Comparison of Amazon with Barnes and Noble - Research Paper Example

Comparison of Amazon with Barnes and Noble Introduction Amazon.com Inc is a multinational electronic commerce company. It was formed in 1994 in United States and is working as the biggest online retail store. The website attracts a huge traffic. Every month more than 65 million visits on its U.S. website. Amazon’s website design is simple and that is why it attracts a huge population. Over the past few years, Amazon has gained high popularity as customers shift from conventional shopping ways to online shopping. Shopping online is convenient. Amazon’s search options and variety of products has gained it more than 30 million customers. Diversification Initially the store only sell books but soon they diversified and started business in DvDs, CDs, furniture, electronics, softwares, food, grocery, sports, toys, apparels, automotive & Industrial etc. This diversification gained Amazon a huge customer base. From a simple books store, it turned into a store where customers could find almost anything that they need. Pros of Amazon: Amazon provides vast varieties of online buying services. The major pros which we see and get from Amazon.com are as following: 1. It’s widely known for virtual buying and selling services 2. They provide services on fixed reasonable rates. 3. Original books on various subjects can be purchased. 4. Amazon provides hardware platform to different entrepreneurs which otherwise is not easy to afford for all 5. Amazon offers different packages and has launched difference services like in March 2006 they launched online storage service called Amazon S3. In which unlimited data can be stored online. (drdobbs, 2007) 6. Amazon has different services like Amazon Web Services (AWS). It basically aims to provide services related to web and IT issues and provide programming models to solve them. (Amazon) 7. Amazon paying services is very reliable and authentic for buying products and for their other services they have specific policies for payments. Cons of Amazon: 1. They don’t provide any service level agreement which is also known as SLA. The core purpose of SLA should be to give guarantee of delivery and advance details about any delay or other issues in delivery. 2. They don’t offer any strong policy for refund of money. 3. Amazon offer sellers to sell their product over their site which makes a third party dealing. 4. They don’t erase the need for database system. Amazon can improve their system by introducing some new policies and offers with variety of database according to customers need. 5. In Amazon buyers buy things which are sold directly from seller through the Amazon forum; as third party dealing becomes less reliable over the quality and authenticity of the product. 6. One of the biggest cons of Amazon is that their service is not available in all countries. And to sell things you have to live in particular country. 7. Amazon doesn’t support all bank accounts. Making Amazon family: If Amazon divides their business in different chambers then it will be a unique but fruitful idea. Expanding a business not only increases the profit of the company but also makes it more popular and famous. Following can be the positive output they can get by dividing their company into a family. More interesting: It won’t only make their network stronger and more appealing but also interesting and attractive for customers. They can introduce variety of schemes for users. Offices in various countries: By forming offices in various countries they can make their services avail in the specific country and can also increase the market. Feasible for buyers and seller: It will become feasible for both seller and buyer that where they should look for what they are looking for. If a customer is looking for books he will straight away look for that site where he can find online books. More profit: Amazon will be able to make more profit through this. They will be able to get more customers interest. They can use different strategies for marketing and advertisement which will eventually increase their sale. Expand of business: This will expand their business and through this they will be able to earn more. It won’t be vague for customers about their services. As still there are many services of Amazon which customers are not aware of. Points for expanding and distributing their business: Marketing: Through marketing Amazon can increase their market demand and can make people aware about what they actually offer, and the variety of packages they have apart from online selling of products. Separate websites: Through constructing separate websites they can increase their market and public demand. In this way it will become easy for customers to follow the site of their interest. For examples students or youngsters will follow their interest like books, movies or music. Partnership with companies: By becoming partner with different companies Amazon can give positive boost to their business. Like for electrical appliances Amazon can affiliate their company with company of electrical appliances and can do marketing of such facilities through different mediums. They can even offer launching programs only on website. They can affiliate themselves with companies which provide goods only through net. Perks: By offering various perks to customers and clients they can increase their virtual business. Such as buy one get on free. Or on purchase of 2 will get a 20% discount etc. Through various perks people will get attracted towards their offers and will avail these offers. Comparison of Amazon with Barnes and Noble or Borders: Criteria Amazon BarnesAndNoble Border Functionality Good Excellent Good Design Fair Excellent Good Content Excellent Excellent Good Originality Excellent Good Good Professionalism Excellent Excellent Excellent Effectiveness Excellent Good Good Amazon has marked its place in virtual market and has a big share and name in online services. They other most well known name in online buying and selling is eBay. These two companies have benchmark themselves on long run. Companies like Barnes and Noble or Borders are famous but are more commonly used in certain countries like Barnes & Noble, Inc. it is mostly used in United States and is famous in only this region. (Barnes & Noble) Whereas Borders is specified company related to book and music. So the business of borders is not as versatile as Amazon has. Distribution Amazon is the most popular online retailing store all over the world. Their online retailing has gained so much popularity that there can be two aspects of opening a brick and mortar retailing store. Customers want Amazon to be an active part of their lives. Currently the company has made a deep connection with their customers online. If they open an outlet, these customers might actually shift to the retail outlets as well. Another aspect can be that Amazon will lose its strong brand of being a completely online retail store. This will also add a cost to the company as they will have to run separate retail outlets at different locations. When they can sell online, it’s simply not a really good idea to enter into retailing at real stores. Conclusion E-commerce has taken a fast pace in today’s world. The reason is simple- customers spend more time online and prefer shopping from home rather than taking the pain and time to go to a retail outlet for buying things. Amazon and many other companies now give these customers an opportunity to buy whatever they want from their homes, offices through the website and get it delivered to their homes. The best thing about Amazon is its diversification into variety of products and its distribution. It’s a strong brand that has been built up over the years and with innovation they can further grow their business. Bibliography Amazon. (n.d.). What is AWS? . Retrieved July 22, 2011, from Amazon: http://aws.amazon.com/what-is-aws/ Barnes & Noble. (n.d.). Barnes & Noble. Retrieved july 23, 2011, from Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ drdobbs. (2007). Architecture & Design. Retrieved July 22, 2010, from drdobbs: http://drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/202803151 Reeder, T. (2007, October 26). Amazon's Diversification Strategy is Paying Off... Big Time. Retrieved July 20, 2011, from http://www.scalingout.com/2007/10/amazon-diversification-strategy-is.html Read More