Amazon is an online retail company that majors in electronics, cloud computing, groceries and books. It’s a global company located in many countries but has its headquarters in Seattle. Its mission is to be the most customer oriented company on earth. The paper will discuss the SWOT analysis of the company
Strengths
Lower Prices
Amazon has a company has lower pricing has compared to their competitors, this gives them a draw of customers such that even in new regions they venture in, their fair prices entice customers who had paid allegiance to other firms. Even on the eve of other online businesses getting into the industry, Amazon continues to strive and grow large.
Website Differentiation
One of the most deciding factors in online retail lies in the website design. The more the interface is user-friendly, the more the customers are attracted to it. Amazon has invested in their website development to ensure that their clients have a good experience when they log in. Matters such as product search, bill payment and order cancelling are some factors which should be made easier in site navigation so as not to discourage customer purchase from website stress (Wang).
Bigger Book Selections
Just like product differentiation is a thing for companies to ensure that they make sales in both peak and low times, Amazon has stacked different books to ensure that diverse clients who may be interested in different books all can get their picks under the same roof. The idea has helped Amazon as an international company as they receive global clients with different views and admirations hence a wide range of books from various fields ensures all their customers get what they want (Renaud).
Quality Customer Care
It is clear from all the discussions mentioned above from how the company’s CEO concentrates on customers to the point whereby they design their site to give their clients a good user experience portrays how much they value their customers. The approach makes the customers feel valued, and brand loyalty is enhanced.
Weaknesses
Shipping Charges
The company does not offer specials on free shipping whole year long. Emerging companies coming up today do come with shipment provides every year, and this challenges Amazon for the reason that most people seek urgent deliveries, and this may take ages with Amazon, and thus their clients are poached due to delivery efficiencies (Diehl, Kristen and Bill).
Update Charges
Online retails relies so much on technology which keeps up changing every dawn. To stay relevant, online companies have to update their websites often and the system they use such as servers to ensure they have the best firewalls and navigations. The recurrent updates which are expensive make the company incur a lot of expenses (Diehl, Kristen and Bill).
External Delivery Firms
Amazon uses other companies such as DHL and FedEx to deliver the goods to their consumers. The case offers a challenging factor to Amazon as any delays that may come from the courier services or damages have a negative impact on the company and may make the firm lose their customers for actions from a delivery company (Diehl, Kristen and Bill).
Opportunities
Amazon has rolled out its online system used for payments. By ensuring that security and privacy have been heightened to their consumers, the company will enjoy the benefits of using its payment system thus no commissions will have to be paid to a third party (Mazzei et al.,).
Amazon can also grow from the opportunity that they are capable of rolling out their brand products other than acting as a forwarding company for third party goods. By doing so, they will grow to not only enjoying commissions from partners they trade for, but they will enjoy large profits from their goods. Customer complaints about products they just marketed and sold for the third party will also be cut off (Mazzei et al.,).
Amazon due to its well-developed brand image has an opportunity to extend in all parts of the globe compared to their competitors, and this is for the reason that they have existed in the market for a long time and enhanced quality customer care hence every client would like to be attached to a firm that values them (Mazzei et al.,).
Threats
Online retail does not have any barriers to market entry hence many companies will venture into the business trend. Amazon faces a danger of a well set up company with better services than them arising and since consumer loyalty is sometimes tested by quality delivery, a well-established firm with excellent products and efficient delivery could challenge the firm in the market.
With Amazon relying on foreign countries for profits after it embraced globalization, the firm faces a challenge of local companies springing up in the region, and since their deliveries will be more prompt as compared to Amazon who will have to ship them, the local firms may beat them off their game hence a threat to their dominance.
Recommendations
One of the suggestions for Amazon to implement is to set up local delivery joints in every nation they have ventured. The move will ensure that delivery of the ordered goods is made efficient and fast to increase customer satisfaction and avoid the threat of local firms who may enact prompt deliveries as discussed in the threat section.
Another recommendation for Amazon is that they should set up own courier services that will handle the goods in transit with utmost care and attention to ensure that customer satisfaction is upheld from the purchase stage to the delivery end.
Innovative Ideas I Would Bring as CEO
As the CEO of Amazon one of the innovative ideas I would bring is to ensure that offices are set up in every nation so that activities will be monitored at state level, this will help in adhering to different state laws in regard to operations. Teaming up with a local well established company will also be my move so as to ensure locals do not have a foreign mentality on the firm which could negatively affect sales. As the CEO I would also use the local print media for advertisements so as to reach more people within the region as not all areas view social media as a norm hence only internet marketing as mainly practiced by Amazon is not globally effective.
Motivating Employees without Money
Motivating employees without money includes having them as company players. Employees are the main contributing members of a company who can lift or bring down a firm. I believe that making employees feel as being part of the organization by involving them in activities such as decision making makes them more productive.
Article Critique
Bezos Leadership Notions
Observation over customers and not competitors
Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, has a unique way in his market approach. Instead of watching the way competitors see any new initiatives and copy them, Bezos instead interacts with his company’s customers and collects suggestions on what they wish could be improved about their service. The approach creates an enriched relationship which makes the customers feel that they are valued members of the company and their loyalty to the firm is upheld. Furthermore, the approach makes them easily satisfy their consumer wants (http://fortune.com/2017/04/14/data-sheet-be-like-jeff-bezos/ ).
Information hold
Jeff Bezos never goes public with the company’s information such as losses, profits or company assets. By doing so, he remains unpredictable by the competitors since they do not know if the strategies used are working or not. By staying untraceable, he is hard to beat in the market and the skill keeps him ahead (http://fortune.com/2017/04/14/data-sheet-be-like-jeff-bezos/ ).
Take risks for market leadership
Bezos believes that fortune only favours the bold and this courage seems to be part of the reasons he is doing good in the industry. He ventures into risky markets hoping to make it big even against all the odds. His courage gives him monopoly power for some time before his competitors gather the courage to step in and this keeps him ahead as the company will have made the locals their customers and established their brand name hence market superiority (http://fortune.com/2017/04/14/data-sheet-be-like-jeff-bezos/ ).
Empower people to avoid bureaucracy
Bezos emphasizes leading from below; this means that all suggestions on the company strategies and changes should mostly come from the employees and the consumers and not the top company officials in boardrooms. The reason for the approach is because the company’s supplies are represented by employees and demand by customers hence making them the main parties in the trade (http://fortune.com/2017/04/14/data-sheet-be-like-jeff-bezos/ ).
Ethics and Social Responsibility
I feel like the company is ethical for the reasons that it considers both employee and consumer affairs fast. By ensuring quality services are offered and employees get a chance to express their views in the eve of decision making, corporate social responsibility is effective as all players are considered.
Conclusion
After the discussion, it is evident that Amazon has established a brand name that will continue to thrive for ages. The company’s CEO who sets up company strategies keeps the company ahead. If the company addresses their threats and step up to opportunities and recommendations discussed, Amazon will continue standing tall in the online retail business.
Satisfying Stakeholders
Stakeholder management caters for all persons who are part of the company such as employees, consumers, governments and the company owners. Of the stakeholders, the business owners, and the employees will have no problem with outsourcing employees but the government and local consumers will have to be convinced and this I will satisfy by hiring a couple of workers from the USA and explain to them that as a business enterprise aim is to make profit and cut costs, outsourcing was a remedy for the company.
Works Cited
Fortune: What Makes Jeff Bezos a Visionary leader. Accessed on December 4, 2018 from http://fortune.com/2017/04/14/data-sheet-be-like-jeff-bezos/
Diehl, Kristen, and Bill Bishop. "Strategic Analysis of Amazon Madison Morgan November 16, 2017 MGMT 275." (2017).
Mazzei, Matthew J., and David Noble. "Big data dreams: A framework for corporate strategy." Business Horizons 60.3 (2017): 405-414.
Foucart, Renaud. "Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans." The Journal of Industrial Economics 65.3 (2017): 559-584.
Wang, Edward Shih-Tse. "Creating Utilitarian and Hedonic Value from Website Quality and Online Retail Performance." Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) 15.3 (2017): 1-13.
