Question

name 1-2 main competitors of Amazon and explain how Amazon's competitive advantage compares to the competitor(s) identified.

What is Amazon's competitive advantage against Alibaba?

Answer 1

Name 1-2 main competitors of Amazon and explain how Amazon's competitive advantage compares to the competitor(s) identified.

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos on 5 July 1994 and the site went online in 1995 headquartered in Seattle,Washington is world largest online retailer multinational e-commerce company with a Vision- "TO BE EARTH'S MOST CUSTOMER- CENTRIC COMPANY; TO BUILD A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN COME TO FIND AND DISCOVER ANYTHING THEY MIGHT WANT TO BUY ONLINE".

The major competitors of Amazon are Walmart, Alibaba group, Netflix in terms of media, eBay etc.

Amazon's competitive advantage compares to the competitor(s)

1.Low price: Amazon provides a wide range of products at a very low price. Amazon offers products to the customers at aggressively low prices with a motive to create value to the customers.

2.Product diversification: Amazon offers a diverse range of products to the customers.It has a variety of products available over its website which serve every segment of customers according to their choices.

3. Product personalization: Amazon enables the customer segment to customize their product according to their choice.For example: with the help of Amazon customers can personalize the birthday gifts by customizing an image on the frame or one can order the locket or pendant of their own name from the Amazon website. There are many other personalized options that are available on the Amazon website such as personalized cushion, personalized pen,personalized pottery etc.

4. Supply chain system: Amazon has a very much developed and well coordinated structured supply chain system because of this supply chain system Amazon provides delivery within the short time span of 2 days.

5. Website interface: The website interface of Amazon is so nice and smooth. The customer can easily surf the website and search the product comfortably with the help of Amazon website.

6. Timely delivery: Amazon provides a time based delivery to the customers. The delivery time is much less as compared to other competitors and now the facility of prime membership enables the customer to receive the product at more less time as compared to the normal Amazon website. This timely delivery is possible only because of the efficient and structured supply chain distribution network that Amazon possesses. Due to prime subscription and efficient supply chain distribution network Amazon sometimes can deliver the product within a time span of hours at prime locations.

8.Customer Centric Approach : Amazon uses a customer centric approach and believes to create value to the customer.Amazon focuses on providing the value based,high quality and cost efficient product to the customer on time. Amazon has superior quality search and query solving system, focuses on recommendations based on past purchases as well as genuine review and rating system helps to build trust of customers on Amazon. For Amazon Prime membership customers, Amazon uses 360-degree view of consumers by providing a wide range of discounts and payment options to the customer as well as providing other extra benefits to the prime members.

9.Free Shipping:Jeff Bezos identifies that the problem behind the success of E-commerce websites is the shipping charge, therefore Jeff Bezos eliminates these shipping charges and provides free shipping to the customer over certain price results in the success of Amazon.

10.Third Party Merger: Amazon offers the third party sellers or the distributor to merge and sell their product to the customers. This also strengthen the Amazon's product variability.

What is Amazon's competitive advantage against Alibaba?

The major competitive advantage of Amazon over Alibaba group are:

Basis	Amazon	Alibaba
Warehouse	Amazon provides warehousing services to its suppliers.FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) program of Amazon allows sellers to store goods in Amazon e-commerce warehouses and let them allow for fastest shipping to buyers.	Alibaba group lags in providing the online warehousing system and thus Amazon wins here.
Cloud Storage	Amazon has its own cloud storage software called Amazon Web Services.	Alibaba has also launched a cloud storage software called AliCloud but it is far behind the Amazon.
Approach	Amazon focuses on a customer centric approach that is business to customer including the business-to-business range also.	Alibaba group primarily focuses on business to business approach and after Amazon it tries to capture the business to customer approach.
Profitability	Amazon focuses on low priced,high quality of product to customers without compromising the quality.	Alibaba group doesn't compete with Amazon on this aspect.
New Customers	Amazon successfully captured the new customer segment.	Alibaba group still hurdled in capturing the new customer segment
Location	Amazon operates worldwide.	Alibaba group is only successful in Chinese market.
Business Model	Amazon is the largest online retailer and focuses on selling their own goods directly as well as selling the supplier goods to the customer.	Alibaba act as a mediator or bridge between the buyer and the seller.
Delivery	Amazon has the fastest delivery system as compared to its competitors.	Alibaba doesn't have as much as an efficient fastest delivery system then Amazon.
Coordination and complementary activity	Amazon has a well structured and coordinated supply chain activity that delivers the product to customers on time.	Alibaba has a different approach towards distribution network while delivering the product to customers.