![\"Amazon](\"http:\/\/d1aqjv7vyrf1tv.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Amazon-Logo.jpg?e6c31c\"){kind=logo}
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Online shopping changed the face of retail. A world where one would have to go to a physical\u00a0store\u00a0such as Walmart to find goods, increasingly online stores are being used more and more to buy everything from cabbage to toilets. Amazon, the largest online retailer by revenue, is now almost synonymous with the process even as brick and mortar competitors such as Walmart have their own e-retail websites. Amazon is undoubtedly a winner in the modern retail market, where online sales have encroached more and more on the brick and mortar one. And it is clear that Amazon is successful because of how it finds more ways to funnel people to its online marketplace.<\/p>\n
One must ask how innovative Amazon really is. Amazon, unlike its brick and mortar competitors, does not have to run a store. This means it does not have to put a cashier at the front to run a store, it does not need to restock the store,\u00a0or to give it a certain \u201cflavor\u201d like\u00a0Whole Foods does. Finally, it does not have to distribute items across stores according to the demand for said items on a regional basis. This allows Amazon to pass on the savings it made from not running storefronts on to the customer. This is not new. Sears started out as a mail order company and later built its own stores.[1]<\/a> Furthermore, Amazon\u2019s policy of keeping its prices low- which built the expectation that Amazon\u2019s prices are lower than its competition- mirrors the strategy used by Walmart and other discount retailers. At first glance Amazon\u2019s strategy is not that new.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s retail strategy is innovative because of how Amazon built on its one-stop shop narrative to sell more and more goods and act as an intermediary to sell even more goods. Amazon started as a book retailer, and then it expanded into selling other goods. It created relationships with retailers, small business owners, and individuals by allowing them to sell their goods through Amazon\u2019s website. This allows Amazon to sell goods for even cheaper than it does on its own while still taking a cut from what it calls \u201c3rd<\/sup> party sellers.\u201d Furthermore, it used its book-selling expertise to sell eBooks. To expand its eBook collection, Amazon allows authors to self-publish their own eBooks and sell through Amazon.com. All of these methods allows Amazon to expand its number of products and services to convince people they can do all of their shopping through Amazon.<\/p>\n Amazon also invested heavily to become an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to create the Kindle, a dedicated e-reading device that fed into a virtuous circle where Amazon sold media and media playing devices.[2]<\/a> One can use these devices to play media and buy<\/em> media as people used their Kindles to buy more books. Amazon continues\u00a0this strategy by creating more such devices, such as the Kindle Fire and the Amazon Fire TV. This leads to more revenue through media sales that Amazon can reinvest into broadening its marketplace, creating more devices, and developing more services.<\/p>\n As a result, Amazon is the largest online retailer in the United States, followed by Apple and Walmart.[3]<\/a> Nowadays Amazon is so prevalent that people go to stores such as Best Buy to \u201cshowroom\u201d a product, or check out a good such as a television and then buying it online for a lower price. This strategy damaged Borders as people visited them to find books they like and then buying them cheaper on Amazon.[4]<\/a> Amazon\u2019s strategy worked so well that it sold $50bn worth of goods in North America in 2014.[5]<\/a> By comparison the largest retailer in America, Walmart, made $12.2bn in fiscal 2014 globally off of its online sales, less than a sixth of Amazon\u2019s total revenue in the same period and region. While it still makes most of its revenue through its physical stores, growth in that sector is slower than online sales, where Amazon is dominant.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Overall, Amazon has done well by using its strength in online sales to expand into a large online retailer. While brick-and-mortar retail has not disappeared, around one tenth of U.S. shopping is now done online, and Amazon has about a tenth of that market. Given that online sales did not exist until two decades ago,[7]<\/a> \u00a0that is impressive. Amazon has shown itself to be a capable innovator for more than two decades, and it is set to do well for some time to come.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> \u201cSears Settles in Chicago,\u201d Sears<\/em>, September 13, 2015, http:\/\/www.searsarchives.com\/history\/history1887.htm<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Mark W. Johnson, “Amazon’s Smart Innovation Strategy,” Bloomberg Business<\/em>, April 12, 2010, September 13, 2015, http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/innovate\/content\/apr2010\/id20100412_520351.htm<\/a><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Hiroko Tabuchi, \u201cWalmart, Lagging in Online Sales, Is Strengthening E-Commerce,\u201d New York Times,<\/em> June 5 2015, September 13, 2015, http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/06\/06\/business\/walmart-lagging-in-online-sales-is-strengthening-e-commerce.html?_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Yuki Noguchi, \u201cWhy Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived,\u201d NPR<\/em>, July 19, 2011, September 13, 2015, http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2011\/07\/19\/138514209\/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived<\/a><\/p>\n [5]<\/a> \u201cAmazon 2014 Annual Report,\u201d P27<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Hiroko Tabuchi, \u201cWalmart, Lagging in Online Sales, Is Strengthening E-Commerce\u201d<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Monty Henry, \u201cTotal Offline Retail Sales VS Internet Sales,\u201d LinkedIn, September 16, 2014, September 12, 2015, https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/20140916161816-1767830-total-offline-retail-sales-vs-internet-sales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Online shopping changed the face of retail. A world where one would have to go to a physical\u00a0store\u00a0such as Walmart to find goods, increasingly online stores are being used more and more to buy everything from cabbage to toilets. Amazon, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-550","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/digital-winners-and-losers\/","yoast_head":"\n