Amazon.com Inc. is an internet and online retail company (Noren 2013; Jurevicius 2013) focused on selling products online by directly offering them to customers. It also facilitates other sellers by offering platforms that enable them to reach millions of customers. It main competitors include e-Bay, Google, Netflix, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Wal-Mart. Its huge online presence positions it as the main competitor in online retailing. This article will deal with the firm level analysis of amazon.com in an effort to establish its competitiveness in online retail industry. Conducting firm level analysis of a company requires one to have access to information regarding its marketing strategy, competitive advantage, signals regarding its next action plan, and its competitive response profile (Czepiel & Kerin 2010; Gwin 2001).
Amazon.com is a highly publicized company; hence most of the information about its industry position, competitiveness, and marketing strategies are available on the internet. Krishnamurthy (2004) has done a comparative analysis of amazon and eBay. This is an important resource that showcases how amaozon.com is positioned in the online selling industry. Further, the financial standing of the company will provide information about its strategic growth plan. Its financial statements and releases will indicate how it is spending its money. This will help in analyzing the company’s possible responses to industry changes and competition. Amazon (2013) investor relations reports will provide financial information about the company and its strategic growth plan. The research method would help to collect freely available information and data about amazon.com, which would add value to the quality of the firm level analysis conducted (Mullings 1999).
Researching literature discussing amazon’s business model and competitive advantage would offer an advantage to this analysis. By gaining information of what other experts in the industry think about the company, I will get an insight into the functioning of the company vis-a-viz the industry. Another method of collecting information about the company is through interviews. With structured interviews, I can get information about the company from industry experts and company employees as well. Further, by interviewing current and former employees of the amazon, it is possible to collect information touching on the company’s future strategies as well as its current strategies. This will help in conducting an effective SWOT analysis of the company. It is also advisable to use interviews done by other people. It is, however, important to provide accurate information about the reasons for the interview.
In order to measure the firm’s extent of organizational process and standardization or optimization from the information collected, I would analyze the information against industry trends and standards. This will help me to establish how well the company is positioned to deal with the changes in the company. Further, learning about the industry will help in analyzing the data in relation to any changes in the market. During the process of research and interviewing, it would be necessary to collect any information that relates to the industry and measure the company’s preparedness. This will help in learning more about its current strategies and estimating its future strategies. Firm level analysis also requires that one analyzes the extent to which the company is prepared to enter into related markets. For amazon, Noren (2013) and Jurevicius (2013) have stated that it is entering into new market including software and digital device production.
References
Amazon (2013). Amazon investor relations. Amazon. Retrieved from http://phx.corporate- ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-irhome
Czepiel, J. and Kerin, R. (2010). Competitor analysis. New York, University of New York.
Gwin, C. (2001). A guide for industry study and the analysis of firms and competitive strategy. Babson. Retrieved from http://faculty.babson.edu/gwin/indstudy/
Jurevicius, O. (Feb 18, 2013). SWOT analysis of amazon. Strategic Management Insight. Retrieved from http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/amazon- swot-analysis.html
Krishnamurthy, S. (2004). A comparative analysis of eBay and amazon. Washington, University of Washington Press.
Mullings, B. (1999). Insider or outsider, both or neither: some dilemmas of interviewing in a cross- cultural setting. Geoforum (30). 337-3350.
Noren, E. (July 8, 2013). Analysis of the amazon business model. Digital Business Model: How Companies Make Money Online. Retrieved from http://www.digitalbusinessmodelguru.com/2013/07/analysis-of-amazon-business- model.html
