What Is the Success & Competitive Advantage behind Amazon - Case Study Example

The paper "What Is the Success & Competitive Advantage behind Amazon" is a perfect example of a management case study. This research paper explores the e-commerce industry and focuses on Amazon.com, Inc., a multinational e-commerce and cloud computing company based in the United States and it is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It provides an extensive background of the company and the path it took to development from its establishment. The paper further combs through a number of analyses to understand the positioning of the company in the global environment while determining its various stages of development and identifying the key players in its success. It further reviews the company’s competitive advantage and features that regard it in its SWOT analysis which identifies the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Lastly, it explains the concept of strategy as articulated by the company and identifies its future projections and overall outlook.

Introduction

In today’s market, all strategies attached to marketing and sales are based on differentiation. They are based on showing the customer how your products and services differ from and better than competitor products and services offered in the same market. In order for a product or a service to survive and grow in a competitive market, it needs to profess a clear and distinct competitive advantage over other products of its type from competitors in the market. The most successful companies and products offered in the market today hold certain aspects of their structures as a competitive advantage (Wagner III, and Hollenbeck 40). Essentially, competitive advantage is the key to high profitability and company success in a highly competitive market. The competitive advantage shows the specific areas in which the producer is excellent and that customers value (Wagner III, and Hollenbeck 40). In this light, customers choose certain products over others in the market even though they are each other’s substitutes.