Research Report 2: Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American e-commerce company based in Seattle, Washington. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995. Amazon.com began as an online bookstore, though it soon diversified its product lines, adding VHSs, DVDs, music CDs, MP3s, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and more. Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, China, and Japan.

Purpose:

Amazon.com is a virtual storefront which sells goods over the internet

Features:

A popular feature of Amazon is the ability for users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. As part of their review, users must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Such rating scales provide a basic idea of the popularity and dependability of a product. The review feature is an important and highly influential function for customers and was certainly one of the main reasons for amazon.com’s success at selling books. Also, Search Inside the Book is a feature which makes it possible for customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog. The feature started out with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003. There are currently about 250,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches.

Key Characteristics:

Amazon.com uses both B2B and B2C business model. It uses a B2B business model because The Web sites of Borders (borders.com, borders.co.uk), Waldenbooks (waldenbooks.com), Virgin Megastores (virginmega.com), CDNOW (cdnow.com), and HMV (hmv.com) are powered and hosted by Amazon. Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for Target, the NBA, Sears Canada, Sears UK, Benefit Cosmetics, Bebe Stores, Timex Corporation, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, and Bombay Company.For a number of these companies, specifically the UK ones like Marks & Spencer and Mothercare, Amazon provides the multi-channel solutions not just the web site. That means that it also powers the in store terminals, customer-service applications and phone-sales terminals. Amazon.com also uses a B2C business model as it act as a virtual storefront which sell goods to individuals. Amazon accepts a wide range of payment mode (American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, Eurocard, Visa, Visa Check Cards, Amazon.com gift certificates, Amazon Credit Account, Webcertificates, and checks, money orders, traveler's checks, or cashier's checks denominated in U.S. dollars and drawn on a U.S. bank.)

Design:

The background colour of the website is white.The texts are either black or blue or orange. It creates a soothing effect on the users.

Strengths:

1. You may return most new, unopened items sold and fulfilled by Amazon.com within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. They'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).
2. You can safely enter your entire credit card number via their secure server, which encrypts all submitted information. If you prefer, they also have a way for you to use your credit card without ever having to enter the complete number on the Internet.
   When filling out the order form, simply enter the last five digits and the expiration date of your credit card on the order form. This gives them a way to track your order but guarantees your security. Once you have fully submitted your order, you will be provided with a phone number so that you may provide them with the rest of your credit card number.
3. You will find a wide range of promotional offers at Amazon.com--some from the manufacturer of an item, some from Amazon.com, and some from third-party sellers on our site. There are three types of promotional offers available: a monetary rebate, a gift that comes with the purchase of a certain item, and an offer to buy multiple items and receive an extra for free.
4. Amazon has worked to protect the security of customers’ information during transmission by using a system called, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information after being entered.

Weaknesses:

1. In 2006 Amazon.co.uk severely limited products that it (or its Marketplace sellers) will ship to the Republic of Ireland, though it will still ship to Northern Ireland. Irish shoppers are now limited to books, CDs, and DVDs only. This is due to WEEE regulations, which Ireland has implemented extremely strictly, while the UK has not.
2. Amazon.com does not publish its toll-free customer service number (+1-800-201-7575) on its own web site. Customers are instead asked to submit written service requests (which are answered by e-mail) or to use a click-to-call service to be connected by phone to an available service representative.