Page 180 - DCAP306_DCAP511_E-COMMERCE_AND_E-BUSINESS

Unit 14: Designing and Building E-Commerce Web Site - Advanced

The option of recommending related books at the end of each book review interests the customers and
also creates a tremendous cross-sell and up-sell opportunity for the Web site.
The powerful A9 search engine of Amazon.com allows site visitors to easily search for the desired
product or services. The landing page is colorful and contains lot of information that is relevant to the
products.
One-Click ordering facility allows the registered users to check shipping and billing information
without any hassle every time they make a purchase. The shipping of the products is prompt and
confirmed with tracking information through e-mail to the customers.

Any queries, problems, refunds, or complaints are handled quickly and satisfactorily.
Main Reasons for Amazon’s Success
Amazon.com has been successful mainly due to the diversity of its business, which applies to both the
products offered and the architecture used. Its operational practice also incorporates diversity.
Originally known as a book retailer, the organization moved into alternate media to expand the scope of
its business. Amazon’s acquisition of an Internet movie database company is an instance of this.
Amazon found an opportunity to widen its customer database through direct marketing which gave it
the opportunity to target the various market demographic categories using a limited marketing
expenditure.

In Amazon.com, a review function allows its patrons to rate and discuss books, films or music online in
order to share their feedback with others. This function is cited as the primary reason for Amazon.com
having more than doubled the number of users when compared to other primary retail sites. However,
the system for the user reviews has been criticized due to the opportunity for abuse that the
functionality gives. This has been evident in the previous years with authors and musicians inflating
reviews for their own products under anonymous names in order to stimulate sales.

The following are some of the patents of Amazon.com:
1. System and method for conducting a discussion relating to an item.
2. Internet based referral system to customers.
3. Method to produce sequenced queries.
4. Method to gather data around forms and search barriers.
Questions:

1. “Marketing tactics enhance the organization’s competitive advantage and overall growth.” Justify.
2. “Amazon sells used books to its customers alongside the new versions.” Is this a sensible business
practice, or does it unfairly undermine the market for new books? Analyze.

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