Amazon is a privately owned, publicly traded company that offers both products and services in an online retail setting. It has a large turnover of $48 billion and significant growth year-over-year. Amazon succeeds through its wide range of offerings that target both individual consumers and small businesses, and through customer-centric strategies like personalized recommendations and convenient delivery options. Its unique selling points include an emphasis on customer satisfaction and a sense of trust as an online marketplace. Marketing approaches include email, television ads, and word-of-mouth.

1. BRIEFLY ANALYSE THE COMPANY
EXPLAINING WHAT YOU SEE AS ITS MOST
IMPORTANT FEATURES IN RELATION TO
EACH OF THE THREE HORIZONTAL LAYERS
IN THE FRAMEWORK PROVIDED, AND
PROVIDE JUSTIFIED ANSWERS TO THE
THREE QUESTIONS THAT FORM THE
VERTICAL COMPONENTS OF THE
FRAMEWORK (‘WHAT MAKES IT
SUCCESSFUL?’, ‘WHERE DOES IT POSITION
ITSELF?’ AND ‘HOW DOES IT ACHIEVE
SUCCESS?’).

2. THE FRAMEWORK

3. SECTOR AND OWNERSHIP – PUBLIC,
PRIVATE OR THIRD SECTOR. OWNED BY STATE,
SHAREHOLDERS OR OTHER.
Amazon is a privately owned but publicly traded company on the
NASDAQ stock exchange. The company is essentially owned and
controlled by the shareholders.
Private Sector
Public Ownership

4. OFFERING – PRODUCT/ SERVICE/ MIXED
Services: Web services; Amazon credit card; Love film (rental service);
Marketplace
Products: books; consumer goods; Audible (audio books); kindle; e-
books
Mixed, they have products and services

5. FINANCIALS – TURNOVER, SIZE, GROWTH,
PROFIT, RATIOS
Turnover: $48bn
Size: Money, employment (depending on argument);
number of customers and how that has grown. Number of services.
Growth (LY vs TY): $14bn increase (29.16%)
Profit: $631M (2011)
$1152M (2010) - (Decrease: $ 45.3%)
Financial Ratios:
Gross Profit Margin (Gross Profit * 100 / Sales Revenue)
10,789 * 100 = 1,078,900 / 48,077 = 22.44%

6. POSITION – SUPPLIERS/ CUSTOMERS
Suppliers:
Market place allows individuals to become suppliers.
Book publishers
Server and infrastructure providers
Utilities
Couriers
Packaging suppliers
Credit card supplier
Customers:
Online consumers – book readers – segment customers – who buys what
– customer retention – customers that shop only at xmas. How can ypou
pull them in?
SME owners – web services

7. TARGET MARKET –
RETAIL, BANKING, MANUF
SME’s for web services & product advertising & distribution
Internet users, willing to purchase online
Online retail & online services

8. BRICKS/CLICKS – INFRASTRUCTURE;
TECHNOLOGY; STORES
Clicks – solely online; technical infrastructure in place to support their
store-front and their back end web services. They have a system in place
to manage their supply chain, which is passed on to end users of their
service.
Servers; domain name servers; virtual store;
Data centres etc.. Warehouse, depots

9. BUSINESS MODEL – HOW THE BUSINESS
ACHIEVES SUCCESS
By incorporating a wide range of products; aimed at a large demographic.
By targeting SME’s Amazon is able to expand their service offering to
businesses in the form of web services and hosting. By making products
available and desirable to such a wide audience, they achieve financial
success.
They tailor their services and recommendations to each individual
customer. This means that their product recommendations are relevant to
the customer.
Different delivery options cater to different users needs, meaning that
customers can receive goods as quickly as they need them. Amazon
Locker is used as a delivery ‘depot’ for amazon parcels. This removes the
last-mile delivery costs, and provides a centralized, secure location for
customers to retrieve their goods.

10. UNIQUE SELLING POINT– WHAT DOES
IT OFFER TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE
Customer satisfaction; recommendations; targeted email marketing; one
click buy;
Sense of trust – buying from a random merchant through Amazon

11. MARKETING – WHAT APPROACHES AND
CHANNELS DOES IT USE
Email based marketing; Kindle TV adverts; Word of mouth; Customer
recommendations

12. WHAT MAKES IS SUCCESSFUL

13. WHERE DOES IT POSITION ITSELF

14. HOW DOES IT ACHIEVE SUCCESS