Discussion 1

Discussion 1

Can any firm beat Amazon in the marketplace? If not, why not? If so, how can they best do so? How formidable a competitor is Google for Amazon? Please explain.

What are Amazon’s major strengths? Does it have any weaknesses? Please explain. Is Jet.com a potential concern for Amazon? Why or why not?

Given the importance of understanding the external environment, why do some firms fail to do so? Provide examples of firms that did not understand their external environment.

What were the implications of the firm’s failure to understand that environment?

Be sure to respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts.

Amazon is the leading e-commerce business in the global marketplace. It owns a large share of online sales within the USA which makes it difficult for large businesses to compete with them A lot of time and investment has been input to ensure that the brand and business is where it is today. Their infrastructure, sales as well as scales are unique and better than any other online business globally. Not only do they have a re-known digital footprint, but they also have physical stores such as the Brick and Mortar stores, which have branches all over the united states (Zhu, 2018). Their size also makes it hard to compete with them instead, their e-commerce businesses tend to exist under it because they get the best deals, which also makes their pricing attractive to consumers. Besides, they value consumer retention and loyalty, which makes it a more preferred source of shopping for consumers all over the world. Google is Amazon’s greatest threat because it has sufficient data about its consumers, which they could use to take down Amazon from being the best e-commerce business in the marketplace.

Amazons’ strengths lie in their brand image, outstanding customer service, quality and convenience, variety of products among others. Some of its weaknesses include issues with Chinese sellers, shrinking margins as well as long-term debt. It faces similar challenges to any business globally, but it has strategies to ensure that it avoids crisis. Jet.com could be a threat to Amazon since it promises to offer a cheaper online experience, if it has quality products and attractive shipping fees, then they pose a threat to Amazon (Sims, 2018). Understanding the external environment allows companies to know their role or impact on their image. Some companies mostly focus on their internal environment and pay less attention to their external environment. For instance, Walmart defied the Clean Water Act, which was against them harming the environment (RUSSELL, 2016). They had to pay fines and also bad publicity, which affected their image.

References

RUSSELL, I., STRAUB, I., & Hayes, T. (2016). New Enforcement Policy Targets Individuals‖. Resources & Environment, 30(4).

Sims, S. (2018). Acquisitions: Walmart vs Amazon.

Zhu, F., & Liu, Q. (2018). Competing with complementors: An empirical look at Amazon. com. Strategic management journal, 39(10), 2618-2642.