Amazon.com and Business Models

Paper Summary:

This paper presents an analysis of Amazon.com. The paper first evaluates and critiques the company's business models' evolution from 1999 to 2003, in addition to how the business model has responded during that period of time to increasing globalization pressures as well. Amazon.com's maturation from an online bookstore to a business model that encompasses both products and services is also analyzed and critiqued in this paper. The paper then discusses the multichannel implications for Wal-Mart of acquiring Amazon.com, from a process integration and multichannel management standpoint.


Outline:
Executive Summary
Amazon.com's Business Model: 1999 - 2003
Is the Amazon.com business model the right model looking ahead 5 or more years?
Can Amazon.com become the Wal-Mart of the Internet?
Argue the case for e-based companies being focused competitors rather than broad range competitors.

From the Paper:

"For Amazon.com the use of e-based competitors as the basis of comparison in terms of the extent to which online retailers (and other e-based business models) have successfully scaled into multichannel management also needs to be taken into account in any analysis of competitive dynamics. The role of information in a multi-channel environment and the extent of a company's ability to "learn" is just as critical as its need to compete on product and service execution.
Third, scalability and agility of an online business are directly related to the breadth of the products and services they sell. Defining e-based competitors based on the breadth of their operations from a product standpoint in addition to the number of suppliers coordinates with is a truer measure of their ability to scale and stay agile, introducing new business processes as needed."

Sample of Sources Used:

• ABN-AMBRO Research. (2000). Amazon.com Investment Analysis. First. New York, NY. ABN Ambro International. 32.
• Ansoff, H.I., 1984. Implanting strategic management. New Jersey: Prentice-HallInternational. Pgs. 34 - 56, 89 - 120.
• Birkinshaw, J. and Sheehan, T., 2002. Managing the knowledge life cycle. MIT SloanManagement Review, 43(3):75-83
• Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P., 1998. Organizing knowledge. California ManagementReview, 40(3):90-111
• Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P., 2000b. Balancing act: how to capture knowledge withoutkilling it. Harvard Business Review, 78(3):73-80

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