Amazonis dotcomus : 100% automated sales
A huge success
Unknown three years ago, Amazonis dotcomus (commonly known
as Amazon.com, from its Internet address http://www.amazon.com)
has become one of the best-known success stories on the
NASDAQ and is quoted as an example in every lecture on
electronic commerce. By creating the biggest bookstore
in the world, the founders of Amazon relegated the previous
holder of the title, Furet du Nord (the world's biggest
real bookstore) to the status of a dinosaur in just a
few months. Even better, the two main American book distribution
companies realised only too late the transformation required,
and lacking the huge investment necessary, have not managed
to compensate for their delay. The first lesson of electronic
commerce : first come, first served, and as the butterfly
doesn't understand good manners, the first one takes all
the pollen from the best flowers when it discovers a new
field, and leaves the least interesting flowers for its
fellow creatures. Don't let it happen to you. Thanks to
its brilliant marketing and financial strategy, Amazon
is streets ahead of Barnes and Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com)
and Borders (http://www.borders.com)
which have now been relegated to the rank of simple challengers.
Barnes and Noble have been forced to ally themselves with
Bertelsmann, one of the German leaders of cultural product
distribution, to obtain the means to compete with Amazonis
dotcomus.
What is Amazon's secret ? The answer is, no stock : for
those who work in publishing, who devote a large part
of their energy to improving their stock management, the
advantage is obvious. This allows the reduction of profit
margins to the point of offering reductions amounting
to 40% of the official price.
But the price is not enough to explain this commercial
success : Amazon is, effectively, able to deliver books
to a customer anywhere in the world, and to offer a complete
range of delivery service (normal or express postal delivery,
or by courier service such as UPS or Federal Express).
The
biggest bookstore in the world
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