aim at giving away as many of its products as they have
to in exchange for fair and honest reviews.
Additionally, Amazon Australia should optimize its Amazon product page. As much as
Amazon is a marketplace, it is also a search engine since individuals search for products on the
online platform (Wallace, 2018). The organization should pay attention to some of the keywords
that are used by the customers to search for products, and research on the keywords that are used
by its rivals. Things that are to be considered include the titles, description, pictures, subtitle, and
questions and answers. Additionally, in its marketing strategy, Amazon Australia should not only
build its own brand to help support an increased amount of search, but it should also invest in
high-quality visuals, such that they give a quality first impression (Sillani and Nassivera, 2015,
pp.340). Nonetheless, the survival of the organization is dependent on the sales strategies that it
uses. Amazon Australia should put in place strategies that will facilitate it penetrates both the
upper and the lower markets.

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Conclusion
Amazon Inc. is a United States multinational e-commerce organization. The organization
leads in online retailing as well as cloud hosting services. Amazon has expanded into the
Australian marketplace using several marketing strategies that are aimed at improving its market
share and attracting more clients. For instance, Amazon Australia has got an aggressive approach
to the Australian pricing, the organization is focused on its customers such that it has got people
analyzing the experience from the customers and other better business processes, the
organization is also focused on innovation, and improving on logistics. In the future, the
marketing strategies that Amazon Australia should adopt include optimizing its Amazon product
page, getting reviews for its products, and pay attention to high-quality visuals.

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Appendices

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Appendix 1
(Fortune, 2018)
Appendix 2

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(Financial Review, 2018)
Appendix 3

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(Thebull.com.au, 2018)