There has been a big shift in the way business is done. Although the majority of sales are still conducted in brick-and-mortar stores, you see more and more sales being conducted online. Many companies have taken the digital approach in their business and it has become a bit of a formality and a standard. Amidst all of the online selling, there is one name in particular that is synonymous with the notion of e-commerce: Amazon.com. What is it about this brand that sets it apart and deems it the spearhead of online selling? Let’s explore the humble beginnings of Amazon.com, look at what it has become, and see how it has shaped an industry around itself.
Amazon Founding
The Amazon company has been operating for just over two decades, and has experienced great success in its time. CEO Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 after leaving work on Wall Street in his rear view mirror. Bezos was seeing the trends in internet usage and had decided to create Amazon in an effort to capture and hone the selling capabilities of the world wide web.
“The wake up call was finding this startling statistic that web usage in the spring of 1994 was growing at 2,300 percent a year. You know, things just don’t grow that fast. It’s highly unusual, and that started me about thinking, “What kind of business plan might make sense in the context of that growth?”
The primary capital investments for the endeavor were acquired through the support of Bezos’ parents, a sum of a few hundred thousand dollars, which Bezos concluded had a 70 percent chance of the entire investment being lost. Despite the odds that had been projected, Amazon has managed to not only circumvent loss, but has made a great deal of earnings and expansion all together. Online selling and selling of all sorts would never been the same after Amazon made their break-through into the industry.
Amazon in the Beginning
Amazon struck near-immediate success upon startup. The first month was marked by earnings of roughly $20,000 per week in sales. Contrary to the scope of Amazon today, where it sells any item you could really think of and from countless vendors, the company originally was simply in the business of selling books. Bezos would essentially utilize his personal spaces as stock rooms for inventory items and operated strictly from online, in order to deliver on the reading material needs on Amazon shoppers. Using the same online selling format, Amazon expanded into sales of all things in the year of 1998, upon finding that the company could fulfill the demands of online shoppers beyond just books.
Amazon Progression and Endeavors in Time
From the humble yet quickly-growing beginnings of selling books online, Amazon managed to expand into territory. The Amazon ‘smiles from A-Z’ mantra bears some great truth, as the company managed to meander from the strictly-book-selling online model and rope itself into the business of simply selling online. With the very lucrative and effective method of online selling, it has endeavored into many different fields. Since the inception of the Amazon.com, the company has managed to acquire ownership of businesses such as Audible, IMDB, Whole Foods, and more. Amazon has taken the notion of online selling and harnessed it for uses unimaginable even just a decade ago, such as groceries. Needless to say, Amazon has taken the internet and made anything obtainable through it.
Furthermore, Amazon has also provided a mutually beneficial way offer for brand growth to private sellers. Imagine a system where a small business could use the Amazon name and its technologies in order to increase its recognition. Now, stop imagining, because it is a real thing! Any online business is now capable of grasping the selling power of Amazon. So, not only has Amazon changed the way we shop online, it also has improved the way we sell online as well, exhibiting the sheer power of the company and its ability and know how for implementing and imparting successful online business practice.
Amazon Value
Between the founding of Amazon and 2008 roughly, value for the company was fairly steady. Since then, value has increased significantly. Amazon has even managed to beat out some of the top retail sellers that have become synonymous with big sales. When it comes to success in retail, people’s attention has always been directed to one powerhouse; WalMart. The business has managed to sell good and services at a high profit margin for low costs. This enabled WalMart to satisfy customers while being sustainable itself. It led the company to become one of the most successful retailers in the world. However, this is under the brick-and-mortar model of retail selling. Things are digital now!
In 2015, Amazon became more valuable than WalMart, according to studies by Recode. There are a few reasons for the success of the company in the time since its inception. First of all, online shopping has become more and more prevalent to consumers. Factor into that statement the fact that Amazon has found a way to account for 45% of those online sales, making them a force to be reckoned with online. Furthermore, Amazon has based its success on not taking profits, but reinvesting what it has to continue to grow, take on new endeavors, increase customer experience, but still keep goods and services high quality and low cost for buyers. By maintaining this balance, Amazon has now, in 2017, been able to achieve its status as online selling go-to.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Amazon has taken the growth of the internet and the need for new shopping experiences and changed e-commerce forever. When it comes to online shopping, there is no name that can be attributed to or associated with it better than Amazon.com. To thrive in a digital selling world, it is crucial to look to brands such as this to see the full scope of what is possible in online selling. To gain more insight into Amazon, how to use their Marketplace Web Services for your benefit, or even get started with a website and the basic means to operate online, contact Rave Retailer today!