MBA 540 Amazon and GM Comparison

Essay by ltabizonUniversity, Master'sA, November 2008

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Amazon.com Inc. conducts an e-commerce company based company that offers programs that facilitate third parties to advertise buy or wholesale their products and services on its sites, worldwide. Amazon was one of the first companies to use its business to market and distribute merchandise over the Internet. In the 1990's Amazon stock was the representation of the dot-com era because after the bubble ruptured, the organization as a whole, had dealt with much cynicism due to the selection of its business model, and made its initial profits in 2003. In April of 99 Amazon's stock peaked at $178.38. In June 2000 however, an analyst at Lehmam Brothers reported that Amazon was more than $2 million in debt and in danger of running out of cash. The stock tanked and was soon trading below $20 per share. Amazon was faced with tough decisions about how to move forward and maintain profitability.

One area of expansion that had the possibility for success was foreign markets. They were already shipping books to more than 150 countries so they had the advantage of being able to launch sites in additional countries with thousands of existing customers already in place. They decided to launch sites and new offices into countries such as Japan, India and the U.K. to coordinate the management of their business in the native language and offer titles from authors of that country. This expansion effort proved useful to the growth of the organization as they unveiled new groups of stores such as the Amazon All Business Center, Fulfillment, Corporate Accounts and Web Services. These offerings were intended for small to medium sized business owners who were looking for solutions that fit the business needs that matched the Amazon.com model. In addition to providing its partners with quick and easy access to...