Conclusion
By making entry so easy, fast, and affordable, Amazon ensures that many people can sample its products and become part of the Amazon experience, they also leverage on the possibilities of the networking economy to reach out to more producers and consumers of products sold by Amazon. Meanwhile, the Amazon ecosystem facilitates sharing of views and experiences by consumers in multiple ways. At different times, some products contribute to more revenue than others, but having them in one ecosystem allows Amazon to tweak offers and handle administration tasks to succeed in capturing attention, promoting sharing and facilitating a networking economy.
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From its humble beginnings as an online bookstore run from founder Jeff Bezos garage, to the wide reaching web marketplace it has become, Amazon has continued to adapt to changing consumer habits and desires. Through the implementation of Affiliate programs, the company was able to exploit the willingness of other web sites to share (and therefore advertise) Amazon content, while evolving the Amazon site itself to create an engaging platform for an ever-growing community of sellers and buyers.
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By addressing the need to create an attention-grabbing e-store, Amazon harnessed the power of the user driven content which forms the backbone of Web 2.0, transforming itself from a simple online book retailer to a true online marketplace made up of interconnected businesses and individuals. Now, with the need for stable and secure data storage, the company has moved from physical products such as books and CDs, to the fluid world of data hosting and interpretation.
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Despite challenges along the way, such as Patent Infringement lawsuits, Amazon has maintained its reputation and image as one of the worlds most successful, powerful, and expansive online retailers. One of the main challenges the business will encounter in the near future is that of competition from real-world stores, who are beginning to match online prices with more frequency, and offering free delivery. The challenge is that ‘brick-and-mortar stores have begun matching prices and providing instant pickup… [indeed, a major] flaw at Amazon is shipping costs’ (Denning, 2015). If Amazon is able to supplement the income used for shipping costs, or start a sustainable freight system internally, its future as an online retailer offering physical goods will be assured. And if not, there’s always the data hosting and interpretation, a growth area in which Amazon is already far ahead of it’s competitors.