I first discovered Amazon when I was in high school and needed to buy a book to finish an assignment. My teacher directed me to Amazon because the book was not available in our school library. Since then, using Amazon has been enjoyable and effective, as I can now access most books via the e-reader. Jeff Bezos created Amazon as Cadabra in July 1994. The organization began as a book-only business before expanding to the internet a year later. This company started its web marketplace in 1995 when it changed its name to Amazon.com (Ritala, Golnam and Wegmann 237). It is after this that the company started its journey to become a leading e-commerce company in the world. Amazon became a public company in 1997 when Jeff decided to allow some shares of the firm to go on sale. Having been started at Seattle, Washington, this remains the headquarters of this multinational company. When Amazon was founded, it only dealt with books based on Jeff Bezos’ love for books. As the firm got older, it started to deal with more products mostly related to reading. By the late 90s, Amazon had already ventured into the then current forms of media that included CDs, DVDs, and even MP3s (Ritala, Golnam and Wegmann 240). Today, Amazon.com deals with more than just books and reading materials. Apart from having an e-reader platform, the company stocks toys, games, app-stores, various electronics, and furniture. Amazon has managed to use effective marketing strategies and products mix to boost its growth rate in the market as well as influence our lives.
Amazon’s advertising skills have been adjusting to technological improvements over the years thus making the company relevant in most cases. Some analysts would argue that it is the advertising moves adopted by Jeff that led Amazon to the top in the market. However, there are people who believe it is the type of products and services offered by this company that matter. Studies show that in the digital world, offline advertisements are close to ten times ineffective than online adverts (Nandan 270). Based on this finding, Amazon has been slashing its budget on offline marketing while boosting its digital platforms of marketing.
Consider the following trend that shows the reducing expenditure of Amazon.com in offline advertising strategies.
Year
1999
2000
2008
2009
Expenditure on Offline Adverts (in million $)
80
50
36
9.4
The Statistics Portal (https://www.statista.com/statistics/506535/amazon-marketing-spending/)
Despite the reducing trend in offline marketing, Amazon has been spending a lot of cash on advertisements. For instance, in 2014, the firm spent $4.3 billion on advertising making it one of the leading companies on advert expenditure during that year (Kousha and Thelwall 566).
One of the marketing strategies employed by Amazon is the pay per click (PPC) advertising. The company buys PPC from Google and uses it to direct potential customers who use browsers to the Amazon website. Email marketing is another successful strategy used by Jeff to advertise his firm’s products and services. It is crucial to note that this approach is made in a way that users who subscribe to it get mails that promote products related to their previous purchases. The Amazon logo has an arrow that moves from A to Z of the word. In my view the arrow shows that this organization offers all the basics in its line of operations. The orange color on the logo can also be viewed as a symbol of the happiness the company brings to the customers.
The Amazon’s business mode has been changing over the years. For instance, the company started as a book store back in 1994. One year later, it changed its name to Amazon.com as it began dealing with online selling of books. By the end of the 1999, the firm was known for creating an online shopping platform for different products, and also its web hosting services (Rowley 24). Based on the technological advancements experienced in the world, Amazon launched an e-reader platform called Kindle in 2007. By the end of 2016, Amazon had already shown interest in venturing in food and convenience stores. By January 2017, the Amazon Go Store was operational in Seattle. However, the store is yet to accept non-employees in the course of the year. The advancement in the business mode of Amazon is also a sign of the company’s growth.
The rapid growing number of employees is one indicator that Amazon is experiencing a high growth rate. By the end of 2011, the company had thirty thousand workers employed on full-time basis. In 2014, the firm had 154,100 employees globally. The trend kept moving upwards over the years. As at 2016, the firm had one-hundred and eighty thousand local employees (Kousha and Thelwall 570). By this time, around three hundred thousand people across the world had job positions within Amazon on either full-time or part-time basis.
The growth of this firm is also reflected in its revenue collection. For instance, the company recorded a net sales total of US$88.988 billion in 2014. Two years later, Amazon collected revenue summing up to US$135.98 billion. The positive growth also reflected on the company’s total assets that increased to US$83 billion in 2016 (Kousha and Thelwall 572). The financial growth of Amazon has a connection to the company’s increased rate of investment in different sectors. For example, Amazon injected two billion US dollars into its investments in India. In 2016, the organization channeled an extra investment of three billion US dollars into India.
Amazon.com has influenced our lives in various ways. One, this company has helped in promoting the reading culture in people’s lives for many years. It started as a book store in 1994, and today it is still dealing with books despite introducing other products on board. Amazon has played a part in ensuring people still get an opportunity read books even with technological advancements. Consider the firm has Kindle, an e-reader platform, which enables individuals to access books on a digital manner. Amazon has developed to become an online shopping site where people can buy different products. That has influenced many lives since it creates an avenue where buyers access products of various qualities in a quick way.
The difference between e-commerce and the traditional commerce is noticeable in various perspectives. For example, when talking about accessibility the traditional way of trading has limited access. In the old way of shopping one has to visit the stores at specified hours and days of operation. On the other hand, in most instances of e-commerce purchases can be conducted at any time of the day throughout the year. The number of people to reach also varies in these two cases. Through e-commerce, trade is easily conducted across the globe. On the contrary, traditional shopping restricts people to particular areas where one can find the stores.
In July 1994, Jeff Bezos founded a company that today is the leading e-retailer in the United States. The firm has developed to become an enterprise that deals with selling of books, CDs, toys, furniture, and cloud computing, among others. Amazon has been keen on its advertising since it has shifted to online adverts to match technological advancements. With slightly more than three hundred thousand employees across the globe, and revenue collection that sums to US$135, Amazon has influenced lives in different ways. The company has positively changed my reading and online shopping experience through its efficient products.
Works Cited
Kousha, Kayvan and Mike Thelwall. “Can Amazon. com reviews help to assess the wider impacts of books?” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 67.3 (2016): 566-581.
Nandan, Shiva. “An exploration of the brand identity–brand image linkage: A communications perspective.” Journal of Brand Management 12.4 (2005): 264-278.
Ritala, Paavo, Arash Golnam and Alain Wegmann. “Coopetition-based business models: The case of Amazon. com.” Industrial Marketing Management 43.2 (2014): 236-249.
Rowley, Jennifer. “Just another channel? Marketing communications in e-business.” Marketing Intelligence & Planning 22.1 (2004): 24-41.
