Amazon: Purpose, Goals, Products, Services And Customers

1.1 Description of the purpose and goals of the organization

Company sector: public sector

Amazon is an e-commerce and cloud computing company, founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and has headquartered in Seattle. It has its retail operations, Amazon workplace where third-party sellers list and sell their products on Amazon website for a fee, and Amazon web services that offer cloud computing services. As of 2018, it employs over 350,000 people globally.

Amazon’s Mission and vision as stated on their website is “We aim to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. Our mission is to continually raise the bar of the customer experience by using the internet and technology to help consumers find, discover and buy anything, and empower businesses and content creators to maximize their success.” (Amazon, n.d.)

Purpose and goals:

Amazon’s slogan is ‘work hard. Have fun. Make history.’ (Griffiths, Josie, 2018)

This signifies that Amazon is an ambitious company that aims to be the most customer eccentric company but at the same time enjoyable and aspirational.

Amazon is guided by four principles:

1. Customer obsession rather than competitor focus: customer satisfaction has been the company’s priority from start as evident from their mission statement and with time it has worked towards being the most customer eccentric company.

2. Passion for invention: Amazon has been continuously giving its customers innovative services and products whether it’s one-day delivery, consumer electronics like Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices or downloads and streaming of video, music, and audiobooks through its Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Audible subsidiaries.

3. Commitment to operational excellence: Amazon has now perfected the method of maintaining the quality of digital infrastructure and efficiency of its operations to better serve their customers, stakeholders, employees and communities

4. Long-term thinking: Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, attributes Amazon’s success partially to having a future-focused mindset and It is the result of this thinking that Amazon has grown from a web bookstore to the world’s leading company providing a variety of products and services to its customers. (Amazon, n.d.)

1.2 Describe the products, services and customers of an organization

Amazon has come a long way from an online marketplace for books to the world’s best brand, selling electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry.

Amazon products and services are as follows:

• Retail goods: Amazon product line includes apparels, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health, and personal care items, jewelry and watches, lawn and garden items, kitchen items, industrial and scientific supplies, sporting goods, musical instruments, tools, automotive items, toys or games, and media.
• Amazon prime: Amazon prime is a membership that gives you free 2-day shipping plus extra privileges like music and video streaming for an annual fee.
• Consumer electronics: Amazon has been a successful seller of consumer electronics by providing a great variety to customers, great product information, excellent customer service, clear high-quality images, price, and effective product merchandising.
• Digital content and devices: Amazon’s digital content include music, video titles, apps and games, Kindle eBooks, audible audiobooks. It also makes a huge range of products like Amazon Echo, Kindle, Fire TV & TV stick, Fire TV cube, Amazon blink XT home security camera system, Amazon dash buttons, etc.
• Amazon Web Services: AWS is the leading cloud platform offering over 175 fully featured services from data centers globally. There are millions of customers including fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies, using AWS to lower costs and innovate faster. (AWS, n.d.)
• Amazon Video: Amazon video is a streaming service that allows watching on-demand movies and TV shows via a web browser, mobile app, or even on TV with a television streaming device. This service also produces original movies and television shows.
• Amazon business: “Amazon business is a B2B marketplace on Amazon providing business customers with pricing selection and convenience of Amazon with features and benefits designed for businesses of all sizes “ (AMAZON, n.d.)
• Amazon drive: Amazon drive is a service to store and share documents, music, photos, and videos. There is unlimited free photo storage with Amazon prime’s subscription or a Kindle fire device and a paid limited storage service on Amazon drive.

A description of the main customers

Customers of Amazon can be based on the following criteria:

• Geographical: Amazon has got the customer in 100 countries of the world. Most of the customers are from the USA followed by Germany and the UK. Amazon has customers from both rural and urban areas.
• Demographical: The users of Amazon are of age 18 and older. Although according to one survey most of the consumers are of age group 20-29 years old. Young people are most likely attracted to Prime for its main appealing attributes: convenience, Advertising, Deals, and offers. The consumers belong to both gender male and female. The customers come from all occupations: students, unemployed, or employed.
• Behavioral: The customers are hardcore or softcore, and switchers are based on the degree of loyalty. The customers can be non-users, potential users, first-time users, regular users, or ex-users of the products. Most of the customers are young, easy going, and ambitious who look for the widest range of products, convenience of purchasing, and competitive prices.
• Social: The customers belong to all social classes lower class, working class, middle class, and upper class but most of the customers are from the middle class.