Amazon

Amazon is one of the largest electronic commerce website currently on the Internet. This online giant prides itself on its excellent business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and consumer-to-consumer relationships. The company sells new and used, as well as rents, multiple products ranging from books, electronics and computers to clothing, toys, and gardening tools. Amazon’s presence in the online shopping industry is well known.

In 1995, Amazon opened its doors as one of the largest e-commerce retailers in the world. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington but has operations and an active website in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia (“Timeline History Amazon.com”, 2012).

The history of Amazon is one of growth. From its conception to present day the company has acquired new companies and expanded. Jeff Bezos wrote the business plan for Amazon as part of his entrepreneurial dreams. The company was originated as an online bookstore that sold exclusively on Netscape and America Online websites (DataMonitor360). In fact, the company’s 1990s slogan was “Earth’s largest bookstore” (Stone, 2011).

In 1999, Amazon was no longer solely a seller of books. The company acquired drugstore.com, pets.com, exchange.com and homegrocer.com. Along with that, Amazon formed an alliance with Toysrus.com to create a co-branded store (DataMonitor360). By this time, Amazon had received market capitalization (Hoovers). The company was proving to be a threat for traditional brick-and-mortar stores. In 2002, Amazon began working with other retailers like The Gap and Nordstrom to integrate clothes into their product line-up (Hoovers).

Amazon continues to diversify their products. Now, Amazon is a Fortune 500 company and is known for its wide range of products and online sales on its trademark website, www.amazon.com. These products include books, DVDS, CDs, software and electronics, apparel, furniture, toys, food, and more. All of these products that are bought and sold include merchandise that has been purchased for resale from vendors as well as products offered by third party sellers. It engages in business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and consumer-to-consumer sales.

The company continues to grow and expand. Currently, Amazon employs about 88,400 people throughout the world (DataMonitor360). Along with that, the company’s financials has been improving. As of the fiscal year end in December 2012, Amazon documented total revenue of $61,093 million, which is a 27.1 percent increase from the fiscal year end in December 2011 (DataMonitor360). The year 2013 was no different in regards to increased and better financials for the company. In a press release at the end of January 2014, Amazon announced they were booming with $74.45 billion in total revenue. Furthermore, their operating cash flow increased to $5.47 billion, approximately 31 percent, and the company’s free cash flow increased $2.03 billion (“Amazon Booms in 2013 With $74.45 Billion in Revenue”, 2014).

The company continues to stay in the top of the market be continuously innovating old services and devising new ones. Some of these newer products and services that Amazon now offers include Amazon Prime, Prime Instant Video, Amazon Kindle, Amazon AutoRip, Amazon Studios, AmazonSmiles, and more.