Marketing Strategies of Amazon Australia: An Analysis

The report analyses the marketing strategies of Amazon Australia since its launch in the Australian market. It evaluates the effectiveness of the strategies and provides recommendations for future growth. The report focuses on the Ansoff Matrix to derive strategies for growth and development. The competitive edge of Amazon Australia is their customer centric approach. They analyse the buying behaviour of their customers and aim to provide the products according to their purchasing behaviour. This has become a competitive edge for them since it is often hard for online retailers to understand the buying pattern of the customers due to huge customer base and the huge number of retailers to supply the same.

Running head: MARKETING
MARKETING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
MARKETING
Executive Summary
The aim of the report is to provide the knowledge, theory and practicals of the strategic
practices of Amazon Australia since it has penetrated the market of Australia. The marketing
strategies and the effectiveness of the strategies is evaluated in this report. The study takes
into account different marketing theories and strategies which helps them to grow and
develop in the market and also maintain their foothold in the competitive market with the
help of these strategies. In the competitive market it is of utmost importance to develop
strategies which will help the organisation to maintain their position in the market. Since,
Amazon Australia is a new addition to the online market of Australia, they have to cautious
about the development and the strategies that they adopt to reach their products to the
customers. This report will help to get a deeper understanding of the theories that would be
used in this business.

2
MARKETING
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Background of the company..................................................................................................3
3. Marketing Analysis................................................................................................................4
a. The nature of Amazon Australia’s marketing strategy or strategies since it began...........4
b. Strategic marketing options for Amazon Australia moving forward.................................6
4. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................8
5. References..............................................................................................................................9
6. Appendix..............................................................................................................................11

3
MARKETING
1. Introduction
Amazon is an online retail website which operates all over the world. This report
concentrates on the background of Amazon along with the way that it had entered Australia.
It also hold certain strategies that is used by Amazon Australia after it had entered the
country. These strategies help the business to better engage with the customers. Moreover,
the study focuses on strategies which could be used by the business for their growth and
development and help it to move forward in the future. The strategies used for their growth
will also help in deriving certain recommendations which, if followed by the company would
help it to maintain a stable growth in its operations.
2. Background of the company
Amazon is one of the largest internet sellers in the world. It was found on July 5, 1994
by Jeff Bezos in Seattle, Washington. The website was initially established as an online
bookstore and later diversified to selling videos, mp3, video games, audiobooks, electronic
and others. Amazon has their retail websites in several countries like Australia, Germany,
Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, India, Brazil and many
others. Amazon officially launched in Australia in the year 20017, on December 5th. Prior to
this Australia was only able to access certain Amazon products such as Kindle books,
applications, audiobooks and a few games (Amazon.com.au 2018). After the official launch
the citizens of Australia was able to access all products that were sold by Amazon. There are
over 500 retailers who sell their products through the website of Amazon Australia and with
time the numbers are expected to rise to a great deal.

4
MARKETING
3. Marketing Analysis
a. The nature of Amazon Australia’s marketing strategy or strategies since it began
Australia is current one of the highest currently to be engaged in e-commerce. The
citizens of Australia spend a lot of their income on online products rather than going on
traditional shopping. These factors make Australia favourite of online retailers to expand
their business and connect with the population of Australia. Amazon has expanded their
business in Australia with the same aim to target the huge population of Australia who are
aligned towards online shopping (Armstrong et al. 2014). The advantage of Amazon was that
since it is a global brand, it was famous in Australia even before it launched. This is why they
did not have to market or advertise their website to attract the crowd and the people
automatically got associated with the website. However, Amazon provided various benefits
to the Australian consumers which attracted them more to the products of the website (Grant
2016). The benefits provided are as follows. Firstly, Amazon offered their products at a much
lower price than the other ecommerce and retail stores at the beginning of their launch. They
also provided different discount offers and packages to the customers. Secondly, Amazon
offers the business owners of Australia to sell their products. This gave the small businesses
the opportunity to connect with a huge base of customers and to showcase their products to
them. This would help them to grow and expand their business faster than they were able to
as a retail store. Thirdly, they offered shopping benefits to the customers such as free
shipping in very less time than the other online retail websites (Ryan 2016). The feature of
Amazon Prime has not been started in Australia yet, however depending on the kind of
product, the delivery can be made in one or two days. Lastly, Amazon provided a wide range
of products from various sellers and sold their own branded products along with several
products from both local and international producers.

5
MARKETING
The marketing strategy of Amazon Australia is firstly based on six aspects which are
to produce a wide range of products to their customers, to understand the need of the
customers, to make optimum utilization of their resources, to use the existing systems of
communication, to grow from being small or a very large online presence and to maintain a
customer centric interface (Wu et al. 2013, p. 256-293). Based on these six aspects, Amazon
Australia forms different strategies for marketing their products and their brand name in the
market of Australia. The first strategy to connect with the market is segmentation, targeting
and position of the products in the market (Khan 2013, p. 56-65). Amazon Australia takes
the help of psychographic and demographic features to segment their market. This means that
they focus on the age, gender, annual income, and the purchasing pattern of the customers.
They segment the customers based on their interests of products and the buying capacity. The
targeting of the customers is done on the basis of the segmentation. Among the segmented
population, the people who are mostly experienced with using basic technology and belong to
the middle and the upper class are targeted. Those people are also targeted who have less
time to physically shop from retail stores. The Amazon Australia positions its products in
such a way so that every consumer can get their products delivered even in remote areas.
Another marketing strategy is to differentiate itself from the other online retailers and
to establish their competitive advantage in the market (Herhausen et al. 2015, p. 309-325).
The competitive edge of Amazon Australia is their customer centric approach. They analyse
the buying behaviour of their customers and aim to provide the products according to their
purchasing behaviour. This has become a competitive edge for them since it is often hard for
online retailers ot understand the buying pattern of the customers due to huge customer base
and the huge number of retailers to supply the same. More than 505 of Amazon Australia
customers are repeat customers and this makes them the longest running online retail website
in the whole world. In the short time, that Amazon has established itself in Australia it has

6
MARKETING
already been able to attract the consumer towards them and associate them with the easiness
of online shopping.
Amazon Australia offers free shipping for the products over a certain amount and
even allows facilities such as paying cash on delivery of the products or even paying it
online. In Australia they have even started the feature of paying one day prior to the delivery
so that the customers can order the product hassle free even if they cannot pay at the time.
The delivery is made at the preferred time that is given by the customer according to the
place of delivery being office or home (Klaus 2013, p. 443-457). These features have created
quite an impact on the customers of Australia and have led them to believe that Amazon
serves the customers in the best possible way and keeps their comfort in mind while
delivering their products.
b. Strategic marketing options for Amazon Australia moving forward
It is important for every business to grow and expand to gain more profits. For this to
happen a business or marketing strategy is used which will help the company to develop their
performance and gain competitive edge over the other businesses. Therefore, growth is a very
important factor for the companies to survive in the competitive market (Alsos, Carter and
Ljunggren 2014, p. 97-122). There are different strategies for growth and some are more
effective than the other. One of the most effective strategies for growth is the Ansoff Matrix.
The Ansoff Matrix was established in the year 1965 by Igor Ansoff and this strategy is used
to develop the strategic options for growth of businesses (Hussain et al. 2013, p. 196-206).
The Ansoff matrix has four quadrants which describes four stages of growth (Appendix 1).
The first is the market penetration. This growth strategy focuses on the existing products
which are present in the business (Van Weele and Van Raaij 2014, p. 56-72). This means that
the business wants to expand the current status of their business and wants to grow with what
they are currently working. This stage makes the business realise the importance of their

7
MARKETING
current products and the reasons because of which they have been able to penetrate the
market. During the market penetration stage the business would have to be aware that they
are able to grab the attention of the customers with the products that they have and are able to
offer something better than the existing businesses in the market.
The second stage is the market development. This stage aims to develop the market
for the existing products. In this scenario the business wants to find new markets where they
could showcase their existing products and attract a new group of customers (Bocken, Fil and
Prabhu 2016, p. 295-308). They want to identify markets who have similar needs like the
existing customers of the business. The business could identify a new group of customers
who would be able to use the products in a different way than the others. This is also a kind
of market development, where the product is developed by multiple usage. The third stage of
this matrix is product development which means to develop certain new products for the
existing market. In this scenario, the market aims to develop a variety of new products which
would be used by the existing customers (Gitau 2013). This is done to increase the
profitability and the position in the market. The introduction of new products into the market
would be able to grab more attention from the customers since it is in the nature of human
beings to be attracted towards anything that is new in the market. The last stage of the matrix
is diversification which means to develop new products for new markets. This level is one of
great risk where the business aims to expand their operations and develop new products for a
completely new market where they have not operated before (Craciun and Barbu 2014, p.
69). This is a risk as the business would have to start from the beginning by analysing the
market and the customers in order to succeed in the market. For Amazon Australia the market
penetration has occurred when Amazon entered the country with its range of existing
products. The market development for Amazon Australia would be to understand the needs of
the consumers and showcase their existing products which are liked by the consumers and

8
MARKETING
segment the customers according to their needs so that they are able to serve the consumers
better. Amazon Australia could further grow in the third stage of the Ansoff Matrix which is
product development (Abubakar et al. 2015). They could introduce new features for their
existing customers which would be liked by them. For example, Amazon Prime could be
introduced in Australia which would make one and two day deliveries in case of urgent
requirement. Moreover, Amazon could collaborate with certain well-known brands which are
prevalent in Australia and are a favourite of the population so that they could increase their
customer base. The last stage would be relatively new for Amazon Australia since it is itself a
new development in the market of Australia. However, it could aim to grow more in the
future by targeting and developing in those areas of the country where it has still not been
able to reach (Eyvrigh 2016, p. 77). These recommendations would help the business to grow
into a strong online retailer in the country of Australia where online shopping it at great
heights among the population who have extensive buying capacity.
4. Conclusion
Hence it can be concluded that Amazon Australia have been able to successfully place
itself in the Australian market and establish their dominance over other online retail websites
by grabbing the attention of the buyers and with their customer centric approach. They have
used different marketing strategies such as segmentation, targeting and positioning of their
products and developing their competitive edge to grow in the market. The main competitive
edge of Amazon is their customer centric approach which differentiates it from other online
websites since they analyse the buying behaviour of their customers to give them the best
experience. However, even though Amazon have been able to successfully penetrate in
Australia it would need strategies to develop and grow in the country so that they are able to
maintain their foothold in e-commerce. For this the Ansoff matrix have been used to derive

9
MARKETING
strategies ad recommendations which would help in the growth of the business and make it a
favourite among the customers.

10
MARKETING
5. References
Abubakar, S.G., Dogoji, B.A., Zahra’u Bala, M.A.L.A.M.I., Shehu, S.Z. And Abba, M.T.,
2015. Achieving A Sustainable Competitive Advantage And Market Growth Through
Marketing Strategy: A Case Example Of A Small Family Coffee Shop. International Journal
of Advanced Academic Research, 1(3).
Alsos, G.A., Carter, S. and Ljunggren, E., 2014. Kinship and business: how entrepreneurial
households facilitate business growth. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 26(1-2),
pp.97-122.
Amazon.com.au, 2018. Global Store About Us Page @ Amazon.com.au. [online]
Amazon.com.au. Available at: https://www.amazon.com.au/b?ie=UTF8&node=5719055051
[Accessed 21 Sep. 2018].
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson
Australia.
Bocken, N.M., Fil, A. and Prabhu, J., 2016. Scaling up social businesses in developing
markets. Journal of cleaner production, 139, pp.295-308.
Craciun, L. and Barbu, C.M., 2014. The Brand as Strategic Asset of the
Organization. Revista de Management Comparat International, 15(1), p.69.
Eyvrigh, G.M., 2016. A review of marketing strategies. Kuwait Chapter of the Arabian
Journal of Business and Management Review, 6(1), p.77.
Gitau, B.N., 2013. Strategies adopted by Kenyan insurance companies to alleviate low
insurance penetration. Unpublished MBA project, University of Nairobi.

11
MARKETING
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley &
Sons.
Herhausen, D., Binder, J., Schoegel, M. and Herrmann, A., 2015. Integrating bricks with
clicks: retailer-level and channel-level outcomes of online–offline channel
integration. Journal of retailing, 91(2), pp.309-325.
Hussain, S., Khattak, J., Rizwan, A. and Latif, M.A., 2013. ANSOFF matrix, environment,
and growth-an interactive triangle. Management and Administrative Sciences Review, 2(2),
pp.196-206.
Khan, T., 2013. STP strategy for New Product Launch-a Work in Progress. International
Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3), pp.56-65.
Klaus, P., 2013. The case of Amazon. com: towards a conceptual framework of online
customer service experience (OCSE) using the emerging consensus technique
(ECT). Journal of Services Marketing, 27(6), pp.443-457.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the
digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Van Weele, A.J. and Van Raaij, E.M., 2014. The future of purchasing and supply
management research: About relevance and rigor. Journal of Supply Chain
Management, 50(1), pp.56-72.
Wu, Z., Liu, X., Ni, Z., Yuan, D. and Yang, Y., 2013. A market-oriented hierarchical
scheduling strategy in cloud workflow systems. The Journal of Supercomputing, 63(1),
pp.256-293.

12
MARKETING
6. Appendix
1. Ansoff Matrix