Essay Example on Amazon.com, the Largest Online Retailer

The ever advancement in technology and the increasing demand for goods, has led to the emergence of innovative retailers trading as public traded internet retail e-commerce companies. They use online storefronts, online streaming, and other techniques that do not require a physical brick-and-mortar points of sale. These companies publicly sell their shares to anyone willing to buy them in the stock exchange market, to raise funds. Some of the major public internet retail e-commerce companies include Acorn International, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., Bidz.com, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., among others.

Amazons management structure contributes to its successful global expansion. The structure is based on a functional division of work. Main features of the structure include the global functional based-group where each primary business function has a senior manager and a specialized group handling it (Meyer p.1). The major function-based groups in Amazons organizational structure include Office of the CEO, Business Development, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Finance, International Consumer Business, Accounting, Consumer Business and Legal and Secretariat (Meyer p.1). Another feature is the global hierarchy, which enables vertical lines of command and authority facilitating the implementation of senior managers directives throughout the organization (Meyer p.1). Lastly, the geographic divisions groups features are based on geographic regions, International and North America enabling the company to address issues relevant to each geographic area online market.

In the media segment, Amazon competes with auction site eBay and media game-changer Netflix. In the electronics and general merchandise segment, Wal-Mart and Best Buy pose completion. In operating segment, Google and CDW offer stiff competition. Besides the standard retail marketing tools like Amazon Prime Rewards Signature Card, Amazon has invested in a workforce to ensure that the time it takes for their web page to load is minimal to improve on the experience of the user and retain potential sales (Amazon, p.1). In their website, Amazon includes items youve viewed section, Inspired by your shopping trends among others. As well, personalization of shopping experience to make the products more relevant to the users to increase purchase. Amazon makes searching a breeze by automatically suggesting popular products and categories enabling users to find and purchase their desired products fast (Oxford p.1). They efficiently provide clients reviews on the product facilitating further sales of the same product.

Currently, Amazon.com is the largest online retailer in the world. It is recorded that in 2016, it earned more than US$90 billion purely from online sales (Jurevicius p1). From the report, the organization was able to take its market share from competitors. Hence, it has grown much faster compared to the entire US e-commerce market. Moreover, Amazon lacks a physical brick-and-mortar storefront that customers can visit thus, simplifying the business model enough to avoid employee challenges that come with running a physical store. Like physical security, construction and maintenance costs of physical buildings, parking space, and zoning, shoplifting and stocking shelves. Operational costs are cut-down significantly. Therefore, shareholders enjoy most of the companys profits. Any potential investor would want to buy shares from a company that consistently increases its profit margins.

In summary, in spite of the fact that most retail companies have an internet component, they may still find it expensive and complicated to go public due to the strict restrictions placed on them by the Securities and Exchange Commission like regular auditing among others. However, it is proven that the retailers stand to benefit more by not only taking advantage of the internet but by going public to enjoy the benefits that come with trading as a public company.

Works cited

Amazon. Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Cards .n.d. Accessible at https://www.Amazon.com/iss/credit/rewardscardmemberref=footer_cbcc?_encoding=UTF8&plattr=CBFOOT

Jurevicius, Ovidijus. Amazon SWOT analysis 2017. 2017. Accessible at https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/amazon-swot-analysis.html.

Meyer, Pauline. Amazon.com Inc.s Organizational Structure Characteristics (An Analysis). 2017. Accessible at http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-organizational-structure-characteristics-analysis.

Oxford, Jeff. 6 Things Online Retailers can learn from Amazon.2013. Accessible at https://www.forbes.com/things-online-retailers-can-learn-from-amazon.