Comprehensive Analysis of Amazon's Global Strategy and Sustainability

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon's global strategy and sustainability initiatives. It begins with an introduction to global strategies and Amazon's position as a leading online retailer. The main body of the report delves into external analysis using PESTEL and Porter's Five Forces, followed by an internal analysis employing SWOT and value chain analysis. It then examines Amazon's corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts, highlighting its support for local communities, investments in renewable energy, and initiatives related to gender equality and employee programs. The report concludes with specific recommendations for Amazon's strategic development and improvements in its CSR and sustainability practices, aiming to enhance its competitive advantage and address potential weaknesses within the e-commerce landscape.

Global strategy and
sustainability

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
External analysis..........................................................................................................................3
Internal analysis...........................................................................................................................4
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability.......................................................................6
Analysis of Amazon.com.............................................................................................................7
Recommendation for Amazon’s strategic development..............................................................9
Recommendation for corporate social responsibility and sustainability...................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals....................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Global strategies comprises of global, multinational and international strategies. The
strategies of these areas are designed in such a way that the organisation can attain its desired
goals and objectives for expanding internationally. In the global strategy, the organisation
considers the global world as a single market having one source of supply and few local
variations. It helps in achieving competitive advantage on a global basis. Amazon is one of the
leading brands as an online retailer (Lu, and et.al., 2019). Amazon.com is an e-commerce
company based in Seattle, Washington. It works in the industry of cloud computing and retailing,
focusing on digital streaming and artificial intelligence. The company has achieved global
footprint with their aggressive pricing strategies. Amazon can make use of many opportunities in
the new upcoming markets and works on the global supply chain delivering a substantial value
for the company and their stakeholders. There are some recommendations given for Amazon to
remodel their business strategies and attain more profits while improving.
MAIN BODY
External analysis
External analysis is defined to be those strategy that is required in order to understand the
circumstances that are prevailing outside the organisational environment and those that will
impact the entire operations of the organisation (Henriques and Brilha, 2017). There are a certain
theories in order to describe the external analysis of the organisation. They are as follows:
PESTEL
The PESTEL analysis is one of the theory that will contribute towards identifying the external
factors that are impacting the organisational policies.
Political: Amazon is operating in different countries with multinational technology. The political
factors will therefore be the prices that are exerted by government on to the organisation. Change
in government will impact the change of regulations whenever the organisation is operating and
getting habituated for the change will be troublesome.
Economic: the organisation is operating in UK and USA where there are five labour costs and
the organisation will have to particularly mention the changes of taxation policies.

Social: consumer behaviour plays a major role and this will change the entire policies of the
organisation. Many people will feel that the organisation is making people lazy by providing all
means.
Technological factors: the impact of technological factors in this regard can be the one that will
fall under the personal information which is stored and that will have to be safeguarded
(Rodrigues and Franco, 2019). There are many traders and they can misuse the data at any
instance if organisation doesn't safeguard information.
Environmental factors: your organisation aims to reach the mark of making 50% of its
shipments under neutral carbon emissions.
Legal factors: the legal implications like that were imposed on the organisation to stop the sale
with regard to non-essential products which is not safe.
Porter’s five forces
Threat of new entrants: the threat of new entrants is particularly law for the organisation
Amazon because it has already a reputed sale and an economy with a greater customer loyalty.
Bargaining power of buyers: the bargaining power of buyers with regard to organisation
Amazon is said to be relatively high. customers usually began in a huge amount because of the
competition that is existing in the industry.
Threat of substitutes: the threat of substitute with regard to Amazon is high because it has
switching cost in the industry. The low switching cost is said to be one of the biggest impact that
is being faced by the organisation where it can lose its retailers.
Bargaining power of suppliers: because of the reputation that Amazon has created there is no
chance for suppliers to go with high bargaining power. Therefore the bargaining power of
suppliers ranges from low to moderate with regard to Amazon.
Competitive rivalry: there is a great amount of competition with regard to other retailers that
are existing in the field that Amazon is operating. Therefore in this regard the competitive rivalry
will be moderate to high with regard to Amazon.
Internal analysis
The internal analysis of the organisation is to aim for the operations that are in due of the
organisation (Wells and et.al, 2020). Whatever is prevailing in the organisation right from
strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats and different availabilities will fall under the

internal analysis. There are different theories in order to determine the internal analysis of the
organisation Amazon. They are as follows:
SWOT analysis:
Strengths: Amazon is one of the reputed brand and its reputation is one of its biggest strength.
Weakness: the products of the organisation Amazon are easily table and the business model can
also be imitated by other margins. There are different challenges as well as product failures with
regard to the organisation which are standing as its weakness.
Opportunities: Amazon has greatest opportunities in evolving and expanding its operations into
developing markets. It can also expand into physical store and this is regarded to be one of the
biggest opportunity.
Threats: competition is one of the threat where there are different retailers that are coming up
and also where fake products and reviews. This will stand as one of the biggest threat with regard
to Amazon (Dahlmann and Bullock, 2020).
Value chain analysis
There are certain factors that will fall under the value chain analysis of Amazon. They are as
follows:
Inbound logistics: Amazon will not have long term contracts with any of its vendors. There are
different set of entities that are being fulfilled by Amazon and the inbound logistics of the
organisation are regarded to be one of the fulfilment of Amazon organisation. There is also a
facility of Amazon Prime where the customer can decide their delivery date. Amazon operations:
as it is already known that the operations of Amazon are being particularly categorised into three
types which are North America, International and Amazon Web Services. Through all these
categories the organisation is focused upon maintaining its sales and also increasing its revenue
here after year.
Outbound Logistics: the outbound logistics are said to be categorised into fulfilment centres
cost and outsource derangements digital delivery and physical stores. All these criteria are being
extensively maintained and the robotic technology is set to be incorporated. The physical stores
of Amazon contains reliable products and that with regard to digital delivery is also maintained
in a more efficient manner.
Marketing and sales: the organisation is said to be one of the most reputed one and the revenue
is said to be mounted at billion dollars respectively (Kiron and et.al, 2017). Amazon usually

spends more of its resources on marketing and other promotional activities and therefore it has
attained a good customer base.
Amazon service: there are two kinds of services which are Amazon Marketplace and Prime.
These two are said to be one of the most alerting factors for customers where they can get to sell
at their shipping standard and the products particularly. There is a focus at is given to customer
choices with regard to different categories that are being filtered in the portal as well as in offline
store.
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability
Amazon being world’s largest multinational company is leading in the retail, cloud
computing, artificial intelligence and digital streaming areas. The company has positioned itself
in being the dominant in the e-commerce landscape. It continues to redefine their business
practices and other business operations. The analysis and evaluation of corporate social
responsibility and sustainability is done. The company can be seen criticised for their lack of
commitment towards the corporate social responsibility in the aspect of business. However,
Amazon supports the local communities (Nurunnabi, and et.al., 2020). The e commerce has
helped in creating an Amazon relief fund with millions of initial contribution. This was helped to
focus on supporting the independent delivery partners and other stakeholder in other to deal with
the negative impacts of pandemic on the development of business. The device donation program
of the company provides donation of electronic devices and other gift cards to the schools and
small areas located near the Amazon centres. The company has also initiated many programs
such as ‘girl who code’ to get more girls interested in the coding. The ecommerce giant of
Amazon helps the local and national non profits with the help of cash and product donations.
During the breakdown of any deadly disease the company is very supportive to the
worker and recommend their employees to work in their comfortable way or go for remote
working. The ecommerce and cloud computing Amazon is ready to invest in wind and solar
energies to reach the renewable forms of energy in all their business operations in the upcoming
years. The company is known to install many solar on their working sites. The head office of
Amazon in Seattle is planned to heat by district energy process which recycles the heat from
nearby building and help in heating the office space. The core of the CSR of Amazon is based on
the gender equality and minorities (Liao, and et.al., 2017). The company has their complete

attention in employing more females in the supply chains and other business operations. One of
the programs from Amazon for the ware house employees has encouraged them to quit and take
a moment to think about what they actually want. Addition to all this, Amazon has started the
packaging free program in lot of the cities. The products are shipped without any additional
packaging.
Analysis of Amazon.com
The popularity of Amazon is around the entire world and is the world’s leading online
retailer. Amazon has achieved many achievements including some eye popping profits and some
very successful launches. The SWOT analysis model will identify the internal as well as external
analysis. SWOT analysis on Amazon can help the company identify their strengths and
overcome the weakness. It can counter the threats and maximise the profits of business. Amazon
must develop strategies to face the challenges assessed in the analysis.
Strengths: The success of an e-commerce retail company like Amazon depends on its
strengths. Strengths constitute the internal strategic factors which Amazon can use to maintain
and improve their operations, their use of technology and products and services offered by the
organisation. Strengths of Amazon are mainly, being such a strong brand, they show moderate
and expanding diversifications of the complete business. Addition to this, Amazon has high
ability to make use of technological innovations especially in the field of e-commerce services.
Amazon has a strong brand image in the online retail market and this strength has lead to rapid
growth of the business during the initial stages of the organisations. It has high brand
recognitions and thus, a confidence of commitment among its consumers (Ng, 2018). The
organisation operated with providing a wide range of products including electronics, online retail
services, private label goods and many more information technology related services. This wide
range of operations has resulted in making Amazon.com a fearsome competitor in the market.
The high ability of company to make complete use of the technological advancements has made
the company sustain in the updating market conditions. The company responds to new markets
trends easily and technologically. The brand value the company in the market is among the top
positions. Amazon is a customer oriented brand as it provides large customer base with
affordable products and services.

Weakness: Assessing and overcoming the weakness is yet another internal strategic
factor. These challenges limit the growth of business and the process of expansion. These
internal factors impose difficulty in the improvement and development of the business. The
online retail markets have become common in the world of digitalisation. And therefore, it is
easy for the other rival brands to imitate Amazon. Few of the rival companies are giving Amazon
a hard time to survive the competitive market. The shipping process of the Amazon is one of the
reasons with contributed to the exposure of risk for losing the profits margins in some markets.
The tax avoidance by the company in UK has resulted in negative publicity of the brand all over
social media (Kiron, and et.al., 2017). Another challenges faced by Amazon is the avoidance of
consumer safety. Having diversified range of products makes it difficult for the company to vet
each product and guarantee its safety to their customers. Amazon rely on distributors way too
much which results in forming many issues. These distributors can leverage their position in the
organisation to renegotiate the terms and conditions.
Opportunities: The analysis of external factors helps in identifying the opportunities
open to enhance the business of Amazon through growth in international markets. Amazon can
gain profit by penetrating its business operations in the new and developing markets. It can gain
competitive advantage against the big retailers and also improving the customer engagement
with the brand by expanding into physical stores. Another opportunity for Amazon is to improve
the technological measures and business policies in order to reduce the counterfeit sales. The
company can perform a backward integration by developing their production of in house brands
to differentiate from the other products and increase the margin for profits. Moreover,
acquisitions for e-commerce companies can be increased to gain company’s market share while
reducing the level of competition in the market. The opportunity of online payment system,
Amazon can increase their sales over online shopping. It will improve the company’s revenue
and will give an advantage to male use of its own payments.
Threats: These external factors limit the business for growing and developing. The
biggest threat is the rise of aggressive competitions. This competition is from big retail firms
which might Amazon tough time in the future (D'Agostino, 2018). Amazon has been under the
headlines of many controversies. This has created a dent in the brand reputation. People started
boycotting the brand which resulted in loss of customers. Some of the government regulations
have threaten the process of business of the organisation. Addition to this, the increase in cyber

crime has affected the system of networks of the Amazon. Imitating a famous brand is easy
which has resulted in increase in counterfeiting and selling fake products. Along with this the
company suffered from economic recession and such uncertainty in the economic conditions has
direct effects on the sales of Amazon.
Recommendation for Amazon’s strategic development
Amazon has created so many profits from their business models and have expressed their
dominance over the industry. The company is currently warmed up and will achieve the rate of
revenue growth which is witnessed before. Amazon represents being a complex company and is
trying to expand their global footprints. However, there are some recommendations which can
help Amazon.com to improve their corporate strategy. Amazon is in a good place right now and
it is the time for it take the next evolutionary step (Yoo, and Lee, 2018). The company has
diversified way too much without having a clear and articulated strategy. Thus, Amazon must
identify the core competencies and set their target on it. The company must eliminate the
products which prove to a failure in the market. The organisation must make sure about the right
time to integrate and supplement their core business.
The best strategy for the Amazon is expand their cloud computing based business. Cloud
computing is a very popular trend of this decade and Amazon must try to establish such
segments into their business and attain the leadership position in the industry. Cloud based
services will help in extending the core competencies while being a complimentary to the already
existing business model. The business model of Amazon reaches out to the global audience but
the company must also set some local portals in different countries in which they enter. It can
also develop global approach with the help of global delivery model to the local locations and
thus, making the merging of global and local becomes a reality (Majed, Nuraddin, and Hama,
2018). The organisation can grow through development of new e-commerce markets in high
developing economies. Amazon.com company must strengthen itself against having any risk
which are specific to the industry. Amazon must increase their sales in the mobile commerce
while focusing on e-books. All these steps will be more profitable in the present and future of the
company.

Recommendation for corporate social responsibility and sustainability
In the modern business world, corporate social responsibility and sustainability goes
beyond the motto of doing good. The strategy of being socially responsible and the business
strategy model must align. It will showcase the values to the customers, employee and
shareholders. It will impact the community (Baker-Brunnbauer). Any organisation which is not
following the corporate social responsibility and having a sustainable development are less likely
to be successful and survive for long term in the industry. An organisation can adopt the business
code for ethics which will mark the outline of issues faced by employees such as ethics, values,
business environment, respect and many more.
The company can work on creating a clear workplace with a healthy and safety programs.
Such programs help the employees to protect them and prevent any form of injuries happening
within the organisation. This will also ensure that the company is following the legal rules set by
the government on health and safety (Tritt, and Teschner, 2019). The company must ensure that
the suppliers are ready to fulfil the expectations of showing responsible behaviour related to the
issue of fair pricing. Clear the expectations with the suppliers and make them get on board with
this strategy. The organisation must avoid any use of manipulative or harmful publicity of the
product and rather must make sure that it uses fair and honest techniques. The company must not
risk having any customer backlash.
CONCLUSION
The entire report concludes upon explaining different strategies that are oriented with Global
strategy and sustainability. The report explains different external Analysis Theory is that are
being portrayed in the organisation Amazon. The theories that are inculcated in the external
analysis include PESTEL analysis as well as porter's five forces. Internal analysis is also put
forth in this report with SWOT analysis and value chain analysis with regard to the organisation
Amazon. A critical analysis for the corporate social responsibility as well as the different
implications on external analysis and sustainability factors is being put forth report ended on
explaining the recommendations that are in view of the organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baker-Brunnbauer, J., Amazon Go Store Implications for the Traditional Retail Market.
D'Agostino, J.L., 2018. The Impact of E-commerce on Brands: An Analysis of Amazon and a
Plan for the Future (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon).
Dahlmann and Bullock, 2020. Nexus thinking in business: Analysing corporate responses to
interconnected global sustainability challenges. Environmental Science & Policy. 107.
pp.90-98.
Henriques and Brilha, 2017. UNESCO Global Geoparks: a strategy towards global
understanding and sustainability.
Kiron and et.al, 2017. Corporate sustainability at a crossroads. MIT Sloan Management Review.
58(4).
Kiron, and et.al., 2017. Corporate sustainability at a crossroads. MIT Sloan Management
Review, 58(4).
Liao, and et.al., 2017. Communicating the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of international
contractors: Content analysis of CSR reporting. Journal of Cleaner Production, 156,
pp.327-336.
Lu, and et.al., 2019. Policies to promote Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and assessment of
CSR impacts.
Majed, S.Z., Nuraddin, S.H. and Hama, S.V.S., 2018. Analyzing the amazon success
strategies. Journal of process management. New Technologies, 6(4), pp.65-69.
Ng, A.W., 2018. From sustainability accounting to a green financing system: Institutional
legitimacy and market heterogeneity in a global financial centre. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 195, pp.585-592.
Nurunnabi, and et.al., 2020. Reaching the sustainable development goals 2030: Energy
efficiency as an approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR). GeoJournal, 85(2),
pp.363-374.
Rodrigues and Franco, 2019. The corporate sustainability strategy in organisations: A systematic
review and future directions. Sustainability. 11(22). p.6214.
Tritt, L.F. and Teschner, R.S., 2019. Amazon Delivers Diversity: Geographical & Social
Influences on Corporate Embeddedness. Berkeley Bus. LJ, 16, p.1.
Wells and et.al, 2020. A socio-technical transitions perspective for assessing future sustainability
following the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy. 16(1).
pp.29-36.
Yoo, D. and Lee, J., 2018. The effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) fit and CSR
consistency on company evaluation: The role of CSR support. Sustainability, 10(8),
p.2956.