E-commerce Industry: Case Study of Amazon

This document provides an overview of the e-commerce industry and presents a case study of Amazon. It discusses the operational structure, functional units, and data management technologies used by Amazon. The document also explores the differences between operational, tactical, and strategic data, and their link to the hierarchy of business units. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding the e-commerce industry and the strategies employed by Amazon.

Ecommerce Amazon

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Question 1........................................................................................................................................1
Selection of an industry along with rationale.........................................................................1
Selection of One real world organisation together with rationale..........................................2
Brief Description of the chosen company..............................................................................2
Question 2........................................................................................................................................2
Organisational Structure of Amazon......................................................................................2
Functional business units of company ..................................................................................2
Question 3........................................................................................................................................4
Differences between tactical, strategic and operational data..................................................4
Link of Operational, Tactical and Strategic Levels to hierarchy of business units................4
Question 4........................................................................................................................................6
Operational database and CRM technologies.........................................................................6
Data mining, data analytics and data warehousing................................................................6
Cloud based and out-sourced data management services and platforms...............................7
Mobile and web based access to platforms............................................................................7
Question 5........................................................................................................................................7
PELS considerations for Amazon..........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
E-commerce can be referred to as the platform whereby the trading business operations
are carried out by way of the usage of internet. It includes commercial transactions
encompassing exchange of data. In other words, it can be said that e-commerce is the simple
process of purchase and sale of products as well as services via the utilisation of data and is
commonly linked to online shopping. E-commerce is a sector that encompasses a number of
forms of businesses ranging from consumer based retail sites to business exchange trading goods
and services between corporations.
The present project is based upon the case study of Amazon which is one of the most
renowned and well reputed e-commerce companies, having its headquarters situated in Seattle,
Washington, USA. The report consists of products and services offered by entity. Also, it
includes the operational structure and functional units of the company. Further, it includes
information about operational, tactical and strategic data. In addition to this, Professional, Ethical
and Legal considerations that need to be taken into consideration by a company are also included
in the report.
Question 1
Selection of an industry along with rationale
E-commerce industry has been selected looking upon the massive extent of popularity
that this sector has gained over the course of time. The sector further interests me because I seek
to gain entry into this market. The choice of career within this industry is based on the constantly
enhancing scope and size of this market which is providing opportunities to companies operating
within its confines to effectively conduct its business operations. E-commerce has always been in
a search for innovative, unique and dynamic individuals having the capability to exploit their
skill set for making an organisation reach to the top. It is an interesting and appealing market to
me as it encompasses the stories and history of a number of entities which started at a very small
scale but have now become top notch companies. A few of them have even got the tag of “Big
Four Tech Companies”. This illustrates the scale of operations as well as the opportunities that
are provided to individuals working within e-commerce. Employees can easily apply their
innovative and creative thinking skills to gain entry into this field and thereby get career
progression together with the growth as well as development of an e-commerce company.
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Selection of One real world organisation together with rationale
Amazon has been selected as the company in e-commerce sector. The reason behind this
selection is the current market positioning of this entity. It is presently one of the market leading
international retail organisations having its presence on List of Fortune 500 Companies and
stands at Rank 12th. The net sales figures of this entity stand at 137 billion USD which illustrates
the size and scale of its operations. During the last 4-5 years, Amazon has almost doubled its
sales figures. It has become a visionary company within online retail market and serves as a
lucrative place for individuals to seek placement in.
Brief Description of the chosen company
Amazon is one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies across the global periphery.
It offers a wide range of products via online channel. The product categories include Automotive
& Powersports, Baby Products, Beauty, Books, camera, cell phones & accessories, consumer
electronics, grocery, health & personal care, home ware, software, music appliances, office
items, apparel, footwear and many more. This entity put due emphasis upon e-commerce, AI,
cloud computing, digital streaming etc. This is one of the Big 4 tech organisations sharing the tag
with Google, Facebook and Apple Inc. Recently, this renowned e-commerce company has
ranked first in the list of “LinkedIn Top Companies in United Kingdom”.
Question 2
Organisational Structure of Amazon
Amazon undertakes the use of a functional organisational structure. The key emphasis of
this structure is upon business functions which serve as the base for execution of interaction and
flow of data within the confines of company. Owing to the application of this structure,
Amazon is at a market leading position within e-commerce sector, ahead of a number of top
notch entities such as e-bay, ARGOS, TESCO, ASOS etc.
Functional business units of company
There are different types of functional area which are the significant part of business
growth and without this department it is impossible for organisation to operate business
successfully. Different types of functional areas pertaining to a company such as human resource
accounting and Finance marketing and Advertising, Information Technology, customer service,
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legal department etc. Mentioned below are some of the functional areas belonging to Amazon
along with their roles:-
Human resource department:
This functional unit within organisation engaged in the function of recruiting people
within organisation as per according to the need of every business department area. Most
important responsibility of this unit is to ensure that individual they recruit possess right skills,
qualification and experience through which they can satisfy actual needs of organisation. Further
it has been identified that this unit also hold the responsibility towards providing benefits,
training and learning, compensation, maintaining relationship with employees as to ensure
success of Amazon. It has been recognised that success of the respective firm mainly relies on its
workforce. Thus, Human Resource Department is considered as one of the most essential asset of
this e-commerce organisation.
Marketing (Advertising) department:
In order to ensure sustainable growth of business organisation is required attract to
customers and gain their trust organisation. For this is required to have effective marketing and
Advertising strategy. Marketing and Advertising department play an essential role in order to
promote business along with communicating Amazon’s mission and vision to customers. This
department further have responsibilities to identify need of customers and attract them with
attractive advertising tactics as to fulfil their needs and demand. In addition to this, the
responsibilities that have been undertaken by marketing and advertising department include
defining and managing business brand, social media management and monitoring content,
creation for website and producing internal marketing communication with an aim to improve
efficiency of business functions within the confines of Amazon.
Information Technology department:
Nowadays most of the activities of the business are done with the use of information
system and computers. Thus, it is the sole responsibility of Information Technology department
to ensure that there is proper architecture, Software, Hardware and networking of computers in
business organisation. In addition with this, IT department also plays key role towards providing
different forms of support to employees working within the confines of Amazon so as to make
effective use of IT resources and generate positive results for company. In addition to this, it also
holds the responsibility of managing information security so as to protect IT infrastructure and
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corporate data of Amazon from cyber criminals, threats and viruses. Further, website
maintenance and data management are also most important roles which are performed by
information technology in order to drive this e-commerce business entity towards success.
All these departments perform significant role in Amazon, having effective
communication with each other as to ensure smooth and effective functioning of business. All
these business units have coordination and communication between them as they perform their
roles with a common objective which is to satisfy customers in best effective manner while
ensuring long term sustainability of business.
Question 3
Differences between tactical, strategic and operational data
Operational data can be defined as the data comprising of overview of information about
internal controls as well as operational activities of a business. This encompasses crucial data
regarding the employees of a corporation, its key rivals, creditors, vendors and clients. Overall, it
is the outline of the operations of a company.
Strategic data can be deciphered as the information pertaining to the sector within the
confines of which a firm functions. This is also referred to as industrial data. This data is used by
the strategic manager within an entity with an aim of devising industry standards which are
regarded to be the average business practices prevailing within the periphery of a corporate
sector.
Tactical data includes information about the course of action, ends or measures undertaken
by a company to gain a competitive edge in market place. In other words, it can be said that this
is composed of the tactics applied by a corporation in the hyper competitive and dynamic
business environment.
Link of Operational, Tactical and Strategic Levels to hierarchy of business units
In accordance with the three levels of company, namely, operational, strategic and
tactical, plans have to be devised by an enterprise. Within the confines of Amazon, all 3 levels
work in coordination as well as cooperation with each other with a view to derive effective
results for the e-commerce company as a whole. These 3 levels of company correlate to the
hierarchy of business units. Amazon follows functional organisational structure whereby the
roles and responsibilities are allotted to each department. The communication prevailing hereby
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takes the form of top down approach whereby the CEO, executives and other Board members
devise strategies and plans which are communicated to middle and lower management. Thus, an
interrelation is seen between these and the 3 organisational planning levels. Operational plans
strive to be important to accomplish tactical plans and thereby tactical plans result in
accomplishment of strategic plans. A description of all these levels is given as follows:-
Strategic Planning Level
To effectively comprehend the connection underlying between the various kinds of plans,
it’s suitable to begin from the top. Strategic planning is done taking into consideration the overall
company and begins with execution of organisational mission. Top level directors, for example,
CEOs or presidents, would structure and implement strategic planning for portrayal of ideal
organisational future and long term goals devised by the entity. This kind of planning done by
top level directors strive to act as the guiding stone for lower level planning. For instance: The
top management of Amazon must utilize strategic planning with a view to guarantee the
attainment of long term goals of company within the due course of time. In this regard, the top
managerial personnel devise design for attaining developments within the confines of Amazon,
improvement of efficiencies and gaining prosperity. This tends to inflate the ROI of Amazon,
thereby enhancing the level of customer services delivered by this entity over online channels as
well as returning effectively to the society as the organisation is accountable to it. Strategic
planning strives to require input from each business unit and level of management so that it can
be executed as per the expectations of company. Top level supervisors of Amazon devise the
corporate goals with a view to ensure that the middle as well as lower managerial personnel can
develop plans which are compatible with it.
Tactical Planning Level
The next level of planning comes down to tactical planning. This kind of plan strives to
provide aid to strategic plans by translating them into specific plans relevant to a distinct area of
company. This kind of planning is majorly related to middle as well as lower managerial levels
within the company to meet their part of strategic plan. For instance: Whereby the middle level
manager at Amazon gains comprehensibility of strategic plan for increment of organisational
productivity, they begin thinking about the possible tactical planning which can be done to
achieve the strategic objectives in an effective manner. Hereby, the tactical plan that can be
developed by Amazon can be the utilisation of a new technology that can ensure that the delivery
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of output by employees is in accordance with the requirements of company. The tactical
planning individual is required to devise an effective course of action which would need short
duration of time and is relatively narrower than strategic planning in terms of scope, however it
still assists the corporation in reaching its vision.
Operational Planning Level
Operational plans are placed at the base of the chain of command; they are the plans that
are made by frontline or low level supervisors. Every single operational planning arrangement is
centred around particular systems and procedures that happen inside the lowest level of a
company. Administrators must make arrangements for the normal undertakings of the office
utilizing a significant extent of detail. For instance: The frontline manager of Amazon would
devise operational plan to achieve the strategic and tactical objectives. In this regard, the key
focus can be upon timely scheduling of staff members, development of budget for each and
every activity, creation of an appealing marketing campaign that can gain the attention of a large
number of persons etc. Operational plans may be either for singe use or continuous. In this
regard, development of budget for each and every activity as well as creation of an appealing
marketing campaign is an example of single use operational plans for Amazon. On the other
hand, scheduling of staff members is an ongoing operational plan that provides assistance to the
respective e-commerce company in inflating organisational productivity.
Question 4
Operational database and CRM technologies
The database that generates as well as upgrades huge amount of data in relation to real time
environment is referred to as operational database. In this regard, Amazon can make use of a
number of technologies with a view to gain assistance for concurrency, recovery, speed and data
integrity. In addition to this, CRM techniques are applicable by Amazon to retain clients for long
term, maintain cloud based data and conduct predictive analysis.
Data mining, data analytics and data warehousing
The procedure which enables development and utilisation of data warehouse is referred to
as data warehousing. This can be applied by Amazon with a view to make report and conduct
data analysis. It will provide assistance to the enterprise in attainment of goals as well as
objectives of corporation in a timely manner. This procedure is associated with
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acknowledgement of large amount of data, inclusive of intersection of database management,
statistics and machine learning. As a result of this, Amazon recognised the purchase pattern of a
consumer and provide services in accordance with that. Lastly, data analytics is a science that is
applied to conduct analysis of raw data to make conclusion in relation to information. It signifies
the usage of data collected by Amazon for delivery of services in accordance with the required
standards.
Cloud based and out-sourced data management services and platforms
Cloud computing is termed as practices in which network of remote servers get hosted on
internet for processing , management and store data rather than to only demonstrate them on
personal computers. With the help of this Amazon can have formative access to services
anywhere at any moment of time. Further it has been identified that it effectively enable
company to offer their services to customer as per according to their need and demand. In
addition with this, by outsourcing services Amazon can effectively able to handle numerous form
of situations in best effective manner. For example, by undertaking cloud computing
organisation can effectively able to eliminate unnecessary cost related to security perspective,
storage, maintenance and storage.
Mobile and web based access to platforms
Amazon have their own website with the help of which they can effectively able to
deliver required information to consumers in relation to product and services detail. In addition
with this, mobile base services that are being render to customers also aid company to stisfy their
consumer base in best effective manner. As individuals can have conduct online activities in safe
and secure manner as Amazon effectively ensure that third person can not have acces to
important credentials.
Question 5
PELS considerations for Amazon
Information Systems in the modern era have transformed the manner in which business
organisations carry out their operations. They provide aid to an enterprise in delivering high
quality services to customers such that their needs and demands can be duly met within
stipulated course of time. In this regard, it can be analysed that lack of knowledge regarding
usage of Information technology results in occurrence of a number of issues for the staff
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members as well as organisation. Cyber crimes are increasing day by day. This owes to the
misuse of IT for unfair or illegal purposes. Ethics in MIS implies the legal and ethical use of IT
systems. For this, code of co0nduct and ethics must be defined by which all employees must
comply with. ICT policies refer to set of guidelines which illustrate the way in which
organisation makes use of information technology. Amazon needs to adhere to certain policies so
that they do not fall into legal troubles. The use of software must be licensed and rules to protect
passwords will be created. Further, training is provided within Amazon in relation to stipulation
of knowledge about ICT and MIS.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be said that various types of technologies as well
as techniques are taken into use by companies across the globe with a view to ensure business
efficiency. Further, it is ascertained that the organisations conduct operations in a manner that
they cater to the needs and demands of customers at market place. Various departments work in
coordination and cooperation with each other with a view to ensure smooth functioning of
enterprise and entailment of extensive satisfaction from clients. In case of e-commerce, the
customer touch points are different than those in case of brick and mortar style stores. By
leveraging the customer touchpoints as well as exploiting hi-tech techniques, the e-commerce
firms are able to ensure their long term sustainability as well as growth in international market
place.
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REFERENCES
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