Amazon and Its Global Strategies: Improving Product's Portfolio

AMAZON AND ITS GLOBAL STRATEGIES
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Amazon and Its Global Strategies
Amazon.com is an internet based retail company renowned globally for offering shopping services. Started in 1914 and headquartered in Seattle, amazon’s stature in the market is that of providing an affordable wide range of products and services whilst being distinctively different in the online retail business. The company’s management is geared towards maintaining healthy competition and preserving its competitive advantage.
Amazon rolled out strategies between 2009 and 2013 focused entirely on global dominance. These are acquisitions and mergers, development and use of technology, and efficient utilization of resources. All these directed towards improving the customer experience. (Ritala et al. 2014) assert that operational effectiveness alone cannot guarantee sustainable competitive advantage. On that, Amazon has designed distinctive, unique and consistent internal operation systems that are transferred to its products ensuring sustained competitive advantage. Amazons global strategy was built on three pillars; affordability, a wide range of selection and convenience for the customer (Filson 2004).
Amazon is committed to providing low-cost products without altering the product quality. In increasing its range of goods and services the company in 2013 launched the Amazon cloud player and Amazon coins and in the same year expanding to over 200 countries. Other services provided include in the Amazon package include a currency converter and developer software. Amazon sought to improve customer satisfaction by collecting feedback online and continued commitment to Innovation and R&D.
Amazon approached the business level strategy with aggressive intent exploiting the core competencies in the industry. Its cost leadership and differentiation strategy allowed Amazon to wade off competitors such as eBay and Netflix. The company enjoys customer loyalty in a highly volatile market due to uniqueness and assurance associated with its products. Strategically, Amazon succeeded in creating barriers for potential entrants by offering differentiation, quality and affordability at the same time a feat difficult to achieve. However, the costs on occasion would be passed on to its customers.
The company has faced many challenges over time but has managed to stay afloat thanks in large part to its culture and brand stability. However, new competitors in the industry such as Barnes and Noble have become more established, offering even stiffer competition, which Amazon is finding hard to cope with. Moreover, the global finance crisis and deteriorating shareholder sentiments are not helping the Amazon situation. Jeff, the founder, confirmed that its takes five to seven years before the company’s investments realize economic gains (Asher 2012). The low entry cost associated with opening an online store has seen several online bookstores open up which eat into amazon’s market share. However, amazon’s customer loyalty has reduced this threat to a minimum. At the same time, not all clients are comfortable buying books online. Competitors have tapped in this s...