Amazon's Prime Now Supply Chain Management Trends and Issues

Amazon's Prime Now Supply Chain Management
Student Name
University
Course
Instructor Name
Due Date

Amazon's Prime Now Supply Chain Management: A Customer-Centric Approach

Introduction

            In 2004, when Amazon was ten years old, its annual revenue was close to $7 billion. By 2018, this revenue had increased to $3 billion, becoming the fastest company in history to reach $100 billion in sales revenue in just under 20 years with a 20% annual growth rate (Leblanc, 2020). With the current growth rate, it is expected that the organization will reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2027. This tremendous growth has come following critical strategic decisions and reliance on technological innovation. The main competitors of the firm include Walmart, AliExpress, eBay, Flipkart, and Rakuten. Through proper strategic decisions, Amazon has managed to differentiate itself as the leading e-commerce brand in the world. According to Sharanya (2018), the core secret of Amazon's transformation from a mere online bookseller to the most dominant and formidable retail industry is its innovative and efficiency-oriented supply chain, the customer-centric supply chain management approach (figure 2, Appendix). The company's continuous and deliberate efforts to deliver products to customers in the shortest time possible are transforming the supply chain landscape and causing intense pressure on competitors currently playing catch up. Therefore, the current paper aims to explore Amazon's supply chain management and highlight key areas in which the organization is outdoing its competitors in the industry. Amazon business provides customers with two options: to purchase directly from Amazon or a third-party seller affiliated to or certified by Amazon. Amazon is the seller of record, owns the item, and fulfills all orders on purchases directly from the organization. In the second option, third parties are always the seller of record and own the items. Third parties have the option of fulfilling the orders themselves but can also rely on Amazon's growing distribution services. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the supply chain in Amazon, a discussion of current supply chain management trends and issues, with recommendations and conclusions.

Amazon Supply Chain and Operations

Today, more than half of Amazon's total units sold are from third parties. Third-party products are displayed alongside Amazon's product offerings on the Amazon website. This dual view allows customers to make purchase decisions based on prices, shipment options, and seller preferences without necessarily visiting many stores indicating convenience (Li, Wang, & Song, 2021). Where businesses are involved, one search on Amazon results in access to multiple sellers competing for the business, reducing the costs and complexities of procurement. Further, Amazon provides payment processing and advertising for third-party sellers.

          &nb...