Company description.
Amid the most innovative companies on the globe, Amazon.com, Inc. stands out as a leader in online retail trade. It was started by Jeff Bezos in 1996 an online bookstore, but the advancements in the Internet commerce tools paved the way for expansion to other goods and services. Today, Amazon has online shops dedicated to such countries/regions as the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Japan, China, France, Italy, Brazil, and Australia, amongst others (Forbes, 2016). The company provides solutions for four primary customer segments as content creators, enterprise, sellers and end consumers. Other products/services available for offers from this company include marketing as well as promotional services, for example, co-branded card agreements and online advertising. The primary focus of this company in its customer service includes convenience, price, and selection (Forbes, 2016).
Competitive advantage.
One of the ways through which Amazon gains and sustains competitive advantage is by product diversification. Initially, Amazon was established to as an online bookstore, over time it increased the product range to include not only digital contact but also the conventional goods and services (Magee, 2015). Today, the website offers hundreds of products of different forms focused on different buyers who include end consumers, businesses, software developers, corporates and even content creators amongst others. By diversifying its product range, Amazon has managed not only to keep competitors at bay but also to sustain its business for two decades now.
Another way through which Amazon manages to gain competitive advantage and sustain, it is through technological innovation. In this case, Amazon has been an innovation leader as demonstrated by being the first multinational retailer to announce the use of drones for deliveries (Magee, 2015). In addition, its fulfillment centers apply robotics to package the customer requests, which reduces the turnaround times associated with order fulfillments. Since such innovations are expensive to acquire and use for the small scale retailers, they have proven to give Amazon the long-term ability to compete successfully and sustainably.
Ways in which Amazon describes successful collaboration.
Amazon demonstrates advanced collaboration within its organization, besides offering intricate solutions for business-to-business collaboration. Within the organization, Amazon integrates technology in its strategy in order to increase interdepartmental collaboration of human resources. For example, the software development team, finance, R&D, and human resource development departments work in tandem with each other to develop share ideas leading to the development of relevant ideas related to the development of strategy-aligning technological solutions. On the other hand, Amazon’s cloud-computing platform (Zocalo) allows users to share information/files/data through personal computers and mobile devices. This promote promotes collaboration not only between businesses but also among individual employees (Tam, 2014).
Amazon’s hardware and software.
One of the key software of Amazon Inc. is a website. The company uses Amazon.com as the main e-commerce software from where US customers can access a full range of products on offer. The website is integrated with payment systems, catalogs, and ordering carts, amongst other features for a complete e-commerce experience (Stone, 2013). Another software used by Amazon is Amazon Kindle, a self-publishing tool that allows book writers to write e-books and publish on Amazon websites.
Then again, one of the key hardware used by Amazon is robots, which are connected to the company’s computer systems in the warehouses in order to perform warehousing tasks not requiring human intelligence (Bhattacharya, 2014). Another hardware used by Amazon is drones, which are linked to the company’s logistic system to track deliveries of specific requests in the US (Hern, 2016).
References.
Bhattacharya, A. (2016, June 17). Amazon is just beginning to use robots in its warehouses and they’re already making a huge difference. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://qz.com/709541/amazon-is-just-beginning-to-use-robots-in-its-warehouses-and- theyre-already-making-a-huge-difference/
Forbes. (2016). Amazon.com on the Forbes World’s Most Innovative Companies List. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon/
Hern, A. (2016, December 14). Amazon claims first successful Prime Air drone delivery. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/14/amazon-claims-first-successful- prime-air-drone-delivery
Magee, D. (2015, December 06). Amazon: The Most Competitive Business Ever Built? Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-most-competitive- business-ever-built-818659
Stone, B. (2013). The everything store: Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Tam, D. (2014). Amazon takes on Google, Microsoft with new collaboration tool. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-takes-on-google-microsoft- with-new-collaboration-tool/
