AMITY COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND

FINANCE
PROJECT REPEORT: - 2020
An organizational study on Amazon with specific reference to
marketing department

PROGRAMME: BCOM(HONS)

SEMESTER: 4
NAME OF THE STUDENT: AARUSHI BINDAL
ENROLLMENT NO.: A3104618052
BATCH: 2018 - 2021
DURATION: 21 DAYS
NAME OF THE GUIDE: DR. NIDHI BHATT PANT
 DECLARATION FORM
I hereby declare that the matter in the project report
entitled “An organizational study on Amazon with
specific reference to marketing department” submitted
to Dr. Nidhi Bhatt Pant, Amity College of Commerce
and Finance, Amity University, Noida is a bonafide and
genuine research project under the guidance of Dr.
Nidhi Bhatt Pant. The work done in the report is
original and has not been submitted earlier for the
award of any degree, diploma, or fellowship of any
other university or institution.
Date: 24th January 2020
Name: Aarushi Bindal
Enrolment No: A3104618052
Course: Bcom (hons)
Semester: 4
Batch: 2018 – 2021
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Ms. Aarushi Bindal, student of
B.com(hons) at Amity College of Commerce and
Finance has carried out work presented in the NTCC
report on “An organizational study on Amazon with
specific reference to marketing department” under my
guidance.

__________________
DR. NIDHI BHATT PANT
DEPARTMENT OF COLLEGE OF COMMERCE
AND FINANCE
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
A good beginning is made only when a task is
undertaken with the prayers to almighty and blessings
from the elders. Likewise, the work completed without
acknowledging the assistance to those who were always
by my side to make my efforts fruitful in the task
incomplete.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to my
project guide Dr. Nidhi Bhatt Pant under whose
guideline I was able to complete my research project.
Also, I would like to thank Dr. Sujata Khandai,
Director, Amity College of Commerce and Finance for
giving this project. I am wholeheartedly thankful to
both or giving me their valuable time and attention and
for providing me a systematic way for completing my
project on time. My project has been successful, thanks
to the support staff of many friends and colleagues with
gratitude. I wish to acknowledge all of them.

Student Signature: _______________

S.NO. CONTENT PAGE

NO.
1. Abstract 6
2. Introduction to Amazon 7
3. History of the Company 10
4. SWOT Analysis of amazon 11
5. Product Lines 14
6. Supply chain 16
7. Service process adopted by 17
Amazon
8. Marketing strategies 19
9. CSR activities taken by 24
Amazon
10. Future prospect 26
11. Conclusion 31
12. References 32

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT
The project is prepared on “An organizational study on Amazon
with specific reference to marketing department.”
The project has been designed to know about the company’s
marketing strategy as well as the company’s internal strengths
and weaknesses, possible external threats as well as
opportunities. This project provides all the crucial information
on Amazon.co.inc required for business and competitor
intelligence needs. It contains a study of the major internal
and external factors affecting Amazon in the form of a SWOT
analysis as well as its future prospects and CSR activities
taken by the company.
With this project I have tried to understand the different
business process, as well as its strength and weaknesses as
compared to other company. This project is mainly
concentrating on the company’s SWOT analysis, history of
the company, marketing strategies and its future prospects.
The source of information is secondary that is through internet
and different newspapers and sites of Amazon as well as some
journals.
 INTRODUCTION OF THE
COMPANY
Amazon.com, Inc is an American multinational technology company that
focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial
intelligence. Seattle, Washington, and Arlington, United States is the
headquarter of the company. It is considered one of the “Big Four” technology
companies in the world along with Google, Apple, and Facebook.  
Through technological innovation and mass scale Amazon has created
disruption in well-established industries. It is the world’s largest online
marketplace, AI assistant provider and cloud computing platform. Amazon is
the second-largest private employer in the United States and one of the most
valuable companies in the world. 

The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, in July

1994. Initially, the company started as an online marketplace for books but later
expanded to sell electronics, furniture, software, apparel, food, toys, and
jewellery. In 2015, Amazon beat Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the
United States by market capitalization. In 2017, Amazon vastly increased its
presence as a brick-and-mortar retailer by acquiring the whole food market for
US$13.4 billion. In 2018, Bezos announced that its two-day service, Amazon
Prime, had exceeded 100 million subscribers worldwide.
Amazon provides services like downloads and streaming of video, music, and
audiobooks through different subsidiaries like Amazon Prime Video, Amazon
Music, and Audible. It has a publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a cloud
computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services and a film and television studio,
Amazon Studios. It produces consumer electronics like Fire TV, Fire tablets,
kindle, and Echo devices. Its acquisition includes Ring, Whole Foods Market,
and IMDb. Among various controversies, the company has been criticized for
technological surveillance overreach, a hyper-competitive and demanding work
culture, tax avoidance, and anti-competitive practices.
Board of Directors:
As of November 2019, the governing body is:
 Jeff Bezos, President, CEO, and Chairman
 Rosalind Brewer, Group President, and COO, Starbucks
 Jamie Gorelick, accomplice, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, and Dorr
 Daniel P. Huttenlocher, Dean and Vice Provost, Cornell University
 Judy McGrath, previous CEO, MTV Networks
 Indra Nooyi, previous CEO, PepsiCo
 Jon Rubinstein, previous Chairman, and CEO, Palm, Inc.
 Thomas O. Ryder, previous Chairman, and CEO, Reader's Digest
Association
 Patty Stonesifer, President, and CEO, Martha's Table
 Wendell P. Weeks, Chairman, President, and CEO, Corning Inc. 

List of Promoters:
Amazon Promoters Private Limited is a Private joined on 22 January 2010. It is
delegated a Non-govt organization and is enlisted at Registrar of Companies,
Coimbatore. Its authorised share capital is Rs. 1,000,000 and it paid up capital is
Rs. 550,000. It is engaged with Building of complete developments or parts
thereof; affable designing
Amazon Promoters Private Limited's Annual General Meeting (AGM) kept
going hung on 29 September 2018 and according to records from the Ministry
of Corporate Affairs (MCA), its asset report was kept going documented on 31
March 2018.
Executives of Amazon Promoters Private Limited are Krishnan Valarmathi and
Alagappan Deivanathan.

Finances:
Amazon.com is principally a retail webpage with a business income model;
Amazon takes a little level of the deal cost of everything that is sold through its
site while additionally permitting organizations to publicize their items by
paying to be recorded as included items.Starting at 2018, Amazon.com is
positioned eighth on the Fortune 500 rankings of the biggest United States
enterprises by all-out income.
For the financial year 2018, Amazon announced an income of US$10.07 billion,
with a yearly income of US$232.887 billion, an expansion of 30.9% over the
past monetary cycle. Since 2007 deals expanded from 14.835 billion to 232.887
billion, on account of proceeded with business development. Amazon's market
capitalization was esteemed at over US$803 billion toward the beginning of
November 2018.
 HISTORY OF THE
COMPANY
Jeff Bezos established Amazon in July 1994. He picked Seattle on account of
specialized ability as Microsoft is situated there. In May 1997, the association
opened up to the world. The organization started selling music and recordings in
1998, at which time it started tasks globally by securing on the web merchants
of books in the United Kingdom and Germany. The next year, the association
additionally sold computer games, shopper hardware, home-improvement
things, programming, games, and toys notwithstanding different things.

In 2002, the company began Amazon Web Services (AWS), which gave
information on Site prominence, Web traffic designs and different insights for
advertisers and engineers. In 2006, the association developed its AWS portfolio
when Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which rents PC handling power just as
Simple Storage Services(S3), that rents information stockpiling by means of the
Web, were made accessible. That equivalent year, the organization began
Fulfilment by Amazon which dealt with the stock of people and small
organizations selling their belongings through the organization web website. In
2012, Amazon purchased Kiva Systems to mechanize its stock administration
business, buying Entire Nourishments Market general store chain five years
after the fact in 2017.
 SWOT ANALYSIS OF
AMAZON
 
Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Amazon:
 
1. Strong background and deep pockets:
Built on its early successes with books, Amazon now has product categories
that include electronics, toys, games, home and kitchen, white goods, brown
goods and much more. Amazon has evolved as a global E-commerce giant in
the last 2 decades.
2. Customer-centric:
The Company’s robust CRM has created customer-centric processes in
order to carefully record data on customer’s buying behaviour. This enables
them to offer individual items, related items or bundle them as an offer, based
upon preferences demonstrated through purchases or items visited. Also, the
company claims that 55% of their customers are repeat buyers resulting in low
cost of acquisition of new buyers.
3. Cost leadership:
In order to differentiate itself, the company has created several strategic
alliances with other companies to offer superior customer service. The most
important strategic tie-ups are with logistics providers who control costs.
Because of playing on economies of scale, Amazon is able to lower the
inventory replenishment time.
4. Efficient delivery network:
With its strategic partners & due to its Amazon fulfillment centers, Amazon has
created a deep & structured network in order to make the product available even
at remote locations. It also has free of cost delivery charges in certain
geographies.
5. GLOCAL strategy:
By using the strategy of “Go global & act local”, Amazon is able to fight with
domestic E-commerce companies through absorbing & by forming /partnering
with supply chain companies. The branding too is done as per local taste. For
example- In India, Amazon is currently using the “Aur Dikhao” campaign to
encourage users to browse more of their products.
6. Acquisitions:
Acquiring companies like Zappos.com, Junglee.com, IMBD.com, woot.com,
etc. has proven to be a successful and revenue-generating step for the E-
commerce giant.
Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Amazon:

1. Shrinking margins:

Due to extensive delivery network & price wars Amazons margins are
shrinking, which is resulting in even losses. In India, Amazon had a loss of
$359 CRS in the year 2013-14.
2. Tax Avoidance issue:

Amazon has attracted negative publicity on account of Tax Avoidance in

countries like the U.S & UK. Most of its revenue is generated from these well-
established markets.
3. High Debt:

In many developing nations Amazon is still struggling to make the business

profitable thereby affecting the overall profitability of the group resulting into
High debt.
4. Product flops: 

Amazon launched the fire phone in the US which was a big flop. At the same
time, Kindle fire did not pick up as strongly as Kindle did. Thus, there were
several product flops which caused a dent in Amazon’s deep pockets.
 
Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Amazon:
1. Backward Integration:
Amazon can come up with its In-house brands in different product categories.
They can also differentiate their offering. This will help them make profits in
highly competitive E-commerce market.
2. Global Expansion:
Expansion mainly in Asian & developing economies will help Amazon because
those are the markets with low competition in E-commerce industries & are not
saturated like developed economies.
3. Acquisitions:
By acquiring E-commerce companies, it can decrease the competition level &
also can use the specialized capacity of the other company.
Threats in the SWOT analysis of Amazon:
1. Low entry barriers of the industry:
Low entry barriers affect the current players business as more & more company means
tough competition, price wars, shrinking margins & losses resulting into questioning the
sustainability of the players.
2. Government regulations:
Not having clarity on the issues related to FDI in multi brand retail, has been a big hurdle in
the success of the E-commerce players in many developing nations.
3. Local competition:
India has Snapdeal and Flipkart who are local E commerce retailers and are taking away
majority of the market. Similarly, there are many local players who take bites from the
market share thereby making it hard for a big player like Amazon to make profits.
 PRODUCT LINES
Amazon product line offers various media (books, DVDs, music CDs,
tapes, and programming), attire, child items, shopper gadgets, excellence
items, gourmet nourishment, staple goods, wellbeing and individual
consideration things, modern and logical supplies, kitchen things, gems
and watches, grass and nursery things, instruments, outdoor supplies,
apparatuses, car things, and toys and games.
The organization propelled amazon.com Auctions, a web barters
administration, in March 1999. Be that as it may, it neglected to work on
the huge piece of the overall industry of the business pioneer, eBay.
Afterward, the organization propelled a fixed-value commercial center
business, zShops, in September 1999, and the now dead association with
Sotheby's, called Sothebys.amazon.com, in November. Sales and zShops
advanced into Amazon Marketplace, a help propelled in November 2000
that let clients sell utilized books, CDs, DVDs, and different items close
by new things. As of October 2014, Amazon Marketplace is the biggest
of its sort, trailed by comparable commercial centers from Sears,
Rakuten, and Newegg.
In August 2007, Amazon declared AmazonFresh, a grocery service
offering transitory and durable nourishments. Clients could have orders
conveyed to their homes at first light or during a predefined daytime
window. The Conveyance was at first limited to occupants of Mercer
Island, Washington, and was later extended to a few ZIP codes in Seattle
legitimate. AmazonFresh additionally worked get areas in suburbia of
Bellevue and Kirkland from summer 2007 through mid-2008.
In 2012, Amazon reported the dispatch of Vine.com for purchasing green
items, including staple goods, family unit things, and attire. It is a piece
of Quidsi, the organization that Amazon purchased in 2010 that likewise
runs the locales Diapers.com (child), Wag.com (pets), and YoYo.com
(toys). Amazon likewise possesses other web-based business destinations
like Shopbop.com, Woot.com, and Zappos.com.
Amazon's Subscribe and Save program offers a limited cost on a thing
(typically sold in mass), free dispatching on each Subscribe and Save
shipment, and programmed shipment of the thing each one, two, three, or
a half year.
In 2013, Amazon propelled its site in India, Amazon.in. It began with
electronic merchandise. In July 2014, Amazon said it would contribute $2
billion (Rs 12,000 crore) in India to extend business, after its biggest
Indian opponent Flipkart reported $1 billion in subsidizing.
In 2014, Amazon sold 63% of all books purchased on the web and 40%
of all books sold by and large.
Satisfaction by Amazon Small and Light is a service presented in 2015
that will give satisfaction to little, light things from a center in Florence,
Kentucky. The administration will offer free standard transportation for
little, light, low-esteem things offered on the site by outsider merchants.
In 2015, an investigation by Survata found that 44% of respondents
scanning for items went straightforwardly to Amazon.com.
For un definite reasons, amazon.co-uk has a nation boycott with five
territories totally taboo to conveyance of any sort of products. The second
area of 29 nations is keen on limitations for a merchandise. It
incorporates majority rule countries, for example, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
India, Israel, Japan, Qatar, and Singapore.
Amazon.com has a number of products and services available,
including:
 AmazonFresh
 Amazon prime
 Amazon web services
 Alexa
 Appstore
 Amazon Drive
 Echo

 Kindle
 Fire Tablets
 Fire TV
 Video
 Kindle Store
 Music
 Music Unlimited
 Amazon Digital Game Store
  Amazon Studios

SUPPLY CHAIN
Amazon first launched its distribution network in 1997 with two fulfilment
centers in Seattle and New Castle, Delaware. Amazon has several types of
distribution facilities consisting of cross-dock centers, fulfilment centers,
sortation centers, delivery stations, Prime now hubs, and Prime air hubs. There
are 75 fulfilment centers and 25 sortation centers with over 125,000 employees.
Employees are responsible for five basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting
incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their location; picking
goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual
shipment; sorting and packing orders; and shipping. A computer that records the
location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a key role: employees
carry hand-held computers that communicate with the central computer and
monitor their rate of progress.

Amazon.fr fulfilment center LIL1

in Lauwin-Planque, France.

Amazon.es fulfilment center in San

Fernando de Henares, Spain

Amazon.co.uk fulfilment center Amazon.de fulfilment center in

in Glenrothes, Scotland Germany.
 SERVICE PROCESS
ADOPTED BY AMAZON
In the early stage of the amazon.com journey, the business strategy of
amazon.com was very simple and forward.  Their one and only strategy were to
sell books to the customer online. They invested in the customer and offer them
a huge collection of books online.
“From the beginning, our focus has been on offering our customers compelling
value.  We realized that the web was and still is the World Wide Web.
Therefore, we set out to offer the customer something they simply could not get
any other way and began serving them with the book.” -Jeff P. Bezos 
Amazon.com attracted customers by offering 1-click shopping, low price, and
increasing customer’s value. Creating easy to use and easy to learn customer
interfaces was a key aspect of Amazon’s strategy. (Jarvanpaa, S.L., Tiller, E.H.)
1. Smart Innovation Strategy:
The main reason for the successful journey of amazon.com so far is the
innovation strategy of the company. Amazon.com started the business by
offering DVDs and CDs alongside books. In the following year, they brought
auction theme to the customer. Their strategy was to provide customers a better
experience of the auction by protection from the fraud to the bidder though this
strategy did not bring success to the company. Amazon followed the B2C
(Business to Customer) model. But it again changed its strategy and
transformed from the direct sales business model to a sales and service model.
Through this model amazon’s target group was customers and other business
groups. Amazon.com offered small business groups to use amazon web services
and platforms to offer their product to customers. Amazon took a commission
on each sale of other retailer’s products. Through this service amazon created an
ecosystem in the market. Through Amazon Associates Program amazon created
and developed a partnership with customers and businessmen.  The primary
goal of the program was to acquire new customers to boost sales on
Amazon.com.
Amazon instead gave them its affiliates a revenue share. This allowed Amazon
to extend its market place into a broad section from a single product. There was
a change in the model in the Amazon business strategy. It was a cyber- book
store and with the 7 affiliates and association of the other retailer and being a
platform to the others it became a cyber-market.
2. Customer Relation Management Strategy:
When a customer first enters into Amazon.com he/she is provided
“Featured Product‟ by the website, but when the customer visits for the second
time the recommender system automatically provides products by studying
customer interests and personality. Customer acquisition and retention have
been the most priority to Amazon.com’s strategy. Through website Amazon
maintains sophisticated communication that automates the process of creating
value for the customer.
Jeff Bezos 3 big idea –
1.       Limitless inventory
2.       Customer Care
3.       High margin, lowest price.
3. Limitless Inventory:
When amazon started offered books to the customers. But over the period it
increased its products from books to music, movie, cloud storage, gaming and
many more. Poter mentioned three district sources-
1.       Serving few needs of many customer
2.       Serving broad needs of few customers
3.  Serving the broad needs of many
customers.                                                     
Initially, Amazon has followed the first source of serving with few products.
But it changed its strategy over time and now it fits into third sources.
4. Customer Care:
“If you do build a great experience, the customer tells each other about that.
Word to mouth is very powerful” - Jeffry p. Bezos
One of the success factors of amazon.com is word of mouth. Because of
excellent customer service customers trusted Amazon. They used to talk about
Amazon.com to others. This spread rapidly by creating increasing traffic on the
web site.
5. High Margin, Lowest Price:
Amazon.com provides products significantly cheaper than its competitors. One
of the main visions of Amazon.com is based on the long-term plan. (1997
Stockholder report) This makes easier for amazon to take risk of low profit in
order to succeed in the future. An estimate shows how it is possible for amazon
to become profitable at the lowest price.  A product on average gets sold in 33
days through amazon.com. On the other side, its competitors like best buy took
70 days to sell the product. Amazon keeps the best-selling product to its own
stock and longer tail items to third party sellers’ stock. This gives an advantage
to the company.
6. Marketing and Promotion Strategy:
Amazon’s marketing strategy remains a strategy brand name, increasing
customer traffic, customer loyalty.  To gain so amazon.com undergone various
promotional methods. Public relation activities, online and traditional
advertising including radio, television and print media are prominent.
7. Associate Program:
To boost the customer traffic and rate of sale amazon.com started an associate
program with customers and small businessmen. Approximately 200,000
websites have enrolled in the associate program. 

MARKETING
STRATIGIES
MARKETING MIX:
Amazon is one of the world's greatest online retailers, selling a huge swath of
products, for example, books, music, games, garments and motion pictures.
Starting in 2013, Amazon utilizes 117, 300 individuals from staff, and has a
worldwide net income of 74.45 billion US dollars.
Since its origination in 1995, Amazon has outgrown a few rivals in its field, and
has proceeded to turn into a market head, and has around 240 million client
accounts around the world. Amazon has utilized cautious venture and securing
of other littler organizations to empower itself to remain ahead in its field and
keeps on extending its item run while offering serious costs to clients, and
quicker conveyances to the individuals who decide to pursue its different record
bundles.
In July 2013, Amazon propelled its administrations in India, deciding not to
utilize a publicizing effort. The site is positioned as the 27th generally well
known in India, with around 4.2% of all Amazon clients originating from this
nation. The organization is doing admirably here, and this Indian endeavour is a
piece of a greater exertion to offer its administrations to a more extensive scope
of individuals in Asia.

 Product in the marketing mix of Amazon

Amazon is a worldwide online business organization, utilizing associations with
the web from different contraptions, for example, telephones and tablets, to
permit its clients to peruse and buy items right away. These items are then
conveyed to the client, utilizing conveyance administration organizations.
Amazon has developed an enormous item base and sells nearly everything,
including: Kindle, Books, DVDs, Mobile phones/tablets, Gaming consoles and
games, Clothes for men/women and children, Jewellery, Gardening equipment.
Amazon at first began uniquely with books and it is to date known as the most
elevated book retailer on the planet. This is the reason, Amazon additionally
presented Kindle. Generously is an eBook peruser from Amazon and the
explanation the distributing market is having such a major upheaval of changing
over the hard paper to advanced digital books as a result of the simplicity of
perusing by Kindle. Because of the achievement of Kindle, Amazon
additionally presented Kindly fire – its own tablet pc.
Type in an inquiry passage into a web crawler for a particular item, and the odds
are that Amazon will stock what you need, and will be on the pursuit list. As
they keep on developing, an ever-increasing number of items are added to their
stock. When built up into books, Amazon immediately extended to different
items to keep up its quality in the market. Where eBay is known for geek items,
Amazon is known for its learned items.
Amazon keeps on extending its item base, and in July 2014 it entered the cell
phone showcase, discharging its own one of a kind Fire Phone. The telephone
followed the discharge a month sooner of Amazon's own special set top box
framework – Amazon Fire TV-which permits gushing from different stations,
just as supporting discourse directions while looking.
Amazon keeps on growing its item base, and in July 2014 it entered the
advanced mobile phone showcase, discharging its own special Fire Phone. The
telephone followed the discharge a month sooner of Amazon's own one of a
kind set-top box framework – Amazon Fire TV-which permits spilling from
different stations, just as supporting discourse directions while looking.

 Place in the marketing mix of Amazon

In the recent past, sites such as indiaplaza and allshcoolstuff were forced to
close due to the lack of trust when buying goods online. However, the brand
image of Amazon enables it to have a far and wide presence and the bottom line
of the company is enough to enable massive R&D efforts to secure the website.
Amazon has customer service bases in many of the countries where it has an
online presence, with most bases being located in the different states of the
USA. Amazon employees are friendly and relaxed.

 Promotion in the marketing mix of Amazon

. While Amazon has communicated TV plugs, these are for the most part in the
American market. Amazon utilizes for the most part online promoting, and they
utilize board and littler strategies for publicizing. Amazon likewise utilizes
promoting systems on the web so that at whatever point you check something
on Amazon, you will see an advertisement for something very similar elsewhere
on some other site. Web index advertising and getting the organization's name
high up the internet searcher's outcomes is additionally a shrewd special
procedure by Amazon. The organizer of Amazon had this at the top of the
priority list while making the organization, concluding that it should begin with
an 'a'
In India, Amazon can be seen to rely on the best source of promotion there is –
word of mouth. People telling others about the site, or mentioning it in a
positive way is a sure way to have a new future customer. However, there are
several print media ads to make their presence felt to the people. However,
much more is needed in the promotions department from Amazon in India
because the traffic of Amazon is being taken over fast by Flipkart.

 Price in the marketing mix of Amazon

Amazon is competitive with its prices and has little ways of staying ahead of its
market contemporaries. For instance, in the event that you are hoping to
purchase a book, Amazon offers you another duplicate, or a pre-owned
duplicate also, complete with evaluating and condition. Another activity is to
pay to have an excellent record, guaranteeing quicker conveyances. Amazon
can likewise keep their costs serious because of their utilization of staff. Least
numbers – yet all around prepared – guarantee that purchasers’ profit by the
absence of overheads, and the outcome appears in the costs on the web.
 Distribution strategy in the Marketing strategy of
Amazon
Amazon realizes that the most important thing that customers want is the quick
delivery of products they order.  This is where Amazon’s extensive distribution
system has come into play.  Amazon now has more than 55 fulfilment centres
exceeding 43 million square feet.
This does not include Amazon’s new “under-the-tent” strategy of using existing
vendor warehouse space for consumer-packaged goods to more quickly serve
customers.  Their aggressive strategy of infiltrating warehouses and improving
their distribution lines brings Amazon to new areas and customers.
Amazon had created a deep & structured network in order to make
the product available at remote locations that too free of cost delivery charges
up to certain limit. Amazon has developed an extensive global distribution
network that continues to grow at frenzied rate.

Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy of

Amazon
In order to differentiate itself, company acquired many IT & e-commerce start-
ups like pets.com, audible.com, Junglee.com, IMBD.com, Zappos.com, Woot
etc. which helped them in providing high value to their customers using existing
technology of the acquired partners at low cost. Amazon has also
achieved economies of scale through extensive product offerings which include
electronics, toys and games, apparels, DIY and many more.
These offerings help Amazon to keep its prices low thereon passing on
the benefits to the consumers. Amazon’s robust customer centric approach to
analyse the customer buying behaviour based upon preferences has helped them
to have competitive edge over their competitors. More than 50% of the
consumers are the repeat buyers at Amazon.com. Furthermore, Amazon is one
of the longest players to be present in the online sector and has a solid hold in
European countries and US.  This bottom line is helping the company to expand
in new markets.

Customer analysis in the Marketing strategy of

Amazon
Amazon customers consist of upper- & middle-class social groups who have
inclination towards using E-commerce portals and are comfortable with online
shopping. Majority of the customers are professionals or businessmen who are
busy with their business/Job & find it convenient to purchase anything online
rather than visiting the physical outlet in order to save time & money.
Furthermore, the customers might also be the ones who are searching for deals.
Due to this, the portal is known to have specific days where they give massive
discounts to their buyers.

Brand equity in the Marketing strategy of Amazon

From being merely an e-book provider to emerging as the 2nd largest e-
commerce company in the world, Amazon.com has steadily increased its
spending on advertising and promotion to make its brand stronger and have a
higher brand equity.
By April 2015, the brand of Amazon.com was worth US$ 176 billion. “A brand
for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to
do hard things. With more than 55% repeat buyers, the numbers tell everything
about the brand. It is among 13 world’s most valuable brand” 

CSR ACTIVITIES TAKEN

BY THE COMPANY
Strikingly, notwithstanding the size and the extent of its business, Amazon
doesn't discharge yearly maintainability or CSR report. The Official site of the
organization stays as the main wellspring of data about the scope of
manageability projects and measures started by the organization.
Additionally, Amazon's first manageability official Kara Hartnett Hurst was
delegated uniquely in August 2014 as a sign that CSR part of the business has
not been given due consideration for an extensive stretch of time.
Amazon positioned #1 in 2017, third-year straight in Annual Reputation
Quotient discharged by Harris Poll. The two significant zones where Amazon
has improved its social obligation altogether are bundling enhancements and
sustainable power source duties.
 Amazon CSR Programs and Initiatives
Amazon Supporting Local Communities
 In 2016 Amazon launched its first nationwide initiative with Feeding
America in its U.S. fulfilment centres to donate excess food to Feeding
America
 World reader’s LEAP 2.0 library partnership in Kenya reaches
approximately 500,000 people by bringing digital reading to all 61
Kenyan public libraries.
 Over 1,000 volunteers, service providers, retail vendors, and customers
have participated in a Local Love event. To date, the company has
donated over 1,600 volunteer hours and USD 65,000 in products to non-
profits.
 Amazon’s Device Donation Program facilitates the donation of electronic
devices and gift cards to schools located near Amazon fulfilment centres
throughout the US
 The company hosts ‘Girls Who Code’ events occasionally to help get
more girls interested in coding
 The e-commerce giant supports local and national non-profits with cash
and product donations.

Amazon Educating and Empowering Workers

 Amazon Career Choice Program pre-pays 95% of tuition for employees

“to take courses for in-demand fields, such as airplane mechanic or
nursing, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at
Amazon” Up to date the program has been attended by more than 16000
employees worldwide.
 Amazon Virtual Contact Centre, allows Amazon’s customer service
employees to work from home.
 Amazon program “Pay to Quit” offers USD 5000 to warehouse workers
who quit to encourage employees to take a moment and think about what
they really want.

Energy Consumption by Amazon

 Amazon Wind Farm Texas, launched in 2017 generates more than

1,000,000
megawatt hours of clean energy annually from over 100 turbines.
 The e-commerce giant has pledged to host solar energy systems at 50
fulfilment centres by 2020.
 Three million square feet of Amazon head office in Seattle is planned to
be heated by a district system—recycling the heat from a nearby building
to heat the office space
  Amazon will host solar energy systems on 15 fulfilment facility rooftops
across the US, with the capacity to generate 41 megawatts (MW) of
power
 AWS’ ten renewable energy projects will generate a total of 2.6 million
megawatt hours of energy annually.

Other Amazon CSR Initiatives and Charitable Donations

 Amazon Smile assists customers to support their favourite charitable

organization when they buy products atamazon.com. There are nearly one
million charitable organizations that are eligible for Amazon Smile
 Amazon Literary Partnership supports non-profit literary organizations
via providing grant funding to aspiring writers
 The company is committed to provide occasional donations as disaster
relief. For example, about USD 290,000 was donated to relief efforts for
the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, about USD 320,000 was donated to for
Typhoon Haiyan relief in the Philippines and about USD 430,000 was
donated to Hurricane Sandy relief in the U.S in 2012.
 In 2015, Amazon delivered 2,000 gift packages to active US military men
and women serving far from their families and 500 gift packages were
given to their children

FUTURE PROSPECT OF
THE COMPANY
Cashier-free stores:
Waiting in line at the grocery store could soon become a thing of the past thanks
to Amazon. In January 2018, the company opened up its first cashier-less
convenience store in Seattle to the general public. Called Amazon Go, the stores
could completely revolutionise shopping. There are now 10 Amazon Go staff-
free, checkout-free stores across the US, in several major cities, including
Chicago and San Francisco. It has been reported that as many as 3,000 stores
are planned by 2021. The 'Just Walk Out' stores are a step beyond self-serve
tills, and could spell the end of queuing at the supermarket, and the need for
cashiers or supervisors. The way the stores work is revolutionary in terms of
technology. In order to shop at the Amazon, Go stores you will have to
download the Amazon Go app for Android and iOS. This will be linked to your
Amazon account and it must be done before shopping in store. This way you
can add other shoppers, family members for example, to the account, so all
purchases can be made on one bill. As the stores are fitted with sensors and
cameras, and use deep learning algorithms and other state-of-the-art
technologies, you will be able to add items to your virtual cart by just picking
them off the shelves. Weight sensors will then activate the purchase on your
app. But you can still change your mind. If you place an item back on the shelf,
it will be removed from the virtual cart, as both the weight sensors and the app
will determine what was put back and who by.

Reinventing the department store

Not content with just transforming our food shopping experience, in addition to
expanding Amazon Go convenience stores in the US, Amazon is partnering
with Hyundai in South Korea, via its Web Services subsidiary, to create the
planet's first cashier-free department store. It will be the first of its kind
worldwide and promises to put technology at the forefront of the shopping
experience. Opening in 2020, the cutting-edge retail space will also feature
delivery drones, and few human staff, making it the most technologically-
advanced shopping space in the world. The cashier-free store concept could be
the real game-changer, transforming the way we shop entirely.
 AI-powered home robots
In April 2018, Bloomberg revealed that Amazon is working on a project that
could really shake things up: a next-generation smart robot for the home that
will be powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Not much is known about this
secret project but it is apparently called Vesta, named after the Roman
goddess of home and family. It's fitting: this robot will help around the house
with cleaning and other chores, making everyday home life just that little bit
easier.

The domestic robot is being developed by Amazon's Lab126 hardware and

research division, which is distinct from Amazon Robotics, the subsidiary that
makes industrial fulfillment robots for the company's warehouses. Lab126 has
reportedly been working on the project for a number of years and is said to be
nearing the final stages. Vesta robots will be deployed to the homes of selected
Lab126 staff at the end of the year for testing. Domestic robots are nothing new,
but Vesta is expected to boast the latest AI, camera, sensor and other futuristic
technologies, and may be able to do everything from simple household chores
to complex problem-solving, as well as providing companionship. We can
expect a launch date in the next year or so.

'Alexa, can you be my constant companion?'

Amazon has big plans for Alexa, its cloud-based voice assistant. Priya Abani,
director of Amazon Voice Services, sums them up succinctly: “We basically
envision a world where Alexa is everywhere.” Amazon wants AI-powered
Alexa to be a constant companion, with you 24/7 to help run your life and keep
you company. In September 2018 Daniel Rausch, the vice-president of
Amazon's Smart Home division, announced that Alexa has been integrated in
20,000 devices, up from 4,000 devices in January of that year. That's quite a
jump, but Amazon isn't stopping there. Alexa has proved to be a huge money
maker for Amazon, which is probably why it's investing a lot in its future. Over
100 million Alexa devices have been sold worldwide and more are coming. As
well as speakers, laptops, microwaves and other gadgets for the home, Alexa is
also finding her way into offices, hotels, smart glasses and more recently, cars.

Amazon faces stiff competition from Google and Apple, which have their own
hugely popular voice assistants, which is why this next move for Alexa could
prove to be the big game changer. The Alexa earbuds, which are expected to
launch later this year, will allow people to listen to music, access apps, manage
your calendar, order things and more by using their voice. All while being on
the go. The earbuds are also expected to be cheaper than Apple AirPods. The
earbuds will work similarly to the Echo speakers, where people can say ‘Alexa’
before being able to make a command. According to Bloomberg, it will be the
audio quality as well as the spoken commands that will set this product apart
from the competition. The project, like Vesta, is top secret and Amazon so far
have not commented on it or released any images. Without Amazon’s own
phone however – the Amazon Fire smartphone launched in 2015 was an
absolute disaster for the company – the earbuds will need to be compatible with
other smartphones, such as iPhones. That won’t be easy for Amazon but there is
hope it will happen. Eventually.

Fleets of delivery drones

There's been a lot of hype about the Amazon Prime Air drone delivery service
since December 2013 when CEO Jeff Bezos mentioned the firm's exciting plans
to develop the concept during a US TV interview. It's now well on the way to
rolling out the futuristic service, which will deliver packages weighing up to
five pounds within just 30 minutes using miniature drones. In December 2016,
the first Prime Air package was delivered at breakneck speed in Cambridge,
England. Amazon, which has built a Prime Air fulfillment hub near the city, is
currently testing drones in the surrounding countryside. In fact, there's a very
good reason Amazon Prime Air is being developed in the UK rather than the US
– the service is poised to launch in Britain first. Right now, US regulations state
that a drone must remain within the pilot's line of sight, but Britain's National
Air Traffic Control Service (NATS) is a lot more enthusiastic about the
technology. NATS is relaxing the beyond the line of sight rule, which means
Amazon's drone deliveries could get the regulatory green light in the UK soon.
Whether the service actually gets going in 2019 though remains to be seen, as
no launch date has been set. The recent commotion of drones causing trouble at
UK airports probably hasn't helped much either.

Innovative healthcare
It may be news to you, but Amazon could end up being the next big name in
healthcare. The trailblazing company has been supplying hospitals for years
now, but now intends to take the healthcare side of the business to the next
level. In January 2018, Amazon teamed up with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire
Hathaway to develop a non-profit company that will offer its collective
employees "simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable
cost.” Amazon is also getting into the multibillion-dollar prescription drugs
market, a move that should further lower healthcare costs across America. In
June 2018, the company snapped up online pharmacy PillPack, enabling it to
dispense prescriptions in 50 states, something that would have taken years to
achieve otherwise.

Looking further ahead, Amazon is aiming to develop Alexa as a healthcare

assistant that could offer advice on how to manage common illnesses, remind
patients to take their medication and so on. It hired a special team in May 2018
to work on the project. Alexa will also be able to work out if you are ill and to
recommend suitable medicines to take, before making the order for you from
Amazon PillPack. Along with developing Alexa's healthcare skills, Amazon has
shown interest in acquiring a telemedicine platform that will host virtual
consultations between doctors and patients. This would mean that Amazon
could be involved at every point in the process, linking patients to doctors to
diagnose an illness, before dispatching medication from Amazon PillPack.

CONCLUSION
Amazon is a revolutionary e-marketplace that is both world-renowned
and extremely efficient. Amazon has gone from a small company run
out of a garage, to a Fortune 100 company run all over the world.
Amazon fulfils their mission statement every day by being a
customer-centric company that offers over 200 million products at the
lowest prices possible. Amazon is a very innovative company that
creates and manufactures many products. They are always expanding
and trying to create new ways to make their company and the lives of
their customers better. Amazon’s biggest competition as an e-
marketplace is eBay. Amazon currently leads this market by having a
more organized, effective, professional, and easy to use website.
Furthermore, Amazon’s brand personality is that they are a fast,
friendly, innovative company that can be trusted. All of these traits
make Amazon the website where most customers choose to do their
shopping. Also, Amazon makes their customers their top priority and
successfully appeals to their values, knowledge, and interests.
Amazon’s two loyalty programs of Amazon Prime and Amazon Visa
Rewards Card provide many benefits to their members and make
shopping on their website quick and easy. Overall, Amazon has
developed into one of the most important and successful companies
in the world today.

REFRENCES

 https://www.aboutamazon.in/
 https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/77190/amazons-future-plans-
from-cashless-stores-to-home-robots
 https://www.customer.com/blog/retail-marketing/amazon-business-
strategy/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-orientation
 https://research-methodology.net/amazon-corporate-social-responsibility/