Amazon: Achieving Competitive Advantage in E-commerce

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Introduction:
The modern business world is seen to be notably competitive with the rise of the hew
organizations. With a precise focus on the impact of the globalization, it is visible that a large
number of organizations are entering the industry with an attempt to catch the rapid growth of
their relevant industries (Shengelia and Kh 2013). The consumer electronics, digital
distribution or the e-commerce are observed to be subjected to a significant amount of
competition in the modern business context (Gangeshwer 2013). With the increasing new
entries into the business world, the existing organizations are observed to face the impact of
the enhanced level of competition. As a result, majority of the organizations operating in
those industries are seen to restructure their strategies with a precise focus on the effective
management of the competition. The application of the strategies such as the low pricing of
the products and the services, the efficient management of the supply chain or the
improvement of the quality becomes essential for the organizations. This helps the
organizations in gaining a significant competitive advantage over the competitor
organizations in conducting their business with a precise focus on the sustainable growth.
The paper is focused in the elaboration of one such organization which is able to
achieve significant amount of competitive advantage over the competitor organizations in the
form of Amazon. The paper provides a brief overview of the operations of the mentioned
organization and along with that, it identifies some of the crucial competitive advantages that
the chosen is able to gain over the years. The paper also provides a PESTEL analysis of the
organizations and the global environment if the company.
Overview of the Organization:
Amazon is considered to be one of the renowned names of the e-commerce and the
consumer electronics industry. The chosen organization was established in the year 1994 by

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Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com. 2019). The company is currently headquartered in Seattle,
Washington. The excellence of the senior level management of the organization which
includes the Chairman, President and the Chief Executive Officer of the organization, Jeff
Bezos and the Chief Technology Officer, Werner Vogels is considered to be significant in
spreading the business across the globe (Amazon.com. 2019). Apart from this, service
excellence of 647500 number of employees in the year 2018 played a crucial role in the
growth of the organization and that is pretty evident with the statistics of the revenue and the
operating income of the mentioned organization. The mentioned organization was able to
increase their revenue to 232.887 billion US dollars in the year 2018 and in the same year, the
selected organization increased their operating income to 12.421 billion US dollars
(Amazon.com. 2019). In addition to this, the visionary leadership of the management was
significant for the organization in the achieving an increased product chain which helps the
organization to target the customers in a more efficient manner. The efficient management of
the distribution chain of the organization along with the cost structure, the synergy between
the key services of the selected organization along with the customer centric business
approach were able to produce significant amount of competitive advantage to the mentioned
organization in their business conduction (Haucap and Heimeshoff 2014).
Practice 1:
One of the crucial reason of the significant success of the mentioned organization was
their customer centric approach of business conduction. The chosen is able to involve the
customers in an efficient manner to the business operations. The significant increment in the
involvement of the customers to the business operations of the mentioned organization has
enabled the chosen organization to evaluate the view and the opinions of the customer and
that helped the organization to design the products in accordance to the requirement or the
preferences of the customers.

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The customer centric business approach of the selected organization is observed to be
based on three different aspects which are the customer focus, customer empowerment and
the customer loyalty. During an interview of Jeff Bezos in the year 2013, the Chief Executive
Officer of the organization was seen to comment that the main idea of the business operations
of the selected organization is the customer centricity (Hassan, Sistani and Raju 2014). Along
with this, the CEO of Amazon claimed that each and every business activities of the selected
organization are designed in such a manner where the customers are at the centre of
everything. The organization is able to implement the customer centric business approach
through providing the fast and hassle free ordering and delivery (Kryvinska et al. 2014). In
addition to this, the company is able to improve the customer experience through
personalizing the shopping where the company utilises their data to help the customers in real
time shopping and in the selection of the products with a precise focus on the buying history
of the customers (Hassan, Sistani and Raju 2014). Apart from this, the organization provides
the best deal for the customers in accordance to their cost preferences.
Adding to this, the cost empowerment is one of the important aspect of the business
operations of the mentioned organization. The CEO of the organization claimed that the
business operations of Amazon is determined to enable the customers in making better
purchase decisions. Amazon is one of the few organizations that introduced the online
customer review policy in an efficient manner and that enabled the customers of the
organization to achieve a wider and in depth knowledge regarding the products that they
might buy in future. The concerns of the internet shoppers of purchasing in dark was
significantly addressed through the production of the available knowledge regarding the
products through the customer reviews and that helped in improving the purchase decisions
of the customers (Kryvinska et al. 2014). In addition to this, the process is seen to help the
manufacturers in a notable manner as the customer reviews enable the manufacturers to have