Amazon's Sustainable Innovation, Challenges, and New Initiatives

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon's marketing strategies, focusing on its concentric diversification approach and its emphasis on technological infrastructure. It examines Amazon's SEO tactics, user-friendly website design, customer-centric marketing, and advertising strategies. The report then delves into Amazon's current business innovations, including its streaming music service, investment in voice-control apps, and the introduction of the FireTV Stick 4K. It also highlights challenges such as cultural barriers in new markets, thin diversification strategies, and concerns regarding user data confidentiality. Finally, the report suggests potential new initiatives, such as expanding into food and beverage cafeterias and strategic acquisitions, to enhance Amazon's market position and global growth.

Running Head: SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Name

1
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
Executive Summary:
Amazon is recognized as a steady leading ecommerce industry which has successfully branched
and diversified its line of business to ensure potential market growth and help to better address
the needs of its customers. Thus in this report a basic market strategy analysis of Amazon.com
would be projected along with the major innovation it has incorporated in its operation. It will
also emphasize on the potential challenges that the firm is facing along with what new initiatives
can be employed by the firm to stretch its market exposure.

2
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Amazon’s Marketing Strategy:....................................................................................................3
Current Business Innovation:......................................................................................................5
Current Business Challenges:......................................................................................................7
New ideas to be implemented:.........................................................................................................7
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References:......................................................................................................................................9

3
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
Introduction:
Amazon.com inaugurated its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in the year 1995, July
by an American named Jeff Bezos. Initially started as a book selling company, now it offers host
of other product including garments, toiletries and groceries (Amazon.com, 2019) Significantly it
emerged as world’s largest online retailer. Surviving and remaining relevant on the digital
marketing platform is not easy specially when there is so much competition around. Thus
Amazon always keeps on experimenting and innovating with its market strategy to remain
significant among its competitors
Discussion:
Amazon’s current corporate strategy can be noted as concentric diversification (Purce,
2014) This strategy aims to integrate technological capabilities with cost leadership strategy
which particularly aims at offering maximum value to its customer’s at the most optimum
price .this strategy has proved successful in all these years which indeed has made it to be the
one stop destination for all online shopping freaks.
Amazon’s Marketing Strategy:
Amazon’s marketing strategy s drive by the aspects of competitive advantage where the
prime focus is extended on sharpening its technological infrastructure. This is ensured by various
steps likes:

4
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
 Strengthening Amazon’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which in turn would
help the company increase its virtual visibility. Appearing on the top of consumers’
search results gives greater possibility on the part of the website to be used by its
potential customers. This is done through proper indexing of keywords or relevant search
terms which helps the brad increase its visibility. Another significant way of
strengthening the SEO of the company is by using plenty of images of very high
resolution as these not only attracts the consumers but also increases the click rate and
conversion rate (Gudivada, Rao. and Paris, 2015). Positive product review and feedback
also plays very strong role is boosting the visibility of the product. Therefore the
company pays prime importance in converting all negative review to positive.
 User friendly Website Structure :
Amazon’s marketing strategy pays significant attention towards making their
website sufficiently informative with required filters of search results depending on
different categories like color, size, gender or the price range to make its product more
targeted and its marketing strategy to be more niche and better penetrated (Peters and
Folger, 2013). Furthermore the company tracks the search history on consumers and then
sends recommendation to these consumers based on their purchase behaviors. Amazon
has developed its android app for increasing user ease and for being compatible to be
navigated on mobile phone platforms.
 Strong customer centric marketing strategies:
Amazon recognizes and values its customers as they serve to be the bread and butter to
their business thus exclusive discount deals and occasion specific offers as well as free

5
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
shipping deals with extremely good delivery service to win customers heart not just for
one single purchase but to bring him back again and again.
 Strong Advertising Strategy:
One of the core strength on Amazon.com is its target market oriented advertising strategy
which makes use of varied advertising formats like sponsored Products, Headline Search
Ads, and Product Display Ads (Schumann, Wangenheim, and Groene, 2014).
Amazon has its own display advertising network from Amazon as well as its own
media group which assists the company in planning and implementing effective
advertising activities across multiple media vehicles.
Thus the whole marketing strategy of Amazon is built around the concept of customer
convenience, innovation and uplifting lifestyle of individuals.
 Strong External Marketing strategy:
Amazon greatly values its brand image and how well it is accepted by its internal as well
as external publics. Thus external marketing tools which are employed by the firm either
through pay per click advertising or through regular email or newsletters and social
media marketing
Current Business Innovation:
Amazon’s whole operation is on digital platform which is an extremely dynamic space.
Therefore the company over these 22 years has moved from one sector to anther and has even
largely altered its existing structure. The very latest innovation in its business operation its
Amazon’s streaming music service (Keeley, et al. 2014). Unlike Apple, Google, and Microsoft,
Amazon does not follow a rigidly designed ecosystem of interlocking apps and services. Instead

6
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
Jeff Bezos concentrates on creating singe best entertainment platforms which best cater to th
needs of its customers. This lead the company to inaugurate Amazon Prime Video streaming
service across 200 countries. This streaming video offered interesting game networks. Second
innovative initiative by Amazon was its investment with million new startups to build original
voice-control apps for the artificial intelligence assistant Alexa. The warehouse and logistics
capability that Amazon has gradually built to sort, pack and ship these goods are strategically
maintained and operated regularly.
Amazon is one such enterprise which remains on the top of Fast Company’s Most
Innovative Companies list (Kumar, Mudambi and Gray, 2013), all because of its continuous
spirit to innovate and grow. Amazon in 208 October came up with another new concept which
was FireTV Stick 4K for its Indian customers. This FireTV Stick along with a smart TV remote
which is enabled with artificial voice support that is Alexa. To put it simply, the newly launched
FireTV Stick offers the same flawless video and audio quality that the original FireTV Stick
offered (video output with 720p(HD) and 1080p(Full HD) resolution) but instead of featuring an
ordinary voice remote, the newly launched device brings Alexa to one’s smart TV (Morrison, et
al. 2017). What's more, you don't need multiple remotes to control your TV and the FireTV Stick
sparately as the Alexa remote can also be used to control your TV. This means that now one can
ask Alexa on their TV to order or book a cab, play a movie from for them on their Amazon
Prime Account or enjoy a show from one of the connecting apps, all without lifting even a
finger. Amazon Go is another innovative concept which is a chain of convenience stores in the
United States operated by the online retailer Amazon.

7
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
Current Business Challenges:
One of the core problems that this global conglomerate is facing is in spreading its retail business
to new prospect countries because of its way too American internal culture. Amazon generally
follows comparatively rigid to make adjustments in their business and branding model therefore
they are often misinterpreted as foreigners. It is often observed that Amazon does not often
possess a very aggressive attitude against its rivals which often makes the firm lose some
market share. Moreover the diversification strategy of Amazon in all these years is noted to be”
too thin” coupled with excessive free shipping offers to its customers is severely affecting the
firms revenue margins . Extremely strict scrutiny by the new government has brought
certain core challenges like The EU and other countries like France have stepped up their
regulation and taxation efforts (Thuronyi, et al. 2016) of major tech companies, including
Amazon. Another significant challenge that has been identified by the market analyst is it’s near
zero margin business models which has quite negatively impacted its high volumes and huge
revenues and has turned out to be a failure for generating company’s profit. Another significant
issue is regarding user data confidentiality which seems to be threatened due to identity theft
and hacking Therefore, Amazon has to move quickly to allay consumer concerns over its site
and ensure that online privacy and security are guaranteed.
New ideas to be implemented:
Amazon has already come up with its retail as well as grocery stores therefore another
new venture where the company can initiate is in the gastronomical world by entering into food
and beverage cafeterias as the demand for food can never go low. These cafeterias can have

8
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
multiple entrainment through Amazon Prime services or through amazon Fire Stick Tv where
interactive games can be played by the customers along with enjoying their meals. Strengthening
a brands market position requires the brand to stretch its potentials and experiment along
different lines of market. Moreover another significant way to win market share is to help
through more acquisition and merges. Amazon can partner with varied food festivals and food
carnivals to get exposure in the gastronomical world.
Conclusion:
Amazon’s popularity is undoubtedly quit widespread around the globe. With over 310 million
active users and 100 million subscribers worldwide (Schluter, Kim and Hodgins, 2018) Amazon
is significantly make it bigger and better. It is often referred to as the online equivalent of Wal-
Mart because of its reach and global footprint as well as its aggressive pricing strategies.
Amazon can leverage on several opportunities in the emerging markets and can ensure that its
global supply chain of networked warehouses deliver substantial value for itself and its
stakeholders. Therefore, in this report the basic core strengths of Amazon which is incorporated
in its marketing strategy is analyzed in details along with various new initiatives that has been
incorporated by the firm followed by the core challenges that firm is facing. It also deals with
initiating new business initiatives to help the company grow in its market share.

9
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
References:
Amazon.com. (2019). Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers,
Books, DVDs & more. [online] Available at: https://www.amazon.com/ [Accessed 11 Aug.
2019].
Peters, A. and Folger, C., 2013. A website entitled “The fine structure of the aging brain”.
Journal of Comparative Neurology, 521(6), pp.1203-1206.
Keeley, L., Walters, H., Pikkel, R. and Quinn, B., 2013. Ten types of innovation: The discipline
of building breakthroughs. John Wiley & Sons.
Kumar, V., Mudambi, R. and Gray, S., 2013. Internationalization, innovation and institutions:
The 3 I's underpinning the competitiveness of emerging market firms. Journal of International
Management, 19(3), pp.203-206.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.
Schumann, J.H., von Wangenheim, F. and Groene, N., 2014. Targeted online advertising: Using
reciprocity appeals to increase acceptance among users of free web services. Journal of
Marketing, 78(1), pp.59-75.
Gudivada, V.N., Rao, D. and Paris, J., 2015. Understanding search-engine optimization.
Computer, 48(10), pp.43-52.

10
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
Thuronyi, V. and Brooks, K., 2016. Comparative tax law. Kluwer Law International BV.
Morrison, L., Read, H., Xynos, K. and Sutherland, I., 2017, January. Forensic Evaluation of an
Amazon Fire TV Stick. In IFIP International Conference on Digital Forensics (pp. 63-79).
Springer, Cham.
Schluter, M.G., Kim, H.S. and Hodgins, D.C., 2018. Obtaining quality data using behavioral
measures of impulsivity in gambling research with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Journal of
behavioral addictions, 7(4), pp.1122-1131.