The business model of Amazon. com

Amazon? Most customer-oriented? Service concept for customers? Fastest, most convenient and easiest to use? Service is the goal, which reflects the fundamental humanization of Amazon culture? Principle. Next I will solve Amazon's business model. I hope it helps you.

The business model of Amazon. Amazon Online Bookstore, the world's largest online bookstore, began to make profits at the end of 2002, which is the gospel of global e-commerce development. Amazon online bookstore has experienced seven years of development since it opened in the United States in July. 1995. By the end of 2002, 40 million netizens from 220 countries had bought goods in Amazon Bookstore, and the total number of goods provided by Amazon to consumers reached more than 400,000. In recent years, when the development of e-commerce has been frustrated and many followers have fallen, Amazon has stubbornly survived and stood out, creating exciting achievements: the net sales in the third quarter of 2002 reached 8,565,438 million US dollars, an increase of 33.2% over the same period last year; The net sales in the first three quarters of 2002 reached $2.504 billion, an increase of 24.8% over the same period last year. Although there was no profit in the first three quarters of 2002, the net loss was 65.438 billion yuan+520 million yuan, a decrease of 73.4% compared with the same period last year. In the fourth quarter of 2002, the sales were $65.438 billion+$430 million, and the net profit was $3 million, which was the second profitable quarter. Amazon's turnaround is undoubtedly a great encouragement to B2C e-commerce companies.

Why does Amazon's banner not fall when the development of e-commerce is generally frustrated? What made Amazon what it is today? What does the rapid development of Amazon show? With this series of questions and thoughts, after exploring the development of Amazon, we are surprised to find that it is what many people call e-commerce development? Bottleneck? And logistics, the biggest obstacle, saved Amazon, and it is logistics that has created Amazon's performance today. So what beneficial enlightenment does the study of Amazon's survival and development experience bring to our current enterprises?

Revelation 1: Logistics is a means of Amazon's promotion.

In the difficult days of e-commerce, Amazon has launched innovative and bold promotion strategies to provide customers with free delivery services and continuously lower the threshold of free delivery services. So far, Amazon has adopted this promotion method three times. The thresholds for the first two free delivery services were $99 and $49 respectively. In August, 2002, Amazon reduced the threshold of free delivery by half, and began to implement free delivery service for customers whose total shopping price exceeded $25, so as to promote the growth of sales business. Free delivery has greatly stimulated people's enthusiasm for consumption, and made netizens who are skeptical about e-commerce and worried about the high price of online shopping quickly join the ranks of Amazon consumers, thus expanding Amazon's customer base to 40 million. This has produced huge economic benefits: in the third quarter of 2002, the sales of books, music and film and television products increased by 17% compared with the same period of last year. The promotion and influence of logistics on sales. Logistics is a tool for enterprise competition? This is best explained in Amazon's business practice.

Over the years, the fact that online shopping is expensive is the main reason why consumers give up e-commerce and insist on shopping in physical stores, and it is also an important reason for the loss of customers and business failure of e-commerce companies. In the e-commerce business hall? Upside down, cold snap? At the critical moment, Amazon found its own way, boldly used logistics as a means of promotion, occupied the market by means of small profits but quick turnover and low-price competition, attracted customers and expanded its market share at the expense of logistics. Obviously, this strategy is correct because it captures the essence of the problem. According to a recent consumer survey conducted by a market research company, online customers think that the discount on delivery fees during holidays is far more attractive than any other promotion means. At the same time, this strategy has also been proved to be successful. Since 200 1, Amazon has generally reduced the price of online goods by about 10%, thus making its customer base reach 40 million, of which about 30 million people spend online. To this end, Amazon founder Bezos can confidently declare: Maybe consumers will go shopping in physical stores, but it will never be because of the price. ? Of course, this business strategy also has risks. Because if we can't digest the resulting costs and shift the heavy financial burden, we will fall short. So how does Amazon solve these problems?

Revelation 2: Open source and reduce expenditure are the guarantee of Amazon's promotion success.

As mentioned above, the secret of Amazon's profit lies in the large number of purchase discounts and free delivery services provided to customers. However, this promotion strategy is also a double-edged sword: it increases sales and also generates huge costs. How to digest the resulting costs? Amazon's approach is to spare no effort to cut costs in financial management: reduce expenses, lay off employees, use advanced and convenient order processing systems to reduce error rates, integrate delivery and save inventory costs. By reducing the logistics cost, it is equivalent to getting more sales revenue with less promotion cost and then giving it back to consumers, thus winning more customers and forming an effective virtuous circle. Of course, this puts high demands on Amazon's cost control ability and logistics system. In addition, while cutting costs, Amazon is also actively looking for new profit growth points, such as selling old and new products online for other merchants, and cooperating with many merchants to sell their branded products to Amazon customers and collect commissions from them. Amazon customers can buy many brands, commodities, original books, music products and other products in one stop, which not only provides customers with more commodities, but also attracts many consumers to shop with its diversified choices and product information, and at the same time does not increase the additional inventory risk, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. These effective measures to increase revenue and reduce expenditure are an important guarantee for the success of Amazon's low-price promotion.

Revelation 3: A perfect logistics system is the lifeblood of e-commerce survival and development.

E-commerce is a commodity and service transaction based on modern information technology and computer network, which has the characteristics of virtualization, transparency, low cost and high efficiency. In e-commerce, the activities of information flow, business flow and capital flow can be completed online by computer, but logistics must go through a real operation process and cannot be virtualized like information flow and capital flow. Therefore, as an integral part of e-commerce, logistics has become a key factor to determine the benefits of e-commerce. In e-commerce, if the logistics is lagging behind, inefficient and of poor quality, the advantages of economy, convenience and speed of e-commerce will no longer exist. Therefore, a perfect logistics system is the lifeblood that determines the survival and development of e-commerce. Analysis of the failure of many e-commerce companies is largely due to the failure of logistics. Amazon's success also benefits from its success in logistics. Although Amazon is an e-commerce company, its logistics system is very perfect, which is not inferior to physical companies at all. With a perfect and optimized logistics system as a guarantee, it can use logistics as a means of promotion, and has the ability to strictly control logistics costs and effectively organize and operate logistics processes.

Amazon also has many unique functions in these aspects:

Outsourcing is adopted in the choice of distribution mode.

In e-commerce, Amazon entrusts domestic distribution business to the US Postal Service and UPS, and entrusts international logistics to international shipping companies and other professional logistics companies, and concentrates on developing its main and core businesses. This can reduce investment, reduce business risks, and make full use of the advantages of professional logistics companies to save logistics costs.

Keep inventory at the lowest level and implement zero inventory operation.

Amazon has achieved effective inventory control by establishing good cooperative relations with suppliers. Amazon has almost no books in stock, and the most popular bestseller is only 200 books in stock. Under normal circumstances, Amazon will only buy goods from publishers after customers place an order to buy books. Book buyers pay Amazon with credit cards, while Amazon pays publishers 46 days after books are sold, which makes its capital turnover much smoother than that of traditional bookstores. Due to the low inventory, Amazon's inventory turnover rate is very fast, starting from 200 1. In the third quarter of 2002, the average inventory turnover rate reached 19.4 times, while the inventory turnover rate of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, was only about 7 times.

Reduce the return rate.

Although Amazon operates a wide variety of goods, the return rate is very low because of its proper selection, reasonable price and good quality, and the delivery service can meet the needs of customers. The return rate of traditional bookstores is generally 25%, as high as 40%, while the return rate of Amazon is only 0.25%, which is much lower than that of traditional retail bookstores. The extremely low return rate not only reduces the return cost of enterprises, but also maintains a high level of customer service and obtains a good business reputation.

Provide convenience for the post office to deliver goods and reduce delivery costs.

In the delivery, Amazon adopted a method called. Mail injection? Reduce delivery costs. So-called? Mail injection? It uses its own truck or independent carrier to send the whole truck of ordered goods from Amazon's warehouse to the warehouse of the local post office, and then the post office delivers the goods to customers. This can avoid the post office's procedures and steps for handling goods, provide convenience for the post office to deliver goods, and save money for itself. According to a delivery company that cooperates with Amazon, by this? Mail injection? The money saved by this method is equivalent to 5%~ 17% of the ordinary price of first-class mail, which is very impressive.

Establish different distribution centers according to different commodity categories to improve the efficiency of distribution centers.

Amazon's distribution center is set according to the category of goods, and different goods are distributed by different distribution centers. This will help to improve the professional operation degree of distribution center, simplify and standardize the operation organization, not only improve the efficiency of distribution center, but also reduce the management and operation cost of distribution center.

Take? Combined packaging? Technology, expand the transportation batch.

When the customer confirms the order on Amazon website, he can immediately see whether the goods ordered by Amazon sales system are in stock, as well as the selected delivery method, estimated delivery date and delivery date. As mentioned above, Amazon has established different distribution centers according to product categories, so different products ordered by customers are sent from different distribution centers located in different locations in the United States. Since Amazon's distribution center only keeps a small amount of inventory, Amazon needs to check the inventory of the distribution center after receiving the customer's order. If the distribution center is out of stock, it will order from the supplier. Therefore, some goods on the same order can be delivered immediately, while others need to wait. In order to save customers' waiting time, Amazon advises customers not to put the goods to be waited and the goods in stock in the same order when placing an order. In this way, during shipment, the carrier can package the goods from different customers and the same category, and the distribution center can also have the goods in stock on the same truck, thus shortening the waiting time after customers place orders, expanding the transportation batch, improving the transportation efficiency and reducing the transportation cost.

Perfect delivery terms, flexible and diverse delivery methods and accurate and reasonable charging standards reflect Amazon's scientific and standardized distribution management.

Amazon's delivery terms are perfect. On its website, customers can get the following information:

Delivery of auction goods, estimation of delivery time, free super-saving delivery, in-store delivery, goods requiring special handling and handling, recycling of packaging materials, special requirements for delivery, delivery rate, delivery limit, order tracking, etc.

Amazon provides customers with a variety of delivery methods and delivery deadlines to choose from. Is there a delivery method based on land and sea transportation? Standard delivery? There is also air transportation. As for the delivery period, standard delivery, 2-day delivery and 1 day delivery are adopted according to whether the destination is domestic or foreign and whether the ordered goods are in stock. According to different distribution methods, delivery deadlines and commodity categories, different charging standards are adopted, including batch fees charged at a fixed rate, number of pieces charged by number of pieces and number of pieces charged by weight.

All these show that Amazon's distribution management is scientific and legal, and its operation and organization are standardized, which provides customers with convenient, thoughtful and flexible distribution services and meets the diversified needs of consumers. With its low price and convenient service, Amazon has established a good image in the eyes of customers, increased their trust and enhanced their confidence in future development.

In a word, Amazon has brought us a lot of enlightenment, the most important of which is that logistics plays a vital role in the development of e-commerce. Some people call Amazon's rapid development? Amazon myth? If e-commerce enterprises in China can take logistics as a development strategy, rationally plan logistics systems, set correct logistics objectives, and effectively organize and operate logistics, then Amazon myth will not be far away for e-commerce enterprises in China.

Brand expansion of Amazon. COM (265,438+0Century) is a century of brands. Brands have become the most potential assets of enterprises, and brand expansion has become an effective way for enterprises to develop and expand their brands. Many enterprises use brand expansion to increase sales and expand enterprises, and have achieved good economic and social benefits. However, some enterprises operate blindly and lack strategies in brand expansion, which has a negative impact on enterprise development and brand development, and is in trouble and scarred. Brand expansion is a science, a technology, and also requires technical means.

With the transfer of consumer demand, e-commerce and online shopping have become popular in the market. In order to better meet the needs of consumers, Amazon, the largest authentic online shopping mall in China, has continuously expanded its product categories and deepened its brand expansion strategy, and has always provided consumers with the richest products and the most convenient shopping experience at low prices every day.

At present, Zhuo Yue Amazon can provide consumers with more than 2 million kinds of goods in 28 categories, including books, music, movies, digital mobile phones, household appliances, household appliances, toys, health, beauty cosmetics, watches and clocks, jewelry, clothing bags, shoes and boots, sports, maternal and child, food and so on. And through direct cooperation with manufacturers, brand strategic cooperation and vigorous development of its own brand, it provides consumers with genuine licensed online shopping protection.

Among them, through the brand cooperation with suppliers, Zhuo Yue Amazon not only allows consumers to buy richer and better products without leaving home, but also has advantages over other offline channels. For example, this brand expansion includes joining hands with fashion brands to launch online brand franchise stores for female consumers, cooperating with top sports brands to provide sports products for sports enthusiasts, and joining well-known car navigation brands to enter auto supplies stores for the convenience of car owners.

In addition, following the first launch of Amazon's own brand Amazon Beth in China in 2009, in June of this year, 5438+ 10, Zhuo Yue Amazon made another effort to expand it into a franchise store, selling thousands of products in three categories: optical discs, optical cables and digital accessories. Recently, Joyo Amazon announced the official launch of the Amazon Besi store. The store provides six categories of basic consumer electronic products: HDMI cable, CD burning, mobile phone accessories, camera accessories, computer accessories and other accessories. Zhuo Yue Amazon's own brand development strategy provides users with more choices of basic electronic consumer products with high quality and low price, and also injects new impetus into the basic electronic consumer market in China.

As a self-owned brand of Amazon electronic products, Amazon Besi has made remarkable achievements and user recognition in the US, Japan and Europe markets. Amazon Bess high-speed braided insulated HDMI cable (3 meters) has become the first in the list of Amazon electronic consumer products in the United States. Optical fiber cable has become the star category of Amazon Besi and the main purchasing commodity of optical fiber cable category.

In addition to eye-catching optical cable products, Amazon Beth's digital accessories and burning CDs have also been favored by domestic consumers.

At present, Amazon Besi provides thousands of products for domestic consumers. Since the expansion of products at the beginning of the year, Amazon Besi's universal carrying case for hard small appliances has achieved 200% monthly sales growth. Although Amazon Youbu is still in its infancy in China, it has always been committed to providing consumers with the best shopping experience. In addition to the highest quality standards of similar products in the industry, Amazon pouch insists on continuous innovation.

On the occasion of the launch of Amazon Besi Store, the silicone case and protective bag of iPhone 4 and iPad will be launched on the whole line, which is expected to attract the attention of a large number of Apple fans.

In the face of the current situation that electronic products in the domestic basic electronic consumer market are mixed, Amazon Beth insists on high standards of product quality and? Low price every day? In principle, all product lines are made in China, and we can enjoy unconditional return within 30 days and repair quality problems within one year, which has injected a shot in the arm into the basic electronic consumer market.

Today, with the continuous development of market economy, brand represents the market owned by enterprises and the strength of enterprises to a certain extent. Brand needs to be cultivated, and it needs patience, courage, financial resources and material resources for a long time. How to develop and utilize existing brands and give full play to the role of brands is an indispensable topic in the business strategy of enterprises. In fact, the use of brand resources to implement brand expansion has become the core strategy of enterprise development, and it is also a common strategy for enterprises to develop and utilize well-known brands.

The development status of Amazon. Com is located in the operation center of Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Amazon is developing towards diversified product sales. Products sold include music retail CDs, videos and DVDs, software, household appliances, kitchen projects, tools, lawn and yard projects, toys, clothing, sporting goods, delicious food, jewelry, watches, health and personal care projects, beauty products, musical instruments and so on.

On June 5438+ 10, 2004, Amazon even launched a special activity for presidential candidates, encouraging customers to donate $5 to $200 to their ideal US presidential candidates as campaign funds. 1999 Bezos became Time Magazine's Person of the Year for his excellent business strategy.

On July 8, 2009, Amazon's official website Amazon.com was blocked. The government gave no reason for the blockade. At present, you can log in, but Amazon's IMDb website is still blocked.

20 10 3 15, Amazon, an online shopping mall with 23 categories and more than1200,000 products, released? White paper on online shopping integrity statement? , mainly on the current consumer online shopping is generally concerned about? Authentic? And then what? Return? Problems, for pre-sale and after-sale credit guarantee to make specific instructions. Amazon believes that online shopping integrity is mainly divided into? Pre-sales integrity? And then what? After-sales integrity? . Pre-sale integrity refers to consumers' trust in online mall brands and whether each product is? Authentic? . In this regard, has Amazon launched it to consumers? Low-priced genuine guarantee every day? Promise. Wang Hanhua, president of Joyo Amazon, explained: As the website of Amazon, the online retailer with the largest variety of goods in the world in China, Joyo Amazon provides authentic guarantee for all goods, such as software digital, home appliances 3C, toys and gifts. ?