Amazon.com success and its causes..

E-commerce has a great deal of advantages over “brick and mortar” stores and mail order catalogs. Consumers can easily search through a large database of products and services. They can see actual price, build an order over several day and compare prices then buy the selected product at best prices.


In return, online vendors also get distinct advantages. The web and its search engines provide a way to be found by customers without expensive advertising campaign. Even small online shops can reach global markets. Web technology also allows to track customer preferences and to deliver individually-tailored marketing (for example, dynamic catalog).
Amazon.com, Inc. is one of the most famous e-commerce companies was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and was one of the first American e-commerce companies to sell products over the Internet. After the dot-com collapse, Amazon lost its position as a successful business model. However, in 2003 the company made its first annual profit which was the first step to the further development.


At the outset Amazon.com was considered as an online bookstore, but in time it extended a variety of goods by adding electronics, software, DVDs, video games, music CDs, MP3s, apparel, footwear, health products, etc. Shortly it become popular in the Internet after renames his business “Amazon” formerly known as Cadabra.com. In 1999 Jeff Bezos was entitled as the ‘Person of the Year’ by Time Magazine in recognition of the company’s success. Although the company’s main headquarters is located at USA, Amazon has set up separate websites in other economically developed countries such as the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and China. The company supports and operates retail web sites for many famous businesses, including Marks & Spencer, Lacoste, the NBA, Bebe Stores, Target and so on.

Amazon is one of the first e-commerce businesses to establish an affiliate marketing program, and nowadays the company gets about 40% of its sales from affiliates and third party sellers who list and sell goods on the web site. In 2008 Amazon penetrated into the cinema and is currently sponsoring the film “The Stolen Child” with 20th Century Fox.


According to the research conducted in 2008, the domain Amazon.com attracted about 615 million customers every year. The most popular feature of the web site is the review system, i.e. the ability for visitors to submit their reviews and rate any product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon.com is also well-known for its clear and user-friendly advanced search facility which enables visitors to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the database.