Amazon.com - Research Paper Example

The success of e-business depends on how long a customer spends time in an e-business website. Amazon did everything needed to tie up the customers in their website. They have formulated different strategies to attract the net customers. Most of the internet users are youths and Amazon.com has everything needed to attract the youth customers. This paper briefly analyses the history, supply chain management process, online auction features, competitors and current market position of Amazon.com.

History Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 in America” (Amazon.com, Inc). Initially it started as an online bookshop. However it expanded its business during the late 1990s and diversified its business to areas such as to offer the CDs, videos, DVDs, electronics, toys, tools, home furnishings and house wares, apparel, and kitchen gadgets etc (Amazon.com, Inc, n. d). Amazon entered the internet world in 1995 and registered as a public company in 1997. In 1998, they entered the online music and video business and in 1999, they started to sell toys, electronics, tools, and hardware using their e-commerce website.

Though the company has started as an online bookstore, currently it has products such as music CD’s, VHS, DVD, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food toys, etc apart from books. It has started film production also in 2008. Amazon has several websites custom made for countries like Canada, Germany, France, China, UK, Japan etc. The company did not focus on profits for the initial five years and spend much of its revenues in expansions in the initial years. This business strategy brought immense dividends to the company as per the recent statistics.

Current market position  Currently Amazon.com employs more than 7800 employees and as per the statistics of 2002, it has reported $ 3.9 billion sales (Amazon.com, Inc, n. d). It is the largest online retailer at present in United States. The closest competitor Staples Inc has only 1/3 rd of the revenues of Amazon.com as per the statistics available in 2010. As per the recent statistics, it ranked 272 in the list of Fortune 500 companies. Supply chain management process Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the process of controlling the movements of goods or services from suppliers to buyers.

The efficiency of supply chain management depends on the availability of the material based on the demand. There should not be more goods in the store if the demand is less; at the same time there should be adequate number of goods always if the demand is good. Amazon has one of the most efficient, sophisticated and advanced supply chain management systems in the world. “Homemade applications handle nearly every aspect of its supply chain: warehouse management, transportation management, inbound and outbound shipping, demand forecasts, inventory planning, and more” (Bacheldor, 2004).

In other words, all the aspects of supply chain management are managed with the help of advanced software at Amazon.com. The human intervention is very less in the supply chain management process and the machines are dominating in this sector. Thus the chances of human errors which may delay the supply chain management process are very less. For example, computers and software are assisting Amazon in taking orders, processing orders and in ensuring the delivery of goods in time. Whenever, an item is purchased from