Amazon.Com

Amazon.com

    In 1994, at the age of 30, Jeff Bezos began what has come to be a household name, Amazon.com. Jeff started Amazon.com on a shoe string, out of his garage. He had an idea to take existing technology and use this to create a retail mail order business. This technology was originally created by the defense department. The technology that was available took different computers used within the government and created a system that connected them with one another, the internet. Jeff’s idea was to take the mail order business one step further and use the internet not the telephone. He conducted research and found that of the top 20 mail order businesses, books were merchandise that stood out as something which might be sold easier over the internet than through the typical mail order business methods. Along the way, Jeff picked up a couple of investors or business partners. He first tested the new business through friends and acquaintances and subsequently Amazon.com was launched.

    The business took off quickly and continued to grow. While the business grew, Jeff and company worked on the website continuing to make improvements. In 1997 Amazon.com went public. By 1999 Amazon.com had more market share of the retail book business than the next two largest book store chains combined. At this point Jeff made his intentions clear. He wanted Amazon.co to go from being the “Earth’s biggest book store” to the “Earth’s biggest anything store” (Academy of Achievement, 2009).

    This type of business, a retail internet business is considered an e-business or an e-commerce business. E-business includes any business activity conducted electronically between or within businesses, whereas e-commerce is defined to be just the electronic interaction that enables exchange of goods and services. Amazon.com uses e-business for business to consumer (B2C) by using the internet to sell directly to consumers.   Consumers access the Amazon.com website, place an order,...