Amazon as an American Leading Electronic Commerce Company - Case Study Example

Amazon.com Company Amazon.com, Inc. is one of Americas leading electronic commerce company in the world. It has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It is one of the leading internet-based companies in U.S. The company started as an online bookstore. It later diversified in the selling of VHSs, DVDs, Video, CDs and MP3 streaming/downloads, video games, software, electronics, furniture, toys, apparel, jewelry and toys. In addition it produces amazon fire tablets, amazon kindle e-book readers, fire phone and fire TV. It is also one of the leading service provider of cloud computing. The operating cash flow for amazon increase to 31% to record $5.47 billion in the financial year ended December 2013 compared to $4.18 billion in the year 2012. For the net sales for the fourth quarter in year ended 2013, the company recorded a 20% increase that is equivalent to $25.59 billion compared to $21.27 billion in the financial year 2012 fourth quarter. The company in overall accrued a net sales of $74.45 billion in the financial year 2013 which was a 22% increase compared to $61.09 billion in the year 2012 ("Why Amazon Is A Lousy Business"). The company is divided into two segments that include; the North American segment and the international segment. The North American segment is involved in export sales from the www.amazon.ca and www.amazon.com, all of which are based in U.S. The international segment is involved in international websites that are involved in export sales to customers in Canada and U.S. from abroad (Amazon.com, Inc.). Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur and the founder of amazon.com and acts as the company’s chief executive. He was born in 1964 January 12th in Albuquerque in New Mexico. He studied in Princeton University where he was awarded a computer science and electrical engineering bachelor’s degree in 1986. He worked in several firms in Wall Street that included Bankers Trust, Fitel and lastly in D.E. Shaw investment firm where he was acknowledged as the youngest vice president in the year 1990. He later quit the job in 1994 to go to Seattle where he had seen an opportunity in internet market which by then was untapped market. Despite the successes that Bezos achieved after founding amazon.com, he was first faced with the challenge of marketing budget. He had to use word of mouth to make the business succeed and be recognized by many people. Another challenge he faced in his first years is the skepticism that people had about him. They saw him as a failure, someone who left a good job to start something that was not known by many people. Instead of Bezos falling to this skepticism belief by the people, he worked towards proving them wrong and making them belief that he was out for a good cause and for a successful future ("Challenges Facing Jeff Bezos the Post"). Through his acquisition of the Zappos in 2009, the launch of the kindle in 2007 and the startup of Blue Origin, Bezos was for the success of the company. It was through expanding that the company could achieve its goals and objectives of being one of the leading online sellers in the world. In order for a company to compete effectively it has to make sure that its competitors dance its songs and acquire them if possible in order to be the sole company in the market. Bezos is now worth $29 billion dollars as per the Forbes magazine in august this year. The amazon.com company defines its business in terms of service sales, product sales, AWS, publishing, fulfillment, advertising, digital content subscription and co-branded credit cards. This can be defined under three levels; the internet services, online retail and the kindle ecosystem. The diagram below shows the amazon.com business model canvas. From the model canvas above it can be observed that the company maintains its convenience and price no matter the service or product it is dealing with. It maintains low prices through ensuring that its esteemed customers continue to be mostly self-service and automated. This ensures that the customers maintain a strong bond to the company which makes it grow far and wide. The company through its website it is able to offer many products and services at a go to so many customers throughout its business outlets in the world. The websites enable the customers to access the products, make choices and even pay online for delivery later on. Amazon.com Company was unable to make profits during its initial public offering due to the many investment plans it had put in place that added on its costs of operation. The company made a lot of crazy losses due to investment in the fulfillment centers and other investments in order to remain competitive in the market. Bezos beliefs that running a non-profitable company is not the question to be answered now, but what will the company’s worthy be in ten years or so when it will have become a monopoly in the e-commerce business? Amazon.com Company is investing so heavily in its operations in order to beat other competitors to remain the sole online business in the market. This is the number one reason why so many people but amazon.com shares because they belief that the company will make more profits when it achieves its goal of being the only company in the e-commerce market. The people belief that it is the realization of this dream then the company will then raise its products and services prices and make unimaginable profits. Thus there is a good reason to run a non-profitable company in the short run but invest more for a bright future when the profits will cover all the losses the company had ever made before. This is the goal and principle of Bezos. Amazon.com Company is among the leading employers in U.S. at the moment. I would most like to be either a finance intern or enroll on operations leadership internship. As a finance intern I will be able to get skills on good management of money, get good skills on how to analyze investments and how to invest safely. This will make me one day to run my own company and apply those skills to accrue more profits out of that company. From the second line of internship in the amazon.com company which is the operations leadership internship, I will be able to gain skills on good leadership. It is through these skills that I will be able to know how to relate to people =, know who to interact with and get the best information from prominent leaders who excelled in their professional fields. It is an owner working for a big company like amazon.com. it gives the experience to expand ones thinking capacity and see the business world at an elevated angle of success ("Amazon Fulfilment - Internships"). Works Cited "Amazon Fulfillment - Internships." Amazon Fulfillment - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2014. Amazon.com, Inc. New York: Datamonitor, 2000. Print. "Challenges Facing Jeff Bezos The Post." Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2014. "Why Amazon Is A Lousy Business." Forbes. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2014. Read More