Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Amazon Com shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Amazon Com offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Amazon Com at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Amazon Com? Wrong! If the Amazon Com is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Amazon Com then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Amazon Com? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Amazon Com and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Amazon Com wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Amazon Com then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Amazon Com site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Amazon Com, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Amazon Com, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
{{Infobox Dotcom company| company_name = Amazon.com, Inc.| company_logo = | company_type =
Public company ()| company_slogan = …and you're done| foundation = 1994| location_city = Seattle, Washington, Founder, President, CEO, and Chairman
[Rick Dalzell, Senior VP/CIO
Tom Szkutak, Senior VP/CFO
Werner Vogels, VP/CTO]| revenue =
United States dollar10.71 billion (
2006)])| products = Amazon.com
A9.comAlexa Internet
Internet Movie Database
WebStore by Amazon
Pinzon (
private label trademark)]| language = English
.com, .co.uk, .caChinese .cnFrench .fr, .ca
German .de, .at
Japanese .co.jp| launch_date = 1995-->
Amazon.com, Inc. () is an
United States e-commerce company based in
Seattle, Washington,
Washington. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the
Internet and was one of the iconic stocks of the late 1990s
dot-com bubble. After the bubble burst, Amazon faced skepticism about its business model, but it made its first annual profit in 2003.
Founded by
Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995, Amazon.com began as an online bookstore, though it soon diversified its product lines, adding
VHSs, DVDs, music Compact Discs,
MP3s,
computer software,
video games, Consumer electronics,
Clothing, furniture,
food,
toys, and more.
Amazon has established separate websites in
Canada, the United Kingdom,
Germany, Austria,
France, China, and
Japan. It ships globally on selected products.
History and business model
Amazon was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos refers to as his "regret minimization framework," i.e. his effort to fend off late-in-life regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush. Time Magazine 1999 Person of the Year -- Jeffrey P.Bezos It is common lore that Bezos wrote its business plan while he and his wife drove a 1988 Chevrolet Blazer from Fort Worth, Texas to
Bellevue, Washington. NYTimes, July 10 2005: "A Retail Revolution Turns 10"
The company began operating as an online
bookstore under the name Cadabra.com (as in abracadabra), a name that Bezos quickly abandoned due to its sounding like "
cadaver". While the largest
Brick and mortar business bookstores and
mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer many times more. Bezos renamed his company "Amazon" after the world's Amazon River.
The company was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington, began service in July 1995, and was reincorporated in 1996 in Delaware. The first book ever sold by Amazon.com was Douglas Hofstadter's
Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.Amazon.com's company timeline Amazon.com had its initial public offering on May 15 1997, trading on the
NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol
AMZN at an
initial public offering price of
United States dollar18.00 per share (equivalent to US$1.50 after three stock splits during the late 1990s).
Amazon's initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect to turn a profit for four to five years. In retrospect, the strategy was effective. Amazon grew at a steady pace in the late 1990s while many other Internet companies grew at a blindingly fast pace.
Amazon's "slow" growth caused a number of its stockholders to complain, saying that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the
Dot-com bubble burst and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2002: a meager US$5 million, just 1¢ per share, on revenues of over US$1 billion, but it was important symbolically.
The firm has since remained profitable:
net income was US$35.3 million in 2003, US$588.5 million in 2004, US$359 million in 2005, and US$190 million in 2006 (including a US$662 million charge on R&D in 2006). Nevertheless, the firm's cumulative profits remain negative, since the positive performance of recent years is not yet sufficient to wipe out the losses of the past, as of 2005 the accumulated deficit stood at US$2.03 billion.
Revenue continued to grow thanks to product diversification and international presence: US$3.9 billion in 2002, US$5.3 billion in 2003, US$6.9 billion in 2004, US$8.5 billion in 2005, and US$10.7 billion in 2006. On November 21 2005, Amazon entered the
S&P 500 index, replacing the venerable AT&T after it merged with SBC Communications.
Time Magazine named Bezos its 1999 Person of the Year in recognition of the company's success in popularizing online shopping.
Merchant partnerships
The Web sites of
Borders Group (borders.com, borders.co.uk),
Waldenbooks (waldenbooks.com),
Virgin Megastores (virginmega.com),
CDNOW (cdnow.com), and HMV Group plc (hmv.com) are powered and hosted by Amazon. Until June 30 2006, typing Toys R Us.com into one's browser would similarly bring up Amazon.com's Toys & Games tab; however, this relationship was terminated as the result of a lawsuit.E-Commerce Times: Toys 'R' Us wins right to end amazon partnership.,
March 3,
2006Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for
Target Corporation, the
National Basketball Association,
Sears Canada,
Sears UK, Benefit Cosmetics,
Bebe Stores, Timex Corporation,
Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, and
Bombay Company.
For a number of these companies, specifically the UK ones like Marks & Spencer and Mothercare, Amazon provides the multi-channel solutions not just the web site. That means that it also powers the in store terminals, customer-service applications and phone-sales terminals.
It also powers, although does not host, AOL's Shop@AOL service. It achieves this via Web Services technology.
Locations
Headquarters
The company's global headquarters is located on
Seattle, Washington's Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington. It has offices throughout other parts of greater Seattle.
Software development centers
The company employs software developers in modest- to large-sized centers across the globe. International locations include:
Fulfillment and warehousing
Fulfillment centers are located in the following cities, often near airports:
*Arizona, United States of America:
Phoenix, Arizona
*Delaware, United States of America: New Castle, Delaware
*
Kansas, United States of America:
Coffeyville, Kansas
*
Kentucky, United States of America:
Campbellsville, Kentucky, Hebron, Kentucky (near
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport), and Lexington, Kentucky
*
Massachusetts, United States of America:
Springfield, Massachusetts (new as of early 2007)
*
Nevada, United States of America:
Fernley, Nevada and Red Rock, Nevada (near
Reno Stead Airport)
*Washington,
United States of America: Federal Way, Washington
*
Pennsylvania, United States of America: Chambersburg, Pennsylvania,
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Lewisberry, Pennsylvania
*
Texas, United States of America: Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
*
Ontario,
Canada: Mississauga, Ontario
*Munster,
Republic of Ireland: Cork (city)
*
Bedfordshire, England, United Kingdom: Marston Gate
*Inverclyde, Scotland, United Kingdom:
Gourock
*
Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom: Glenrothes
*
Swansea,
Wales,
United Kingdom: (Planned)
*Loiret,
France: Orléans-Boigny (2000),
*
Loiret, France:
Orléans-Saran (2007),
*
Hesse, Germany: Bad Hersfeld
*Free State of Saxony,
Germany: Leipzig
*Chiba Prefecture, Japan
*
Guangzhou, China
*Shanghai,
China
*Beijing,
China
Product lines
Amazon has steadily branched into retail sales of
music compact discs,
VHS and DVDs, computer software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items,
toys & games, baby products, clothing, sporting goods, gourmet
food,
jewelry,
watches,
health care and personal-care items, cosmetics, musical instruments, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries, and more.
The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, its own Web auctions service, in March 1999. However it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBay's juggernaut growth. Amazon Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed-price marketplace business called
zShops in September 1999, and a failed Sotheby's/Amazon partnership called
sothebys.amazon.com in November. Although zShops failed to live up to its expectations, it laid the groundwork for the hugely successful Amazon Marketplace service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Amazon Marketplace's main rival today is eBay's
Half.com service.
Beginning August 2005U.S. Trademark registrations numbered 3216667 and 3266840/3266847, issued March 6, 2007 and July 17, 2007, Amazon began selling products under its own private label, "Pinzon"; the initial trademark applications suggested the company intended to focus on textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a larger and more diverse list of goods, and to register a new design consisting of the "word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter O whose space appears at the "one o'clock" position." Trademark Electronic Search System from the USPTO, supplying "PINZON" as the search term. The list of products registered for coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.
On
May 16 2007 Amazon announced its intention to launch its own online music store. The store launched in
public beta September 25,
2007, selling downloads exclusively in
MP3 format without
digital rights management.http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1055053&highlight=
In August 2007, Amazon announced Amazon Fresh, a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can pick up orders or have them delivered to their homes. Delivery is initially restricted to residents of Mercer Island, Washington, a wealthy suburb of Seattle.http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/01/remember-webvan-so-does-amazon/
Website
A popular feature of Amazon is the ability for users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. As part of their review, users must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Such rating scales provide a basic idea of the popularity and dependability of a product.
The review feature is an important and highly influential function for customers and was certainly one of the main reasons for amazon.com’s success at selling books. As with book reviews anywhere, the buyer must beware that all reviewers have bias. Under normal circumstances, reviews give the reader has at least a modest basis for evaluating whether to buy/read a given book.
Because it is an open forum, the reader can benefit from the opinions of different people with different perspectives. However, the anonymity of web reviewers increases the chances of abuse in the form of self-praise, praise from friends, or malicious criticism. This situation was confirmed in 2004 when the origin of reviews was accidentally made public on an amazon site, and some authors openly confirmed their glowing reviews of their own books (see Trivia below).
Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers, e.g., to indicate the “real name” of the reviewer (based on the credit card name) or to indicate that the reviewer is one of the “top” (most popular) reviewers. Because badging is optional, the risk of abuse remains. Some books have well over one thousand reviews (e.g. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged), but many books, especially new ones, have none.
The U.S. site generally has the highest quantity of reviews, but other country sites offer the perspectives of other reviewers. A review posted on one site is not necessarily visible on another site.
Search Inside the Book is a feature which makes it possible for customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog. Amazon.com's online reader
Search Inside reference Amazon.com
Search Inside reference The feature started out with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23
2003. There are currently about 250,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130
publishers to allow users to perform these searches.
To avoid copyright violations, Amazon.com does not return the computer-readable text of the book but rather a picture of the page containing the found excerpt, disables printing of the pages, and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. Amazon is planning to launch Search Inside the Book internationally. Additionally, customers can purchase access to read the entire book online via the Amazon Upgrade program, although the selection of books eligible for this service is currently limited.
According to information in Amazon.com discussion forums, Amazon derives about 40% of its sales from affiliates, whom they call "Associates." An Associate is an independent seller or business that receives a commission for referring customers to the Amazon.com site.
Associates do this by placing links on their websites to the Amazon homepage or to specific products. If a referral results in a sale, the Associate receives a commission from Amazon. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.http://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/gp/associates/join/main.html Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the
Amazon Web Services (AWS) XML service.
Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affiliate marketing program.http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=832131
AStore is a new affiliate product that allows Associates to embedded a subset of Amazon products within, or linked to from, another website.
According to the Internet audience measurement website Compete.com, Amazon attracts approximately 50 million U.S. consumers to its website on a monthly basis (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/amazon.com).
Acquisitions and spinoffs
- In April 1998, Amazon bought the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
- In August 1998, Amazon bought Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll for 800,000 shares of Amazon stock. PlanetAll operated a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. In the same deal, Amazon acquired Sunnyvale-based Junglee.com, an XML-based data mining startup for 1.6 million shares of Amazon stock.
The two deals together were valued at about US$280 million at the time. Most staff of both firms were absorbed by Amazon in early 1999. These employees went on to build community-focused features for the Amazon Web site, including Amazon.com online auction, Amazon.com Marketplace, Friends & Favorites, and Purchase Circles.
- In June 1999, Amazon bought Alexa Internet, Accept.com, and Exchange.com in a set of stock deals worth approximately US$645 million.
- In 2004, Amazon purchased Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce Web site. It also debuted A9.com, a company focused on researching, and building innovative technology. One of the technologies A9.com was working on was a search engine with a "Search Inside the Book" feature allowing users to search within the text of books as well as searching for text on the Web.
Another
A9 technology was its "Find It on the Block" feature allowing users to find not just the phone number, address, map, and directions for a business; but to see a picture of it, and all the businesses and shops on that same street.
- In March 2005, Amazon acquired BookSurge, a print on demand company and Mobipocket.com, an eBook software company.
- In July 2005, Amazon purchased CreateSpace (formerly CustomFlix), a Scotts Valley, CA-based distributor of on-demand DVDs. Since the acquisition, CreateSpace has expanded its on-line services to include on-demand books and CDs, as well as video downloads. On July 30, 2007, the National Archives and Records Administration announced that it would make thousands of historic films available for purchase through CreateSpace.
- In February 2006, Amazon acquired Shopbop, a Madison, Wisconsin-based retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women. Wisconsin Technology Network: "Amazon acquires Madison-based Shopbop"
- In May 2007, Amazon acquired dpreview.com, a London-based digital photography review website created by Phil Askey as his personal hobby website and Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States.
- Amazon spinoffs include search technology company A9.com and shoe and handbag store Endless.com.
Noteworthy events
In 2002, Amazon became the exclusive retailer for the much-hyped
Segway HT. Bezos was an early supporter of the Segway before its details were made public.
On June 21
2003, Amazon coordinated what was at the time one of the largest sales and distribution events in e-commerce history with the sale of over 1.3 million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, since beaten by
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with a sale of over 2 million copies preordered in 2007.
On July 16 2005, Amazon celebrated its 10th anniversary by telecasting a worldwide live concert hosted by
Bill Maher and artists such as
Bob Dylan and
Norah Jones.
Products and services
Amazon Web Services
Amazon launched
Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002. The service provides programmatic access to many features leveraged behind the scenes on its own website. AWS was rapidly adopted by what now amount to tens of thousands of software developers.
Amazon S3
In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5
gigabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via
HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and for data transferred.
Amazon EC2
In August 2006, Amazon introduced
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure with its high reliability to run diverse applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
In November 2005, Amazon.com began testing Amazon Mechanical Turk, an application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors.
Amazon FPS
On
August 2, 2007 Amazon launched a payment service specifically targeted at developers. Amazon FPS has facilities for developing many different charging models including micro-payments. The service also gives developers easy access to Amazon customers.
Amazon Unbox
On March 7
2007, Amazon launched an Internet
video on demand service. There has been criticism of the service due to its use of digital rights management (DRM).
Amazon MP3 Downloads
On September 25, 2007, Amazon launched a new music store (currently in software release cycle#Beta) which sells downloadable tracks, all in the
MP3 format and most recorded at 256
kilobits per second
Variable bitrate (VBR). The Amazon MP3 Music Service: Terms of Use legally restrict use of the music, but Amazon does not use Digital Rights Management to enforce those terms. Most songs cost US$0.89 or US$0.99, and most albums cost between US$4.95 and US$9.99.
Participating record labels include
EMI and Universal Records, as well as many independent labels.http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070925005710&newsLang=en Previous to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in
Amie Street, a similar music store with a variable pricing model based on demand.
Amazon Shorts
Amazon Shorts is a program launched in 2005. The program offers exclusive short form content including short stories and non-fiction pieces from best selling authors, all available for immediate download at US$0.49. As of June 2007, the program has over 1,700 pieces and is adding about 50 new pieces per week.
Amazon Prime
In February 2005, Amazon launched
Amazon Prime in the continental United States.http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=847395&highlight= Amazon Prime subscribers pay US$79 per year and receive free 2-day shipping on all items shipped by Amazon with no minimum purchase amount. Overnight shipping for Prime members is US$3.99 per item. Prime benefits extend to four family members in the same household.
Amazon Prime help page
Amazon Prime became available in Japan in June 2007. Japanese customers may pay Japanese Yen3,900 per year and receive same-day shipping on orders shipped to the
Kantō region and next-day delivery to other locations.http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1030042&highlight=
Donations
In 2001, Amazon was one of the first online stores to begin accepting donations to the
Red Cross on behalf of 9/11 victims. For several days the company dedicated its entire home page for this cause.
In 2004, Amazon launched its
Presidential Candidates feature, whereby customers could donate from US$5 to US$200 to the campaigns of
U.S. presidential election, 2004, resurrecting the Amazon Honor System for the purpose. The Honor System was originally launched in 2001 as a way for Amazon customers to "tip" their "favorite Web sites and to buy digital content on the Web," Amazon collecting 2.9% of the payment plus a flat fee of US$0.30. It has never been shut down, but had fallen into relative disuse.
At the end of 2004, with the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Amazon set up an online donation channel to the American Red Cross using the Honor System, waiving its processing fee. As of January 3
2005, over 162,000 individuals had donated over US$13.1 million in this way.
The same week, Amazon created similar channels for the British Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross, French Red Cross,
German Red Cross, and Japanese Red Cross Red Cross organizations via its international sites. Over 7,000 Britons donated more than US$350,000; 900 Canadians over US$56,000; 660 French over US$23,000; 2,900 Germans over US$145,000; and 1,900 Japanese over US$66,000.
Amazon reactivated its Red Cross donation channel when
Hurricane Katrina struck at the end of August 2005. As of
September 8, over 98,000 payments had been made totaling over US$10.7 million.
Amazon Connect
Amazon announced
Amazon Connect in 2005. It enables authors to post remarks that appear at the bottom of the detail pages for each of their books and on the Amazon home page of those who have bought their books.
Amazon Vine
On August 15, 2007 Amazon launched a program called Amazon Vine, which allows the site's top product reviewers free access to prerelease products from vendors participating in the program.
Discussion boards
In August 2006, Amazon launched product
wikis (later folded into #Amapedia) and
Internet forum for certain products. There are set guidelines that follow standard
message board conventions. Discussion boards were later expanded to include deals in the Gold Box Gold Box deal discussion forum and to cover collections of items with the same user-provided Tag (metadata). A post in the "wii" tag forum
Amapedia
In January 2007 Amazon launched Amapedia, a collaborative wiki for user-generated content related to "the products you like the most." Amapedia replaced Amazon's ProductWiki product, and all ProductWiki content was copied into Amapedia at launch.
WebStore By Amazon
WebStore by Amazon allows businesses to create their own ecommerce websites using
Amazon technology. Merchants can customize their sites using their own photos and branding.
WebStore by Amazon sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, which includes credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of $59.95/month, no matter how many WebStores they set up, and with no limits on the number of listings a merchant can create.
Controversies
Trademark infringement
In 1999 the
Amazon Bookstore Cooperative of Minneapolis, Minnesota sued Amazon.com for trademark infringement. The cooperative had been using the name "Amazon" since 1970, but reached an out-of-court agreement to share the name with the on-line retailer.
Patent use
The company has been controversial for its alleged use of
patents as a competitive hindrance. The "
1-click patent" is perhaps the best-known example of this. Amazon's use of the one-click patent against competitor
Barnes and Noble's website led the
Free Software Foundation to announce a
boycott on Amazon in December 1999. The boycott was discontinued in September 2002.From the FSF site: amazon philosophy.
On
May 12 2006, the
USPTO ordered a reexamination of the "One-Click" patent, based on a request filed by Peter Calveley. Calveley cited as prior art an earlier e-commerce patent and the Digicash
electronic cash system.
On February 22,
2000, the company was granted a patent covering an Internet-based customer referral system, or what is commonly called an "affiliate program". Reaction was swift and negative. Industry leaders Tim O'Reilly and
Charlie Jackson (software) spoke out strongly against this patent and O'Reilly published an open letter to Bezos protesting the 1-click patent and the affiliate-program patent, and petitioning him to "avoid any attempts to limit the further development of internet commerce".
O'Reilly collected 10,000 signatures with this petition. Bezos responded with his own open letter. The protest ended with O'Reilly and Bezos visiting Washington D.C. to lobby for patent reform.
On February 25, 2003, the company was granted a patent titled "Method and system for conducting a discussion relating to an item on Internet forums".
Patent infringement
The company has been sued for alleged
patent infringement a number of times, among them:
- Pinpoint v. Amazon.com
- Charles E. Hill & Associates v. Amazon.com
- Soverain Software LLC v. Amazon.com
- IBM v. Amazon.com
- British Technology Group v. Amazon.com
- Cendant Publishing v. Amazon.com
Shipping destinations
In 2006 Amazon.co.uk severely limited products that it (or its Marketplace sellers) will ship to the Republic of Ireland, though it will still ship to Northern Ireland. Irish shoppers are now limited to books, CDs, and DVDs only. This is due to
WEEE regulations, which Ireland has implemented extremely strictly, while the UK has not.
During 2007, Irish orders began to be fulfilled from Ireland, reducing delivery times significantly. This is connected to Amazon ceasing to use Royal Mail as a delivery agent.
Customer service
Amazon.com does not publish its toll-free customer service number (+1-800-201-7575) on its own web site. Customers are instead asked to submit written service requests (which are answered by e-mail) or to use a
click-to-call service to be connected by phone to an available service representative.Amazon.com Click-to-Call feature: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/call-me.html/?skip=true
There are numerous Web pages that exist solely to publish the Amazon.com customer service phone numbers, one of which received in excess of 23,000 visits in December 2004 alone. "The Amazon.com Customer Service Phone Number" Despite the perceived difficulty in reaching customer service by phone, Amazon.com earned an 87% rating for customer service in the Q4 2006 American Customer Satisfaction Index, second only to barnesandnoble.com llc which earned an 88% rating.http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=165
Labor relations
In November 2000, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) began an unsuccessful campaign to organize Amazon.com employees at several of their fulfillment centers. At the same time, the
Communications Workers of America undertook a campaign to unionize some 400 customer-service representatives in Seattle. Neither group of employees found the external organizations' attempt significant; neither union obtained enough interest to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. The customer-service center was closed down shortly after the campaign.
Chris Benoit DVD
In late June 2007, shortly after the death of professional wrestler Chris Benoit, Amazon displayed a special note on search results pages for the term "WWE": “Tragic news from the WWE. Wrestler Chris Benoit and his wife and son have been found dead in their Georgia home, and police are investigating the situation as a possible murder-suicide.”
The caption was then followed by a photo and a link to purchase the
WWE Chris Benoit: Hard Knocks DVD. Amazon.com later removed the offending message after widespread complaints in the professional wrestling community."JBL COMMENTS ON BENOIT TRAGEDY & MORE BENOIT NOTES," on
Pro Wrestling Insider published on June 28, 2007.
The Humane Society of the United States v. Amazon.com, Inc., et al
Amazon continues to carry two cockfighting magazines and two dog fighting videos although the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) contends that the sale of these materials is a violation of U.S. Federal law. The Humane Society of the United States has filed a lawsuit against Amazon. The HSUS is actively advising supporters to write Amazon requesting the removal of the offensive materials.http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2007/06/amazon_argument.html
This writing campaign gained momentum in August of 2007 after the much publicized
Bad Newz Kennels dog fighting investigation involving NFL quarterback
Michael Vick.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/business/media/27amazon.html Some supporters are also calling for a boycott of Amazon until the animal fighting materials are removed from sale.http://www.petville.com/pet_community/2007/08/amazon-selling-.html
Trivia
- Some of the words in Amazon.com URLs, usually referring to various components of the company's web site software, are nods to the Amazon River and Brazil:
- Obidos (software) (the name of the old page-rendering engine) comes from Óbidos, Pará, the meeting place of the Amazon's tributary;
- várzea is Portuguese language (Brazil's main language) for a forest flooded after heavy rains, as parts of the Amazon forest are;
- gp is short for Gurupa (the page-rendering system that had completely replaced Obidos by late 2006), a region in Brazil near the mouth of the Amazon.
- Similarly Brazil- or Amazon-themed names are used for many other Amazon.com software systems less exposed to the end users, e.g.:
- one of the mass mail sending systems is Correios (after the Brazilian postal service);
- the source code version control system is Brazil;
- a remote procedure call protocol is Iquitos;
- Urubamba is a software system interacting with Google's AdSense.
- A 2004 glitch in Amazon.ca's review system revealed that many well-established authors were anonymously giving themselves glowing reviews, with some revealed to be anonymously giving "rival" authors terrible reviews. The glitch in the system was fixed and those reviews have since been removed or made anonymous.http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/02/14/glitch.reveals.ap/index.htmlhttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C07E0DC1F3AF937A25751C0A9629C8B63
- An easter egg (virtual) can be found on Amazon.com's website. An invisible link at the very bottom of the " Directory of All Stores" page leads to a February 2002 tribute to David Risher, " Amazon.com's favorite site surfer".
See also
References
Further reading
- Amazon No Longer the Role Model for E-Commerce Design (2005).
- A conversation with Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon, ACM Queue vol.4, no.4 - May 2006.
- Blog about life inside an Amazon.com warehouse
External links
- Amazon.com
- International Amazon Sites
- Amazon.com press information
- Amazon.com investor relations
- Amazon.com's Bill of Rights
- Amazon.com's Editors' Picks: Music 2004, 2005, Books 2004, 2005
- WebStore By Amazon
{{Infobox Dotcom company| company_name = Amazon.com, Inc.| company_logo = | company_type =
Public company ()| company_slogan = …and you're done| foundation = 1994| location_city = Seattle, Washington, Founder, President, CEO, and Chairman
[Rick Dalzell, Senior VP/CIO
Tom Szkutak, Senior VP/CFO
Werner Vogels, VP/CTO]| revenue = United States dollar10.71 billion (
2006)])| products = Amazon.com
A9.com
Alexa InternetInternet Movie Database
WebStore by Amazon
Pinzon (private label trademark)]| language = English
.com, .co.uk, .caChinese .cnFrench .fr, .ca
German .de, .at
Japanese .co.jp| launch_date = 1995-->
Amazon.com, Inc. () is an
United States e-commerce company based in
Seattle, Washington, Washington. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the
Internet and was one of the iconic stocks of the late 1990s dot-com bubble. After the bubble burst, Amazon faced skepticism about its business model, but it made its first annual profit in 2003.
Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995, Amazon.com began as an online bookstore, though it soon diversified its product lines, adding VHSs, DVDs, music Compact Discs, MP3s,
computer software,
video games, Consumer electronics, Clothing,
furniture, food,
toys, and more.
Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the
United Kingdom, Germany,
Austria, France, China, and Japan. It ships globally on selected products.
History and business model
Amazon was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos refers to as his "regret minimization framework," i.e. his effort to fend off late-in-life regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush. Time Magazine 1999 Person of the Year -- Jeffrey P.Bezos It is common lore that Bezos wrote its business plan while he and his wife drove a 1988
Chevrolet Blazer from Fort Worth, Texas to Bellevue, Washington. NYTimes, July 10 2005: "A Retail Revolution Turns 10"
The company began operating as an online
bookstore under the name Cadabra.com (as in abracadabra), a name that Bezos quickly abandoned due to its sounding like "
cadaver". While the largest Brick and mortar business bookstores and
mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer many times more. Bezos renamed his company "Amazon" after the world's
Amazon River.
The company was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington, began service in July 1995, and was reincorporated in 1996 in
Delaware. The first book ever sold by Amazon.com was
Douglas Hofstadter's
Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.Amazon.com's company timeline Amazon.com had its initial public offering on May 15 1997, trading on the
NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol
AMZN at an
initial public offering price of
United States dollar18.00 per share (equivalent to US$1.50 after three stock splits during the late 1990s).
Amazon's initial
business plan was unusual: the company did not expect to turn a profit for four to five years. In retrospect, the strategy was effective. Amazon grew at a steady pace in the late 1990s while many other Internet companies grew at a blindingly fast pace.
Amazon's "slow" growth caused a number of its stockholders to complain, saying that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the Dot-com bubble burst and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2002: a meager US$5 million, just 1¢ per share, on revenues of over US$1 billion, but it was important symbolically.
The firm has since remained profitable: net income was US$35.3 million in 2003, US$588.5 million in 2004, US$359 million in 2005, and US$190 million in 2006 (including a US$662 million charge on R&D in 2006). Nevertheless, the firm's cumulative profits remain negative, since the positive performance of recent years is not yet sufficient to wipe out the losses of the past, as of 2005 the accumulated deficit stood at US$2.03 billion.
Revenue continued to grow thanks to product diversification and international presence: US$3.9 billion in 2002, US$5.3 billion in 2003, US$6.9 billion in 2004, US$8.5 billion in 2005, and US$10.7 billion in 2006. On November 21 2005, Amazon entered the
S&P 500 index, replacing the venerable AT&T after it merged with SBC Communications.
Time Magazine named Bezos its 1999 Person of the Year in recognition of the company's success in popularizing
online shopping.
Merchant partnerships
The Web sites of
Borders Group (borders.com, borders.co.uk), Waldenbooks (waldenbooks.com),
Virgin Megastores (virginmega.com), CDNOW (cdnow.com), and
HMV Group plc (hmv.com) are powered and hosted by Amazon. Until
June 30 2006, typing Toys R Us.com into one's browser would similarly bring up Amazon.com's Toys & Games tab; however, this relationship was terminated as the result of a lawsuit.E-Commerce Times: Toys 'R' Us wins right to end amazon partnership.,
March 3,
2006Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for Target Corporation, the
National Basketball Association, Sears Canada,
Sears UK,
Benefit Cosmetics,
Bebe Stores,
Timex Corporation, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, and
Bombay Company.
For a number of these companies, specifically the UK ones like Marks & Spencer and Mothercare, Amazon provides the multi-channel solutions not just the web site. That means that it also powers the in store terminals, customer-service applications and phone-sales terminals.
It also powers, although does not host, AOL's Shop@AOL service. It achieves this via
Web Services technology.
Locations
Headquarters
The company's global headquarters is located on Seattle, Washington's Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington. It has offices throughout other parts of greater Seattle.
Software development centers
The company employs software developers in modest- to large-sized centers across the globe. International locations include:
Fulfillment and warehousing
Fulfillment centers are located in the following cities, often near airports:
*Arizona, United States of America: Phoenix, Arizona
*Delaware,
United States of America:
New Castle, Delaware
*
Kansas,
United States of America: Coffeyville, Kansas
*
Kentucky, United States of America:
Campbellsville, Kentucky, Hebron, Kentucky (near Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport), and
Lexington, Kentucky
*Massachusetts,
United States of America:
Springfield, Massachusetts (new as of early 2007)
*
Nevada,
United States of America:
Fernley, Nevada and Red Rock, Nevada (near
Reno Stead Airport)
*
Washington, United States of America:
Federal Way, Washington
*Pennsylvania,
United States of America:
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and
Lewisberry, Pennsylvania
*Texas, United States of America:
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
*Ontario,
Canada: Mississauga, Ontario
*Munster,
Republic of Ireland:
Cork (city)
*Bedfordshire, England,
United Kingdom: Marston Gate
*Inverclyde, Scotland,
United Kingdom: Gourock
*Fife, Scotland,
United Kingdom: Glenrothes
*
Swansea,
Wales, United Kingdom: (Planned)
*
Loiret, France:
Orléans-Boigny (2000),
*Loiret,
France:
Orléans-Saran (2007),
*Hesse,
Germany: Bad Hersfeld
*Free State of Saxony,
Germany:
Leipzig
*
Chiba Prefecture,
Japan
*Guangzhou,
China
*
Shanghai, China
*
Beijing,
China
Product lines
Amazon has steadily branched into retail sales of music compact discs,
VHS and DVDs,
computer software, consumer
electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items,
toys & games, baby products,
clothing, sporting goods, gourmet
food, jewelry, watches,
health care and personal-care items, cosmetics,
musical instruments, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries, and more.
The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, its own Web auctions service, in March 1999. However it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBay's juggernaut growth. Amazon Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed-price marketplace business called
zShops in September 1999, and a failed
Sotheby's/Amazon partnership called
sothebys.amazon.com in November. Although zShops failed to live up to its expectations, it laid the groundwork for the hugely successful
Amazon Marketplace service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Amazon Marketplace's main rival today is eBay's Half.com service.
Beginning August 2005U.S. Trademark registrations numbered 3216667 and 3266840/3266847, issued March 6, 2007 and July 17, 2007, Amazon began selling products under its own
private label, "Pinzon"; the initial trademark applications suggested the company intended to focus on textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a larger and more diverse list of goods, and to register a new design consisting of the "word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter O whose space appears at the "one o'clock" position." Trademark Electronic Search System from the
USPTO, supplying "PINZON" as the search term. The list of products registered for coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.
On
May 16 2007 Amazon announced its intention to launch its own online music store. The store launched in public beta September 25, 2007, selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management.http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1055053&highlight=
In August 2007, Amazon announced Amazon Fresh, a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can pick up orders or have them delivered to their homes. Delivery is initially restricted to residents of
Mercer Island, Washington, a wealthy suburb of Seattle.http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/01/remember-webvan-so-does-amazon/
Website
A popular feature of Amazon is the ability for users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. As part of their review, users must rate the product on a
rating scale from one to five stars. Such rating scales provide a basic idea of the popularity and dependability of a product.
The review feature is an important and highly influential function for customers and was certainly one of the main reasons for amazon.com’s success at selling books. As with book reviews anywhere, the buyer must beware that all reviewers have bias. Under normal circumstances, reviews give the reader has at least a modest basis for evaluating whether to buy/read a given book.
Because it is an open forum, the reader can benefit from the opinions of different people with different perspectives. However, the anonymity of web reviewers increases the chances of abuse in the form of self-praise, praise from friends, or malicious criticism. This situation was confirmed in 2004 when the origin of reviews was accidentally made public on an amazon site, and some authors openly confirmed their glowing reviews of their own books (see Trivia below).
Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers, e.g., to indicate the “real name” of the reviewer (based on the credit card name) or to indicate that the reviewer is one of the “top” (most popular) reviewers. Because badging is optional, the risk of abuse remains. Some books have well over one thousand reviews (e.g. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged), but many books, especially new ones, have none.
The U.S. site generally has the highest quantity of reviews, but other country sites offer the perspectives of other reviewers. A review posted on one site is not necessarily visible on another site.
Search Inside the Book is a feature which makes it possible for customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog. Amazon.com's online reader
Search Inside reference Amazon.com
Search Inside reference The feature started out with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23
2003. There are currently about 250,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches.
To avoid copyright violations, Amazon.com does not return the computer-readable text of the book but rather a picture of the page containing the found excerpt, disables printing of the pages, and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. Amazon is planning to launch Search Inside the Book internationally. Additionally, customers can purchase access to read the entire book online via the Amazon Upgrade program, although the selection of books eligible for this service is currently limited.
According to information in Amazon.com discussion forums, Amazon derives about 40% of its sales from affiliates, whom they call "Associates." An Associate is an independent seller or business that receives a commission for referring customers to the Amazon.com site.
Associates do this by placing links on their websites to the Amazon homepage or to specific products. If a referral results in a sale, the Associate receives a commission from Amazon. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.http://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/gp/associates/join/main.html Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
XML service.
Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affiliate marketing program.http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=832131 AStore is a new affiliate product that allows Associates to embedded a subset of Amazon products within, or linked to from, another website.
According to the Internet audience measurement website Compete.com, Amazon attracts approximately 50 million U.S. consumers to its website on a monthly basis (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/amazon.com).
Acquisitions and spinoffs
- In April 1998, Amazon bought the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
- In August 1998, Amazon bought Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll for 800,000 shares of Amazon stock. PlanetAll operated a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. In the same deal, Amazon acquired Sunnyvale-based Junglee.com, an XML-based data mining startup for 1.6 million shares of Amazon stock.
The two deals together were valued at about US$280 million at the time. Most staff of both firms were absorbed by Amazon in early 1999. These employees went on to build community-focused features for the Amazon Web site, including Amazon.com online auction, Amazon.com Marketplace, Friends & Favorites, and Purchase Circles.
- In June 1999, Amazon bought Alexa Internet, Accept.com, and Exchange.com in a set of stock deals worth approximately US$645 million.
- In 2004, Amazon purchased Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce Web site. It also debuted A9.com, a company focused on researching, and building innovative technology. One of the technologies A9.com was working on was a search engine with a "Search Inside the Book" feature allowing users to search within the text of books as well as searching for text on the Web.
Another
A9 technology was its "Find It on the Block" feature allowing users to find not just the phone number, address, map, and directions for a business; but to see a picture of it, and all the businesses and shops on that same street.
- In March 2005, Amazon acquired BookSurge, a print on demand company and Mobipocket.com, an eBook software company.
- In July 2005, Amazon purchased CreateSpace (formerly CustomFlix), a Scotts Valley, CA-based distributor of on-demand DVDs. Since the acquisition, CreateSpace has expanded its on-line services to include on-demand books and CDs, as well as video downloads. On July 30, 2007, the National Archives and Records Administration announced that it would make thousands of historic films available for purchase through CreateSpace.
- In February 2006, Amazon acquired Shopbop, a Madison, Wisconsin-based retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women. Wisconsin Technology Network: "Amazon acquires Madison-based Shopbop"
- In May 2007, Amazon acquired dpreview.com, a London-based digital photography review website created by Phil Askey as his personal hobby website and Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States.
- Amazon spinoffs include search technology company A9.com and shoe and handbag store Endless.com.
Noteworthy events
In 2002, Amazon became the exclusive retailer for the much-hyped Segway HT. Bezos was an early supporter of the Segway before its details were made public.
On June 21 2003, Amazon coordinated what was at the time one of the largest sales and distribution events in e-commerce history with the sale of over 1.3 million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, since beaten by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with a sale of over 2 million copies preordered in 2007.
On
July 16 2005, Amazon celebrated its 10th anniversary by telecasting a worldwide live concert hosted by Bill Maher and artists such as
Bob Dylan and Norah Jones.
Products and services
Amazon Web Services
Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002. The service provides programmatic access to many features leveraged behind the scenes on its own website. AWS was rapidly adopted by what now amount to tens of thousands of software developers.
Amazon S3
In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1
byte to 5 gigabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via
HTTP or
BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and for data transferred.
Amazon EC2
In August 2006, Amazon introduced
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure with its high reliability to run diverse applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
In
November 2005, Amazon.com began testing
Amazon Mechanical Turk, an
application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors.
Amazon FPS
On August 2,
2007 Amazon launched a payment service specifically targeted at developers. Amazon FPS has facilities for developing many different charging models including micro-payments. The service also gives developers easy access to Amazon customers.
Amazon Unbox
On March 7
2007, Amazon launched an Internet video on demand service. There has been criticism of the service due to its use of
digital rights management (DRM).
Amazon MP3 Downloads
On September 25,
2007, Amazon launched a new music store (currently in
software release cycle#Beta) which sells downloadable tracks, all in the MP3 format and most recorded at 256
kilobits per second
Variable bitrate (VBR). The Amazon MP3 Music Service: Terms of Use legally restrict use of the music, but Amazon does not use
Digital Rights Management to enforce those terms. Most songs cost US$0.89 or US$0.99, and most albums cost between US$4.95 and US$9.99.
Participating record labels include EMI and Universal Records, as well as many independent labels.http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070925005710&newsLang=en Previous to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in Amie Street, a similar music store with a variable pricing model based on demand.
Amazon Shorts
Amazon Shorts is a program launched in 2005. The program offers exclusive short form content including short stories and non-fiction pieces from best selling authors, all available for immediate download at US$0.49. As of June 2007, the program has over 1,700 pieces and is adding about 50 new pieces per week.
Amazon Prime
In
February 2005, Amazon launched
Amazon Prime in the continental United States.http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=847395&highlight= Amazon Prime subscribers pay US$79 per year and receive free 2-day shipping on all items shipped by Amazon with no minimum purchase amount. Overnight shipping for Prime members is US$3.99 per item. Prime benefits extend to four family members in the same household.
Amazon Prime help page
Amazon Prime became available in Japan in June 2007. Japanese customers may pay
Japanese Yen3,900 per year and receive same-day shipping on orders shipped to the Kantō region and next-day delivery to other locations.http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1030042&highlight=
Donations
In 2001, Amazon was one of the first online stores to begin accepting donations to the Red Cross on behalf of 9/11 victims. For several days the company dedicated its entire home page for this cause.
In 2004, Amazon launched its
Presidential Candidates feature, whereby customers could donate from US$5 to US$200 to the campaigns of
U.S. presidential election, 2004, resurrecting the
Amazon Honor System for the purpose. The Honor System was originally launched in 2001 as a way for Amazon customers to "tip" their "favorite Web sites and to buy digital content on the Web," Amazon collecting 2.9% of the payment plus a flat fee of US$0.30. It has never been shut down, but had fallen into relative disuse.
At the end of 2004, with the catastrophic
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Amazon set up an online donation channel to the
American Red Cross using the Honor System, waiving its processing fee. As of January 3
2005, over 162,000 individuals had donated over US$13.1 million in this way.
The same week, Amazon created similar channels for the British Red Cross,
Canadian Red Cross, French Red Cross, German Red Cross, and Japanese Red Cross Red Cross organizations via its international sites. Over 7,000 Britons donated more than US$350,000; 900 Canadians over US$56,000; 660 French over US$23,000; 2,900 Germans over US$145,000; and 1,900 Japanese over US$66,000.
Amazon reactivated its Red Cross donation channel when
Hurricane Katrina struck at the end of August 2005. As of
September 8, over 98,000 payments had been made totaling over US$10.7 million.
Amazon Connect
Amazon announced
Amazon Connect in 2005. It enables authors to post remarks that appear at the bottom of the detail pages for each of their books and on the Amazon home page of those who have bought their books.
Amazon Vine
On August 15, 2007 Amazon launched a program called Amazon Vine, which allows the site's top product reviewers free access to prerelease products from vendors participating in the program.
Discussion boards
In August 2006, Amazon launched product
wikis (later folded into #Amapedia) and
Internet forum for certain products. There are set guidelines that follow standard
message board conventions. Discussion boards were later expanded to include deals in the Gold Box Gold Box deal discussion forum and to cover collections of items with the same user-provided
Tag (metadata). A post in the "wii" tag forum
Amapedia
In January 2007 Amazon launched Amapedia, a collaborative wiki for user-generated content related to "the products you like the most." Amapedia replaced Amazon's ProductWiki product, and all ProductWiki content was copied into Amapedia at launch.
WebStore By Amazon
WebStore by Amazon allows businesses to create their own ecommerce websites using
Amazon technology. Merchants can customize their sites using their own photos and branding.
WebStore by Amazon sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, which includes credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of $59.95/month, no matter how many WebStores they set up, and with no limits on the number of listings a merchant can create.
Controversies
Trademark infringement
In 1999 the
Amazon Bookstore Cooperative of Minneapolis, Minnesota sued Amazon.com for trademark infringement. The cooperative had been using the name "Amazon" since 1970, but reached an out-of-court agreement to share the name with the on-line retailer.
Patent use
The company has been controversial for its
alleged use of
patents as a competitive hindrance. The "1-click patent" is perhaps the best-known example of this. Amazon's use of the one-click patent against competitor Barnes and Noble's website led the
Free Software Foundation to announce a boycott on Amazon in December 1999. The boycott was discontinued in September 2002.From the FSF site: amazon philosophy.
On
May 12 2006, the USPTO ordered a reexamination of the "One-Click" patent, based on a request filed by Peter Calveley. Calveley cited as prior art an earlier e-commerce patent and the Digicash electronic cash system.
On
February 22, 2000, the company was granted a patent covering an Internet-based customer referral system, or what is commonly called an "affiliate program". Reaction was swift and negative. Industry leaders
Tim O'Reilly and
Charlie Jackson (software) spoke out strongly against this patent and O'Reilly published an open letter to Bezos protesting the 1-click patent and the affiliate-program patent, and petitioning him to "avoid any attempts to limit the further development of internet commerce".
O'Reilly collected 10,000 signatures with this petition. Bezos responded with his own open letter. The protest ended with O'Reilly and Bezos visiting Washington D.C. to lobby for patent reform.
On
February 25,
2003, the company was granted a patent titled "Method and system for conducting a discussion relating to an item on
Internet forums".
Patent infringement
The company has been sued for alleged
patent infringement a number of times, among them:
- Pinpoint v. Amazon.com
- Charles E. Hill & Associates v. Amazon.com
- Soverain Software LLC v. Amazon.com
- IBM v. Amazon.com
- British Technology Group v. Amazon.com
- Cendant Publishing v. Amazon.com
Shipping destinations
In 2006 Amazon.co.uk severely limited products that it (or its Marketplace sellers) will ship to the Republic of Ireland, though it will still ship to Northern Ireland. Irish shoppers are now limited to books, CDs, and DVDs only. This is due to WEEE regulations, which Ireland has implemented extremely strictly, while the UK has not.
During 2007, Irish orders began to be fulfilled from Ireland, reducing delivery times significantly. This is connected to Amazon ceasing to use Royal Mail as a delivery agent.
Customer service
Amazon.com does not publish its toll-free customer service number (+1-800-201-7575) on its own web site. Customers are instead asked to submit written service requests (which are answered by e-mail) or to use a
click-to-call service to be connected by phone to an available service representative.Amazon.com Click-to-Call feature: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/call-me.html/?skip=true
There are numerous Web pages that exist solely to publish the Amazon.com customer service phone numbers, one of which received in excess of 23,000 visits in December 2004 alone. "The Amazon.com Customer Service Phone Number" Despite the perceived difficulty in reaching customer service by phone, Amazon.com earned an 87% rating for customer service in the Q4 2006 American Customer Satisfaction Index, second only to barnesandnoble.com llc which earned an 88% rating.http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=165
Labor relations
In November 2000, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) began an unsuccessful campaign to organize Amazon.com employees at several of their fulfillment centers. At the same time, the
Communications Workers of America undertook a campaign to unionize some 400 customer-service representatives in Seattle. Neither group of employees found the external organizations' attempt significant; neither union obtained enough interest to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. The customer-service center was closed down shortly after the campaign.
Chris Benoit DVD
In late June 2007, shortly after the death of professional wrestler
Chris Benoit, Amazon displayed a special note on search results pages for the term "WWE": “Tragic news from the WWE. Wrestler Chris Benoit and his wife and son have been found dead in their Georgia home, and police are investigating the situation as a possible murder-suicide.”
The caption was then followed by a photo and a link to purchase the
WWE Chris Benoit: Hard Knocks DVD. Amazon.com later removed the offending message after widespread complaints in the professional wrestling community."JBL COMMENTS ON BENOIT TRAGEDY & MORE BENOIT NOTES," on
Pro Wrestling Insider published on
June 28,
2007.
The Humane Society of the United States v. Amazon.com, Inc., et al
Amazon continues to carry two cockfighting magazines and two dog fighting videos although the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) contends that the sale of these materials is a violation of U.S. Federal law. The Humane Society of the United States has filed a lawsuit against Amazon. The HSUS is actively advising supporters to write Amazon requesting the removal of the offensive materials.http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2007/06/amazon_argument.html
This writing campaign gained momentum in August of 2007 after the much publicized Bad Newz Kennels dog fighting investigation involving NFL quarterback Michael Vick.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/business/media/27amazon.html Some supporters are also calling for a boycott of Amazon until the animal fighting materials are removed from sale.http://www.petville.com/pet_community/2007/08/amazon-selling-.html
Trivia
- Some of the words in Amazon.com URLs, usually referring to various components of the company's web site software, are nods to the Amazon River and Brazil:
- Obidos (software) (the name of the old page-rendering engine) comes from Óbidos, Pará, the meeting place of the Amazon's tributary;
- várzea is Portuguese language (Brazil's main language) for a forest flooded after heavy rains, as parts of the Amazon forest are;
- gp is short for Gurupa (the page-rendering system that had completely replaced Obidos by late 2006), a region in Brazil near the mouth of the Amazon.
- Similarly Brazil- or Amazon-themed names are used for many other Amazon.com software systems less exposed to the end users, e.g.:
- one of the mass mail sending systems is Correios (after the Brazilian postal service);
- the source code version control system is Brazil;
- a remote procedure call protocol is Iquitos;
- Urubamba is a software system interacting with Google's AdSense.
- A 2004 glitch in Amazon.ca's review system revealed that many well-established authors were anonymously giving themselves glowing reviews, with some revealed to be anonymously giving "rival" authors terrible reviews. The glitch in the system was fixed and those reviews have since been removed or made anonymous.http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/02/14/glitch.reveals.ap/index.htmlhttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C07E0DC1F3AF937A25751C0A9629C8B63
- An easter egg (virtual) can be found on Amazon.com's website. An invisible link at the very bottom of the " Directory of All Stores" page leads to a February 2002 tribute to David Risher, " Amazon.com's favorite site surfer".
See also
- Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)
- Kimba Kano: Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox add-on, which adds built-in Amazon.com searching (formerly known as Coeus).
- Statistically Improbable Phrases: Amazon.com's phrase extraction technique for indexing books.
References
Further reading
- Amazon No Longer the Role Model for E-Commerce Design (2005).
- A conversation with Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon, ACM Queue vol.4, no.4 - May 2006.
- Blog about life inside an Amazon.com warehouse
External links
- Amazon.com
- International Amazon Sites
- Amazon.com press information
- Amazon.com investor relations
- Amazon.com's Bill of Rights
- Amazon.com's Editors' Picks: Music 2004, 2005, Books 2004, 2005
- WebStore By Amazon
Amazon.co.uk: low prices in Electronics, Books, Music, DVDs & more
Online retailer of books, video games, toys, music, and video recordings. Region 2 DVDs and prices in pounds sterling.
Amazon.co.uk
Find, shop for and buy at Amazon.co.uk ... At Amazon, we believe that every day is still Day One. A day to take a first
Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books ...
Online retailer of books, video games, toys, music, and video recordings. Region 1 DVDs and prices in US dollars.
Amazon.com: Help
Browse our Help Topics or enter a keyword in the Search box. Our most commonly accessed topics are listed below. Sellers: If you're selling something on Amazon.com, click here for ...
Amazon.co.uk Associates Central
Context Links (beta)-- You Create the Content. We'll Link It. Would you like to earn referral fees without having to manually build links? Context Links, a great new feature now ...
Amazon.co.uk Associates: The web's most popular and successful ...
Join the Amazon.co.uk Associates Programme and start earning money today. The Amazon Associates Program is one of the largest and most successful online affiliate programs, with ...
aStore for Amazon Associates
Would you like to have your own store featuring Amazon.co.uk products? And would you like to have this store up and running in minutes? aStore by Amazon is the solution.
ws.amazon.com
ws.amazon.com
Amazon.com - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is an American electronic commerce (e-commerce) company in Seattle, Washington. Amazon was one of the first major companies to sell goods by ...