Impact of Digital Disruption in Amazon.com

This report analyzes the impact of digital disruption introduced by Amazon on the company itself and its Work Centered Analysis (WCA) prior and post to the implementation of the digital disruption event. It includes an executive summary, introduction, introduction to the case study, work centered analysis (WCA) prior to the disruption event, problems identified, work centered analysis (WCA) post implementation of the disruption event, recommendations, implementation plan for the recommendation, and conclusions.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICS
Impact of Digital Disruption in Amazon.com
Name of the Student:
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PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICS
Executive summary
Amazon has launched a revolutionary business concept for grocery shopping. The online retail
giant was operating on the internet for retail sales till now. On January 2018, it has launched a
next-gen grocery shopping concept where the shoppers will link their Amazon Go app with their
Amazon account and shop without having to go through a physical check out process. This is a
digital disruption event, which not only changes the traditional grocery shopping business by the
supermarkets, but also the online selling business of Amazon itself. In this report, the work
centered analyses have been performed on the retail business of Amazon prior and post
implementation of the digital disruption event, challenges faced by the company,
recommendations based on the analysis and implementation plan of the ways to overcome the
challenges.

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Table of Contents
Abbreviations and assumptions.......................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Introduction to the case study..........................................................................................................4
Work Centered Analysis (WCA) prior to the disruption event.......................................................5
Problems identified..........................................................................................................................6
Work Centered Analysis (WCA) post implementation of the disruption event..............................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
Implementation plan for the recommendation.................................................................................9
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
Appendix A....................................................................................................................................12
Appendix B....................................................................................................................................13

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Abbreviations and assumptions
Abbreviation
WCA: Work Centered Analysis
Assumptions
Since, online payment transactions involve proper internet connection and network
of third party payment operators; it is assumed that failing of network connectivity could bring
some problems during the payment process. It is also assumed that people are not willing to shop
for groceries and fresh food online as these are perishable goods and they cannot know the
quality and the condition of the food items just by seeing the images. Hence, the customers
prefer to buy the groceries from the store and supermarkets.
Introduction
Digital disruption is a new trend in the businesses caused by new and innovative
technologies. These new technologies are impacting the business models and the values of the
existing goods and services in an outstanding way (Gilbert 2015). Since, these technologies are
disrupting the normal way of market and businesses and make them rethink about the way of
businesses and reevaluate the goods and services; these are called disruptive technologies
(McQuivey 2013). In almost every industry, the digital rivals are taking the advantage of the new
platform, tools and equipment and relationships for disrupting the existing market, undercutting
the competitors, get closer to customers, and wrecking havoc with the general way of doing the
business. According to experts, adopting their method off business is the only way of sustaining
in the market for the other businesses. This report will address the impact of digital disruption

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introduced by Amazon on the company itself and its Work Centered Analysis (WCA) prior and
post to the implementation of the digital disruption event.
Introduction to the case study
Amazon is the biggest e-commerce company, holding the third position among the most
valuable companies in the world, surpassing Microsoft (Carr 2018). Only Apple and Alphabet
stand ahead on Amazon in the list published by Fortune. The company is the largest online
retailer in terms of market capitalization and revenue. The company started as an online
bookstore and later diversified into almost every category of products that can be sold online.
Currently, the company operates in 15 countries across different continents and has different
websites for each country. Amazon started their business with a disruptive technology back in
1994 by introducing the concept of online shopping (Amazon.com 2018). Once again the
company has introduced another huge level of digital disruption in the name of Amazon Go.
Amazon sells groceries too online along with other products. In 2017, it acquired Whole
Foods Market, which is an American grocery supermarket chain. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon,
had introduced a revolutionary concept of grocery shopping, launched under the name of
Amazon Go. This is a digital disruption event in the grocery supermarket industry. In the
Amazon Go store, people are able to shop the groceries without having to checkout through a
cashier or a self-checkout station. This is a huge technological revolution, which includes
computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning algorithms for automating the purchase
checkout and payment process of the retail transactions. This store concept takes the advantage
of the smartphones and geofencing technology as a fundamental basic for managing the auto-
purchases by the customers along with managing the inventory and supply chain management

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(Wingfield 2018). It requires the linking of the Amazon Go app with the Amazon.com account
of the users before they start purchasing from the store. They can also add others in the family in
their account so that their purchases are also linked with the main account. The only store of
Amazon Go was launched in Seattle, on January 22, 2018 (Day and Morley 2018). This report
aims to analyze the impact of this new revolutionary technology on the company by comparing
the work centered analyses of Amazon before and after the implementation of the event,
followed by the challenges faced and recommendations to overcome those.
Work Centered Analysis (WCA) prior to the disruption event
Work Centered Analysis (WCA) refers to the system of work involving 6 major
elements, namely, customers, products, business process, participants, information and
technology (Naikar 2016). Customers are the internal and external purchasers of the business
process. Products refer to the goods and services produced by the business. The business process
refers to the steps in the business. Participants are those who get involved in the business to make
it happen. Information refers to the knowledge that the business uses or creates for the customers
and technology is used by the business to conduct the required activities. The WCA framework
and the elements are shown below.

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Figure 1: Elements of Work Centered Analysis (WCA)
(Source: Naikar 2016)
The WCA matrix of Amazon.com is illustrated in Appendix A. This matrix shows the WCA
elements before implementing the disruption technology of Amazon Go into their usual business.
Problems identified
From the WCA of Amazon.com, working as a basic e-commerce website, it can be
inferred that there are some issues with it to work as a grocery seller also. People would always
want to buy the groceries, fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meat and fish, bakery items and dairy
products by seeing the condition personally and checking the manufacturing and expiry date,
unlike for shopping the consumer goods. This feature is not possible for e-commerce purchasing.
Knowing this, Amazon.com never provided these items through the online shopping. At the
same time, the e-commerce website does not have the option of credit during the check out

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process. The customers have to pay through one of the many payment options available while
placing the order. It may so happen that the customers do not have the enough money at the
particular time of purchasing or the card processing might be having any server problem and
thereby payment gets delayed or cancelled. It is assumed that this can create several problems,
such as, expiry of any special offer, goods going out of stock, end of sale. Had there been any
option for buying now and paying later, the customers would not have faced these issues. The
introduction of Amazon Go aims to offer more convenience during the grocery shopping.
Work Centered Analysis (WCA) post implementation of the disruption event
With the launch of Amazon Go, the company made entry into the supermarket grocery
business with a twist of purchasing without having a checkout process. This is a revolutionary
step in the business process of Amazon. Eliminating the traditional checkout process of a
purchase is the first and one of the most innovative technological inventions in the modern
world. When people prefer the convenience of shopping from home for almost all types of
goods, Amazon found the opportunity of expanding its business into the grocery department
through a twist, which makes grocery shopping all the more convenient to people. Not having to
stand in the queue for billing saves a lot of time for the people (Wong 2018). Amazon had
already given tough competition to the brick and mortar stores for various types of goods with its
e-commerce business, which was a digital disruption itself (Evans 2017). With the launch of
Amazon Go, it again introduced a new digital disruption to the supermarket grocery rivals. The
WCA after the implementation of the new technology has been illustrated in Appendix B.
However, the company has opened only one store in Seattle and has plans for opening more
stores across the world.

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Recommendations
Since the entire system of this digital disruption event is based on higher level of
technology, it is possible that the store faces some issues. To handle those issues, the company
can follow some of the following recommendations.
 The employees working at the back of the store should be vigilant enough to help the
customers with their shopping. Since, there will be no cashier; the customers would not
be able to ask any one if they face difficulties while searching for a particular product.
Hence, there should be adequate store assistants to guide the customers through the store
and purchasing process. The older generation has the chance of facing much problem
with the new system and hence, would require more help from the assistants.
 Some people might want to take the advantage of the absence of the checkout system and
would want to shoplift. Although, there are hundreds of cameras in the store, the
employees must keep a sharp eye on the CCTV monitor.
 The technology team should be up-to-date with the changes happening on the system.
Since, the system is entirely new, the company must ensure that it works smoothly and
does not crash.
 Amazon Go does not accept any type of food stamps or meal voucher. In the app, it
should create an option for accepting the food stamps or coupons for payment.
 There can be privacy concerns as there are hundreds of cameras everywhere in the store
capturing numerous photos of the customers. The company must ensure that it is not
using those photos for any other purpose.

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Implementation plan for the recommendation
 Amazon should employ more efficient employees and train them about how to assist the
customers with the new system.
 It should ensure the accuracy of the technology so that not shoplifting, even if accidental,
can happen.
 Option of accepting the food stamps for the grocery purchase should be incorporated as a
payment method.
 Amazon should declare that they are not using any customer image for any other
purposes.
Conclusions
Amazon has been a pioneer in the field of technology. It transformed the world of
shopping with launching the concept of online shopping. Apart from online shopping, Amazon
has entered into manufacturing and selling of its own branded products, prime membership and
its advantages, video streaming and all at a very low cost. The recent digital disruption
introduced by the company is in the market of supermarket grocery business. The concept of
grocery shopping without enduring queue and process of checkout is entirely new and has been
revolutionizing the grocery shopping. This concept has disrupted the usual business process of
the supermarket grocery stores, where people have to stand in long queues for check out. The
stores also have to employ many cashiers and user operated systems. However, the elimination
of checkout system is very new and can face many challenges in future, but it is definitely a
digital disruption that has the potential to change the way of traditional grocery selling business.

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References
Amazon.com, 2018. Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books,
DVDs & more. [online] Amazon.com. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/ [Accessed 17
Apr. 2018].
Carr, F., 2018. Amazon Is Now More Valuable Than Microsoft and Only 2 Other Companies Are
Worth More. [online] Fortune. Available at: http://fortune.com/2018/02/15/amazon-microsoft-
third-most-valuable-company/ [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].
Day, M. and Morley, K., 2018. Amazon's new store without checkouts doesn't quite Go to plan.
[online] Stuff. Available at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/100796913/amazon-go-
store-with-no-checkouts-opens-to-the-public-in-seattle [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].
Evans, M., 2017. 5 Ways Amazon Will Disrupt Commerce Before Amazon Go Comes To Your
Neighborhood. [online] Forbes.com. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelleevans1/2017/01/05/5-ways-amazon-will-disrupt-
commerce-before-amazon-go-comes-to-your-neighborhood/#1c3339c1358b [Accessed 17 Apr.
2018].
Gilbert, R.J., 2015. E-books: A tale of digital disruption. Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 29(3), pp.165-84.
McQuivey, J., 2013. Digital disruption: Unleashing the next wave of innovation.
Naikar, N., 2016. Work domain analysis: Concepts, guidelines, and cases. CRC Press.

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Wingfield, N., 2018. Inside Amazon Go, a Store of the Future. [online] Nytimes.com. Available
at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/21/technology/inside-amazon-go-a-store-of-the-
future.html [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].
Wong, R., 2018. Everything you need to know about shopping at Amazon Go. [online] Mashable.
Available at: https://mashable.com/2018/01/22/everything-you-need-to-know-amazon-go/
#dXxY81fwmmql [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].

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Customers
People who purchases different types of consumer
goods for personal consumption
Wholesalers, purchasing consumers for supplying to
smaller stores and businesses
Products
All types of consumer goods
Variety of prepared and dry food items, such as,
cereals, biscuits, chocolates
All sorts of electronics
Business process
Buyers logging into the website or mobile app of Amazon
Buyers select or search with the specific criteria for the product required
Look into the detailed information before placing order
Customer places the order
Amazon orders the product from the third party wholesaler
Wholesaler sends the product to amazon.com
Shipping department does the packaging and sends to the buyer.
Participants
People interested in
purchasing consumer
goods with
convenience
Shipping department
of Amazon.com
Inventory
management of
Amazon.com and the
wholesalers
Information
Orders for the products
Price and all other
relevant information
about the products
Information regarding
payment, return ,
exchange and refund
Technology
Personal computers,
laptops, tablets,
smartphones
Internet access
Mobile apps
Third party accessibility
for payment and
connecting with the
suppliers
Appendix A

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Customers
People who purchases grocery for personal consumption
Wholesalers, purchasing grocery for supplying to the restaurants and smaller grocery stores
Products
All types of food items, such as, prepared foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meal kits and liquor
Business process
Buyers download, install and link the Amazon Go app with their main Amazon.com account
They Log into the website or mobile app of Amazon prior to shopping groceries
Buyers personally go through the shelves for the required grocery and food item
Buyers pick up the required food item and grocery while logged into the mobile app all the time
After picking up, the buyers go out and auto-purchase is complete
Participants
e interested in purchasing grocery and fresh food by looking the shelves personally
Store management of Amazon Go
Wholesalers and suppliers of groceries
Information
Price of the groceries, fresh foods, packaged food, bakeries, and liquor
Information regarding payment, return , exchange and refund
Technology
Tablets and smartphones
Internet access through mobile data
Mobile apps
Third party accessibility for payment
Table 1: WCA of Amazon prior implementation of the disruption event
Appendix B

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Table 2: WCA of Amazon post implementation of the disruption event