Analysis of Amazon's Supply Chain Management

The assignment provided is a case study on Amazon's supply chain management. It discusses the company's history, its e-reader product line, and its acquisition of Souq.com. The analysis examines Amazon's multi-tier inventory level, its relationship with suppliers and customers, and recommends improvements to increase efficiency in delivery processes.

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Supply Chain Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
The Amazon Kindle comes under the series of e-reader which is designed by Amazon
and marketed by the same. The company Amazon is an American electronic commerce and
cloud computing company. It was founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994. It is head quartered at
Seattle, Washington, U.S. it is a global operating company and the largest internet retailer across
the world. The product bought is an Amazon Kindle E-reader - White, 6 Inch Glare-Free touch
screen displays 4GB with Wi-Fi (Uae.souq.com 2018). The kindle is designed by the Amazon
and was an idea of Jeff Bezos. It enables the user to read newspapers, magazines, e-books and
other digital media via wireless networking. The organization has major competitors as Wal-
Mart and eBay.
Not all products are shipped to Kuwait by Amazon. However Amazon had bought the
online retailer Souq.com which led to the entrance of Amazon in the Middle Eastern Market
(U.S.News 2018). The supply chain for either Amazon or Souq is easy and simple, as at first the
customer places order online after selecting the product from the website. Then for each
customer order placed, a unique code is given to the product that denotes the specific customer
whom the delivery is to be given. Then from the manufacturer the product is shipped to the
retailers and finally according to the unique codes the product are sent to the distributors of the
city or zonal region and lastly the product reaches the customer’s place of delivery.
The relationship between the suppliers and customers is of multi-tier inventory level
(Rahman and Casanovas 2017). These include the whole seller, partner, vendor/supplier, and
manufacturer and in some cases the third party supplier is also present in the whole process. The
inventory aggregation responds to the fluctuation in demand with lower level of safety stock.
The consideration of the tier 1 and tier 2 and tier 3 is combined to result into multi-tier inventory
level. Here, Amazon can be considered as vertically integrated as it has its own supply chain

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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
management. In the present case there is no such supply chain management owned by Amazon
but as it acquired the Souq, which in the manner considers the Souq’s supply chain as Amazon’s
distribution channel.
The recommendation to Amazon is that the company focuses towards providing their
delivery to the customers on the same day on which the order was placed (Turban et al. 2018). It
is suggested that the same motive of the company should be same at all place in the sense I did
not receive my product in 2-3 days as it took 7 days to reach me. In short it is recommended to
increase the efficiency of the delivery process.
The Amazon should integrate its overall process of supply chain to keep a track of the
movement and the coordination in channel to regulate information of new technology between
the suppliers and all its product.

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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Reference
Rahman, M.A. and Casanovas, L., 2017. Strategies to Predict E-Commerce Inventory and Order
Planning. International Journal of Technology Diffusion (IJTD), 8(4), pp.17-30.
Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2018. Order
Fulfillment Along the Supply Chain in e-Commerce. In Electronic Commerce 2018 (pp. 501-
534). Springer, Cham.
U.S.News. 2018. Amazon Buys Souq.com. [online] Available at:
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2017-03-28/souqcom-says-amazon-has-bought-
it-after-800m-counteroffer [Accessed 12 Mar. 2018].
Uae.souq.com. 2018. Amazon Kindle E-reader - White, 6 Inch Glare-Free Touchscreen Display
4GB Wi-Fi. [online] Available at: https://uae.souq.com/kw-en/amazon-kindle-e-reader-white-6-
inch-glare-free-touchscreen-display-4gb-wi-fi-11957810/i/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2018].