“A STUDY ON ONLINE FIRM: AMAZON”

M. COM. PART –II

SEMESTER-III

2019 -2020.

SUBMITTED BY

Ms. SHWETA PANDEY

ROLL NO: 34

PROJECT GUIDE: PROF. AJIT JADHAV

Shankar Narayan College of Arts and Commerce

Bhayander (East), Thane – 401105

1
I, SHWETA PANDEY student of M.Com. Part-II of Shankar Narayan College of Arts,
Commerce and Self Financing Courses, Bhayander (E), hereby declare that I have completed this
project on “ ” in the Academic Year 2019-20.

I declared that the project report is my original work and it has not been submitted by me in part
or full to any other university/institution/statutory body for the award of any
degree/diploma/certificate.

Name of Candidate: Shweta Pandey

Sign:

Place: Bhayander (East)

Date:

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 SHANKAR NARAYAN COLLEGE OF ARTS & COMMERCE

MahavidyalayaMarg, Navghar, Bhayander (East), Thane- 401105.

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Ms. Shweta Pandey has worked and duly completed her project work for
the degree of Master in Commerce under the Faculty of Commerce and her project is entitled, “”
under my supervision.

I further certify that the entire work has been done by the learner under my guidance and that no
part of it has been submitted previously for any degree or Diploma of any University.

It is her own work and facts reported by her personal findings and investigations.

Project Guide Dr. V.N. Yadav

External Guide Co-Ordinator

Prof. AjitJadhav

Date:

Place: Bhayander (E)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It gives me an immense pleasure in presenting my project topic “”.

I would firstly like to thank University of Mumbai to design M. Com program and also thank my
college management for providing me Post Graduation program and sincerely thank our
Principal Dr V.N. Yadav for providing me support and giving me an opportunity in Post-
Graduation program in our college and completing the project.

I would also like to express my profound guide professor AjitJadhav and co-coordinator who
have guided me in my research project with his vast fund of knowledge. I appreciate him for his
valuable contribution in drawing up this project.

I take this opportunity to highlight the valuable contribution of my colleagues, especially my

parents who has always supported and encouraged me for the success of this project.

Thank You

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 INDEX

SR NO CONTENT PAGE NO
1 INTRODUCTION OF JEFF BEZOS 7 -8

2 INTRODUCTION OF AMAZON 9 - 10

3 WHY IS IT CALLED AMAZON 11

4 WHAT WAS THE FIRST PRODUCT 12

5 HOW TO SELL ON AMAZON 13 - 14

6 DANGER OF SELLING ON AMAZON 15 - 19

7 AMAZON BIGGEST FAILURE 20 - 25

8 GROWTH OF AMAZON THROUGH LAUNCHING NEW PRODUCTS 26 – 30

9 FROM BOOKSTORE TO SUPER STORE (SUCCESS STORY) 31 -34

10 HOW AMAZON AIMS TO HELP WOMEN IN INDIA ACHIEVE THEIR GOAL 35 – 36

OF WORKING IN TECHNOLOGY

11 PROHIBITION TO SELL ON AMAZON 36 – 43

12 BLOCKBUSTER SELL ON AMAZON 44

13 FUTURE PLANS OF AMAZON 45 – 49

14 LOGO REVALUATION 50

15 FUTURE PLANS OF AMAZON FOR INDIA 51 – 54

16 Objective of the study 55

17 Research methodology 56

18 Limitation of study 57

19 Data analysis and interpretation 58 – 61

20 Hypothesis 62

21 Questionnaire 63 - 65

22 Conclusion 66

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6
  INTRODUCTION OF JEFF BEZOS

Who doesn’t love a startup story and what better than knowing about the men in the
world?

A person who was born on January 12 1964, in New Mexico. His first love is computer
and studied computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton University. After
graduation he worked on Wall Street.

In 1990, He became the youngest senior vice president at the investment firm D.E.Shaw.
After four years, he quit his job to open amazon.com. This person is none other than
JEFFERY P. BEZOS.

Bezos started his first business at school. It was called the dream institute and it was an
educational summer camp for fourth, fifth, sixth standard students. There were some
books that bezos required his participants to read.

Bezos initially name his new company Cadabra but later changed the name to amazon
after the Amazon River in South America, in part because the name begins with the
letter A, which is at the beginning of the alphabet. He accepted an estimated $300000
from his parent and invested in Amazon. He warned many early investors that there was
70% chance that Amazon would fail or go bankrupt. Although Amazon was originally an
online bookstore, Bezos had always planned to expand to other products. Three years
after Bezos founded Amazon, he took it with an initial public offerings (IPO). In response
to critical reports from fortune and Barrons, Bezos maintained that growth of the
internet would overtake competition from larger book retailers such as Borders and
Barnes & Noble.

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In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video; by the end of the year,
he had also expanded the company products to include a variety of consumer goods.
Bezos used the $54 million raised during the company’s 1997 equity offerings to finance
aggressive acquisition of smaller competitors. In 2000, Bezos borrowed $2 billion from
banks, as its cash balances dipped only $350 million. In 2002 Bezos led amazon to launch
Amazon Web Series, which complied data from weather channels and website traffic. In
late 2002, rapid spending from Amazon caused its financial distress when revenue
stagnated. After the company nearly went bankrupt, he closed distribution centers and
laid off 14% of the amazon workforce. In 2003, Amazon rebounded from financial
instability and turned a profit of $400 million. In November 2007, Bezos launched the
Amazon Kindle. According to a 2008 time profile, Bezos wished to create same flow
state found in video game stimulation in books; he wished readers would fully engaged
with books. In 2013, Bezos secured a $600 million contract with the Central intelligence
agency on behalf of Amazon Web Services. In October that year, Amazon was recognized
as the largest online shopping retailer in the world.

Journalist Nellie Bowles of the New York Times has described the public persona and
personality of Bezos as that of a brilliant but mysterious and coldblooded corporate
titan. During the 1990s Bezos earned a reputation for rentlessly pushing Amazon
forward, often at the expense of the public charity and social welfare. His business
practices projected a public image of prudence and parsimony with his own wealth and
that of Amazon. Bezos was a multi billionare who hung his clothes on a rack in his
Amazon headquarters office and drove a 1996 Honda accord. Throughout the early
2000s, he was perceived to be geeky and nerdy, which went over well with observers.

In 1999 Bezos received his first major award when time named him Person of the Year. In
2008 he was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one the America best leaders.
Bezos was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology from Carnegie
Mellon University in 2008. In 2011 the economist gave Bezos and Gregg Zehr an
innovation award for the Amazon Kindle.

He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group and attended the 2011 Bilderberg
conference in Switzerland, and the 2013 conference in England. He was a member of the
executive committee of the business council for 2011 & 2012.

 INTRODUCTION OF AMAZON!
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Amazon is an e-commerce company with total sales of us $4.106 billion in 2017. The company
of Amazon.com was started in July of 1994 and it was originally called as CADABRA. Firstly it
was an online book store, which at that time was a brand concept.

The company was located in Washington State. Its founder, current CEO and chairman of the
board as well as president is Jeff Bezos.

In 2013, Amazon was entered in India. In July 2016 Amazon launched its services such as
Amazon Kindle, Amazon prime video, Amazon mp3 ETC; It is considered one of the big four
technology companies along with Google, Apple, and Facebook.

Amazon is known for its disruption of well- established industries through technological
innovation and mass scale. It is the world largest e-commerce marketplace, Al assistant
provider, and cloud computing platform as measured by revenue and market capitalization.
Amazon is the largest internet company by revenue in the world. It is the second largest private
employer in the United States and one of the world most valuable companies. Amazon is the
second largest technology companies by revenue

As of March 2019, the board of directors is.

 Jeff Bezos, president, CEO, and Chairman

 Tom Alberg, managing partner, Madrona venture group

 Rosalind Brewer, group president, and COO, Starbucks

 Jamie Gorelick, partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, and Dorr

 Daniel P. Huttenlocher, dean and Vice Provost, Cornell university

 Judy McGrath, former CEO MTV networks

 Indra Nooyi, former CEO, Pepsico

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  Jon Rubinstein, former chairman, and CEO, Palm, Inc

 Thomas O. Ryder, former chairman, and CEO, Reader’s digest Association

 Patty Stonesifer, President, and CEO, Martha’s Table

 Wendell P. Weeks, chairman, President, and CEO, Coming Inc.

The Amazon sales rank provides an indication of the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon
locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a best sellers
list for the millions of the product stocked by Amazon. While ASR has no direct effect on the
sales of the product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in its
bestsellers lists. Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon
website and this may lead to increase in sales. In particular, products that experience large
jumps in their sales rank may be include within Amazon’s lists of “movers and shakers”, such a
listing provide additional exposure that might lead to increase in sales.

For competitive reason, Amazon does not release actual sales figure to public. However,
Amazon has now begun to release point of sales data via the Nielson bookscan service to
verified authors.

Since its founding, the company has attracted criticism and controversy for its action, including
supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools, forming cloud computing
partnership with the CIA, leading customers away from bookshops, adversely impacting the
environment, placing a low priority on warehouse condition for workers; actively opposing
unionization efforts, remotely deleting content purchased by Amazon Kindle users; taking public
subsidies; seeking to patent its 1-click technology; engaging in anti-competitive actions and
price discrimination and reclassifying LGBT books as adult content.

41 warehouses in India.

Market capital= 776 $billion

Revenue per year= 176 $billion

Gross profit= 66 $billion

Net income= 3 $billion

 Why it is called Amazon

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Amazon.com was very nearly called “Cadabra”, as in “abracadabra”. Founder Jeff Bezos
rapidly re-conceptualized the name when his lawyer misheard the word as “cadaver”.

Bezos instead named the business after the river reportedly for two reasons. One, to
suggest scale (Amazon.com launched with the tagline with Earth’s biggest bookstore”)
and two, back then website listings were often alphabetical.

The Amazon.com logo began as an abstract river design. After a few design changes, in
2000 the logo was re-imagined as the Turner Duckworth design we see today.

In the words of brand design agency, the smile and arrow say “we’re happy to deliver
anything, anywhere.

In an Amazon.com press release from the time, the retailer stated “a smile now begins
under the a and ends with a dimple under the z, emphasizing that Amazon.com offers
anything, from A to Z, that customer may looking to buy online”.

When introduced in the early ‘00s, the logo was sometimes animated with arrow
moving under letters, but it was mixed after some suggested the arrow looked a little,
phallic.

Amazon River has the largest collection of flora and fauna in the world. Amazon Inc will
represent the largest collection of retail items on the internet.

Amazon.com will appear in the first pages of the internet directory, making it easier to
attract users and customers.

 What was the first product

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Amazon sold its first book from Jeff Bezos seattle area garage in July of 1995. The book
was Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental
Mechanisms of Thought. A Exclusive bookstore that became one of the internet biggest
success stories.

Amazon began its selling books online, across America and 45 others countries within 30
days. In two months scales reached to $200000 a week, growing faster than Bezos can’s
imagined.

Amazon grew out of CEO Jeff Bezos’ desire to build an” everything store”. It was an idea
he’d discussed at length with his former boss, David Shaw.

As Brad Stone describes it in his 2013 book, also called “The Everything Store”, Bezos’
and Shaw’ goal was to build “an Internet company that served as the intermediary
between customers and manufacturers and sold nearly every type of product, all over
the world”.

Finally, there were 3 million books in print, which was a lot more than a bookstore like
Barnes and Noble could stock.

Amazon began broadening its horizons beyond books in 1998, when it bought the
companies Junglee and Corporation and Planet All.

When Amazon opened to the public in 1995 according to The Los Angeles Times, it billed
itself as “The Earth Biggest Bookstore”.

 How to sell on Amazon

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The amount of money you need to start an Amazon depends on where you’re sourcing
your products from. You can purchase inventory to sell on Amazon from different
sources:

Retail sources: You buy items at local/ online retail stores, and resell them on Amazon
(this is known retail/ online arbitrage)

Wholesale suppliers: You buy items from a company like ours, and you’re able to
resell these products wherever you’d like.

Private label manufacturers: You modify and customize your own branded
products to sell wherever you’d like.

If you’re extremely tight on cash (less than $250), I would recommend checking out
retail arbitrage first.

There are currently 5 costs directly associated with starting an Amazon business. These
figures can range depending on how much you are willing to invest and how much you
are willing to bootstrap some costs in the beginning to keep startup costs low:

 Buying initial Inventory

 Opening an amazon account

 Buying UPC codes

 Investing in product photography

 Creating a logo and product branding

Total Amazon business lean startup cost: $224 - $518

How to open an Amazon account:

STEP 1: Go to services.amazon.com

STEP 2: Scroll down and click the “Selling on Amazon” link.

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 STEP 3: Select between “Sell as a Professional” or “Sell as an individual”. As a beginner
we recommend selling as an individual. Amazon charges $0.99 per scale. For a
professional seller account Amazon charges $39.99 per month.

STEP 4: Fill out the required information and once you are done then you have officially
become an Amazon seller.

Use your personal information , you do not need a legal business right away to start an Amazon
business.

Your personal tax information is perfectly fine because you can claim any earnings as personal
income to start.

When starting to sell on Amazon this is the part most people tend to overlook and rush. A
profitable product falls at the intersection of your interest and profit margin.

The more time you spend trying to get yourself ungated the less time you have to test product.

 Danger of selling on Amazon

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Right Now, selling on Amazon is too easy. All you have to do is find the product with
good margins, list it on Amazon, and it will eventually sell because Amazon’s audience
and reach is so vast. Sales and revenue might be great right now, but things can turn on
a dime and you have to make sure you have a fall back plan just in case because Amazon
doesn’t really care about you.

 AMAZON MAY BAN YOU FOR FACTORS BEYOND YOUR

CONTROL
If you do a little Google searching, you can easily find stories of Amazon entrepreneurs
losing their businesses practically overnight. But as with any thing on the internet, we
like to take everything we read with a grain of salt.

After all, the seller could have sold counterfeit goods or violated Amazon stumps of
services and got banned for legitimate reasons.

The threat of getting banned is quite real, can happen unexpectedly, and often times can
be out of one’s control. In fact, the number 1 threat of getting your Amazon seller
account revoked is by getting a string of negative feedback on product quality policy
violations.

Amazon policy always favors’ the buyer in all most all cases. And savvy customers are
well aware that customer can bypass return shipping fees by stating their arrived
damaged or that it did not match the listing.

 AMAZON CAN FORCE YOU TO SELL YOUR GOODS AT

WHATEVER PRICE THEY WANT
Even if you sell your own branded product’s on Amazon doesn’t mean that you get to set
your own prices. Every day Amazon, deploys an army of computer bots who crawl a
scrap other websites for product and pricing info.

If Amazon determines that your products are priced to high, they may take away or buy
box which will basically kill your sales. In addition, if you have previously priced your
goods at low prices during a lightning deal or a sale, Amazon may not let you raise your
prices back up to where they were prior to the sale depending on their algorithm.

 AMAZON CAN FORCE YOU TON SELL YOUR GOODS ON

VENDOR CENTRAL

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There are 2 ways to sell on Amazon. One, you can sell as a 3rd party vendor where
you control your products, inventory and listing.

3rd party selling is by far the most desirable way to sell on Amazon today because
you have full authority over your listing and your marketing.

The other way to sell on Amazon is as 1st party seller on vendor central. As an
Amazon vendor, you sell your goods directly to Amazon at a wholesale price that
they set and you have zero control over anything.

Colleagues of mine who have converted products over to Vendor Central in the
past have all had terrible experiences where Amazon totally destroyed their
products listings and their sales.

There have been reports of Amazon forcing popular vendors to convert from
being 3rd party sellers to 1st party sellers.

 AMAZON EMPLOYEES MAY SELL YOUR DATA

Earlier in the year, Amazon employees in China and India were caught selling
confidential information regarding 3rd party sellers on Amazon. And this
information was used to give independent merchants an advantage over others
on the sale.

Dirty sellers are also buying Amazon vendors central accounts on the black
market to gain access to others people’s product listings.

Bottom line, Amazon is growing so quickly that it’s wild west out there. There is
mass corruption everywhere and it’s tough for Amazon to control

 OTHERS SELLERS WILL COPY YOU

One day, he was checking up on his listings when he noticed that products from
our online store were being listed on Amazon without my permission. When he
took a closer look, he discovered that a seller under the name “bee” had stolen
all our product photos and all of our product descriptions and were selling our
items on Amazon!!!

They literally ripped everything off! They stole their photos, our verbiage and
even our products numbers. It was wholesale piracy on a large scale with over
400 SKUs.

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When we sent an email to Amazon, they sent us an automated response asking
us for documentation on each and every product to show proof that we owned
the photos and descriptions.

To put together a through response would have taken a ton of work and time and
we were unable to get a human to take care of this for us. Fortunately, we
politely reached out to the vendor and they took everything down without a
fight.

While it’s for a customer to file a complaint on a seller, it’s much harder for a
seller to file a complaint against another seller. Be aware!

 OTHERS SELLERS WILL HIJACK YOUR LISTINGS WITH COPYCAT

GOODS
While getting all of your products copied and stolen doesn’t happy very often,
there is rampant piggy backing of Amazon listings happening all the time.

Even if you sell a private labeled product under your own brand and ASIN on
Amazon, there is nothing stooping Amazon seller from piggy backing on your
listings and undercutting you on price with a counterfeit item.

For example, let’s say I sell linen napkins that are clearly labeled with my brand
and label. An unscrupulous seller could sell poorer quality linen napkins under
my same Amazon product number and undercut me on price even though it’s
not the same item.

In the worst case scenario, a customer might buy this counterfeit product, be
unsatisfied with the quality and leave bad feedback on my product even though
it’s counterfeit!

The best way to fight this is to actually purchase the product yourself as the
customer and then file an A to Z complaint against the fraudulent seller.

Unfortunately, this process is a major pain in the butt and Amazon has been
known to take its time before taking action.

 UNDERHANDED TACTICS EVIL AMAZON SELLERS ARE USING

TO CHEAT AND GET AHEAD
In just the past few years, Amazon has become such a cutthroat marketplace that
unscrupulous sellers have been purposely trying to sabotage their competitors.

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As a result, most sellers are hush hush about their product and never talk about
their winners in the public.

In fact Amazon is so competitive today that if you have a product that is even
mildly successful, you will eventually get piggybacked by multiple sellers if you
haven’t been already.

Here’s a sampling of some of the insidious activities that are happening on the
platform right now:

Evil strategy #1: Tying up all of your inventory

First off, they buy all of your inventory to steal the buy box. Then they sell your
exact same goods on the same Amazon listing and on EBay.

Finally at the end of the season they return the excess inventory!

I wish that there was a good way to combat this but there’s nothing you can
really do except to be wary of any large order that you receive and to contest any
large returns complaints.

Evil strategy #2: Changing your product photos

If you are an Amazon seller who has not registered your brand (which now
requires a trademark) you need to be very careful about others seller changing
out the photos on your listings. Here’s what sucks: when someone changes the
photo on you listing, you don’t even get a notification! So the only way to know
that this happened is to constantly watch your listings like a hawk.

Basically, a competitor will have someone buy your product and then leave you
negative feedback claiming that your product is counterfeit or fake.

Amazon’s bots will then take notice of these “trigger keywords” and immediately
ding your account.

Evil strategy #4: Leaving false positive feedback on your products

Now you would think that getting a bunch of positive reviews on your listings
would be a good thing.

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 But because Amazon’s have been cracking down on sellers who buy 5 star
reviews, Amazon now has algorithm in place to detect unusual spikes positive
review activity.

If your listing all of sudden gets 100 5-star reviews, Amazon will detect this
anomaly and instantly suspend your account.

Evil strategy #5: Orchestrating multiple returns and simultaneous

negative feedback
If you have too many returns or too many bad feedbacks on your products in a
short period of time, you risk getting your product or account suspended.

For Example:

 Order defect rate of less than 1%

 Negative feedback less than 6%

 Customer response time less than 24 hours

 A return rate of less than 3%

Don’t get me wrong. There is still a ton of opportunity to be found from selling on Amazon. But I
caution you to not pull of your eggs in one basket. With Amazon you do not own the platform.
You do not own your own brand. You can be banned at any time and there and unscrupulous
sellers and customer everywhere.

 Amazon biggest failure

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Amazon’s most successful initiatives would never have happened without some element
of risk. “I’ve made billions of dollars of failures at Amazon.com. Literally billions of
dollars of failures,” Bezos told blodget. “None of those things are fun. But they also don’t
matter.”

And the size of those failures should only be growing. Bezos said in his 2018 letter to
shareholders in April.

“If the size of your failures isn’t growing, you’re not going to be inventing at a size that
can actually move the needle,” he wrote. “Amazon will be experimenting at the right
scale for a company of our scale for a company of our size if we occasionally have
multibillion dollar failures”.

We have catalogued some of Amazon’s more high profile failures through the years:

Amazon Spark
Amazon launch it’s Instagram like visual shopping platforms, Amazon spark, in 2017.The
idea was that customer would a photo heavy feed, with products featured in the
photographs, has a new way to shop and discover the huge array of items sold on
Amazon.com .

Amazon shut down the project in mid 2019. “Spark is not gone entirely, we’ve pivoted
and narrowed the experience bases on what resonated with customers”, a spokesperson
for Amazon told Business Insider’s Mary Hanbury.

Amazon Restaurants
On June 11, Amazon told Geekwire in an email that its Amazon restaurants service
would be shutting down.

First launched in 2015, service delivered freshly prepared from local restaurants to
customers via Amazon’s same-day delivery network, which it also uses for prime now
deliveries. It later expanded to 20 US cities and London before its demise.

In London, the service launched in 2016 and stopped in late 2018.

The last day of the services in the US will be June 24.

Amazon Storywriter

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 On May 4, Amazon sent an email to users saying that it would be shutting down its story
writer and Amazon Story builder features, effective June 30.

Combined, the services enabled TV and film Writers to easily create scripts, which could
then be submitted directly to Amazon studios for consideration. It previously shut down
the script submission program in 2018, putting the future of story builder and
Storywriter into question.

Pop- Up Stores
Amazon has closed all 87 of its pop-up stores and discontinued the program, it told Business
Insider in March.

“After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program, and are
instead expanding Amazon books and Amazon 4-star, where we provide a more comprehensive
customer experience and broader selection,” a spokesperson for Amazon said.

The stores were a place where a customers interested in smart gadgets, such as Amazon’s echo
and Fire TV products, could see how they worked in the real world before purchasing them.

Dash Buttons

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 Dash Buttons offered a way to reorder a consumable item on Amazon without having to
think about it. Customers could link an item and preferred quantity to the button, and
press it whenever they needed more. The buttons could be mounted in cupboards or on
top of washing machines.

Amazon stopped offerings them for sale this year, but a spokesperson told CNET they
were a rousing success in that they got customers used to shopping without a screen.

“Dash button was an awesome stepping stone into the world of connected home,”
Daniel Rausch, an Amazon vice president, said, later adding. “We never imagined a
future where customers had 500 buttons in their home. We imagined a future where the
home was taking care of itself, including replenishing everyday items that customers
would rather not worry about.”

Now that the Amazon Basics Microwave can automatically recorder popcorn, there’s
simply no need for a separate $5 button.

Amazon Tap

The first Amazon Echo device to be discontinued by Amazon without a replacement, the
Amazon Tap was a mobile version of its ultra-popular Alexa-enabled smart speakers.

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Amazon stopped selling the device near the end of 2018, and its product page on Amazon.com
tells the customer: “This device is no longer available however, Certified Refurbished tested and
certified to look and work like new.”

But as Amazon puts Alexa functionality in nearly everything, a portable device probably isn’t as
useful.

Instant Pickup

In 2017, Amazon debuted a new way to pick up items within minutes of ordering them, calling it
Instant Pickup.

Customers could order items such as snacks, drinks, and basics essential from the Amazon app
and use a barcode to access their purchase at designated Pickup locations. An Amazon
employee would fill an Instant Pickup locker within minutes of the order being placed.

However, Amazon pulled the plug on the service, a company spokesperson confirmed to
Business Insider in 2018. The Company did not specify when the service ended.

Amazon Tickets

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Amazon Tickets launched in 2015 in the UK, a market with fewer exclusive contracts than in the
US, potentially giving the retailer to muscle in. It closed by 2018. A planned rollout in the US was
also cancelled in 2017. However, Billboard reported in 2018 that a new ticketing program could
relaunch in 2019.

Whole Foods 365

Whole Foods, a wholly- owned subsidiary of Amazon, announced earlier this year that it would
not be moving forward with its Whole Foods 365- branded stores.

These stores were designed to cater to younger shoppers with aisles full of budget-friendly
private-label goods.

Business Insider’s Harley Peterson reported in January that the brand would carry the 365
name. The company cited a diminishing price difference between 365 stores and regular Whole
Foods stores as a reason for the change.

Amazon Fresh’s Local Market Seller

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Amazon Fresh is Amazon’s fresh grocery deliver service- its answer to home and business
grocery- delivery services such as FreshDirect and Peapod.

In 2018, it removed third party vendors from the platform and eliminated its Local Market Seller
initiative, which allowed vendors to have their goods delivered to customers alongside Fresh
orders.

Quidsi
Amazon acquired Quidsi for $545 million in 2010. Quidsi, founded by Mare Lore and Vi nit
Bharara, was the parent company of the early 2000s e-commerce darling Diapers.com, which
expanded into Soap.com, Wag.com, BeautyBar.com, Casa.com, YoYo.com.

Amazon shut down Quidsi in 2017, saying it was never able to make it profitable. Lore went on
to found Jet.com, which was later acquired by Walmart for more than $3 billion.

Endless.com
Amazon started the fashion online retailer Endless.com in 2007 as its first standalone online
shopping brand outside of Aamzon.com. it focused on shoes and accessories.

MyHabit.com
Amazon closed the flash sale site MyHabit.com in 2016 and folded it into the larger Amazon
Fashion division. Unlike endless.com, however, MyHabit.com does not forward visitors.

Amazon Webstore
Once upon a time, Amazon had a platform for other small and medium businesses to easily set
up their own stores and start selling online directly to customers. In 2015, Amazon announced it
was shutting the platform down within a year.

Amazon lets partnered with Shopify to move those customers to that company’s services.

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  Growth of Amazon through launching new
products

Retail goods:
Amazon product lines include several media, apparel, baby products, consumer
electronic, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal care items,
industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry and watches, lawn and garden
items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items and toys and games.

The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, a web auction service, in March 1999.
However, it failed to chip away at the large market share of the industry pioneer, Ebay.
Later, the company launched a fixed-price marketplace business, zShops, in September
1999, and the now defunct partnership with sotheby’s in November. Auctions and
zShops evolved into Amazon marketplace, a service launched in November 2000 that let
customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products.

For us detailed reasons, Amazon has a country blacklist with five areas completely.

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 Amazon Prime:

In 2005, Amazon announced the creation of Amazon Prime, a membership offering free two-day
shipping within the contiguous United States on all eligible purchases for a flat annual fee of $79
(equivalent to $101 in 2018), as well as discounted one-day shipping rates. Amazon launched
the program in Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom in 2007; in France (as "Amazon
Premium") in 2008, in Italy in 2011, in Canada in 2013, and in India on July 26, 2016.
Amazon Prime membership in Germany, the United Kingdom, India, and the United States also
provides Amazon video the instant streaming of selected movies and TV shows at no additional
cost. In November 2011, it was announced that Prime members have access to the Kindle
Owners’ Lending Library, which allows users to borrow certain popular Kindle e-books for free
reading on Kindle hardware, up to one book a month, with no due date.
In March 2014, Amazon announced an increase in the annual membership fee for Amazon
Prime, from $79 to $99. Shortly after this change, Amazon announced Prime Music, a service in
which members can get unlimited, ad-free streaming of over a million songs and access to
curates playlists. In November 2014, Amazon added Prime Photos, which allows unlimited photo
storage in the users' Amazon Drive (though only some raw photo files count as photos). Amazon
also began offering free same-day delivery to Prime members in 14 United States metropolitan
areas in May 2015.

In April 2015, Amazon started a trial partnership with Audi and DHL in order to get deliveries
directly into the trunks of Audi cars. This project is only available on the Munich(Germany) area
to some Audi connected car users.

On July 15, 2015, to commemorate its 20th birthday, Amazon celebrated "Amazon Prime
Day", which Amazon announced would feature deals for prime members that rivaled
those on Black Friday. Also that month Amazon Prime announced that it would be
signing Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, formerly of BBC's Top Gear,
to begin working on The Grand Tour, due to be released in 2016. On July 13, 2016,
Amazon Prime said customers placed 60 percent more orders worldwide.

27
 Amazon Video:
Amazon Video is an Internet video on demand service by Amazon in the United States, United
Kingdom, India, Japan, Austria and Germany. In 2015, the Prime Instant Video exclusive
series transparent earned two Golden Globe Award and Transparent is the first series from a
streaming service to win a Golden Globe for best series.

Amazon Business:
On April 28, 2015, Amazon announced its launch of Amazon Business. Amazon Business is a
service that provides registered business owners with a consolidated platform for buying
products and supplies from Amazon. Business users have access to shipping benefits, discounts
on eligible products, purchase analytics, and price comparisons from different sellers.

Amazon Drive:
Amazon Drive, formerly known as Cloud Drive, is a cloud storage application offering secure
cloud storage, file synchronization, file sharing, and Photo printing. Using an Amazon account,
the files and folders can be transferred and managed from multiple devices including web
browsers, desktop applications, mobiles, and tablets. Amazon Drive also lets their U.S. users
order photo prints and photo books using Amazon Prints service.
Amazon majorly offers two plans in their marketplaces - Prime Photos and Unlimited Storage.
The Prime Photos plan offers unlimited storage for photos and RAW files, and 5 gigabytes of
storage for videos and other files, whereas Unlimited Storage plan, intended for non-business
customer sections, offers unlimited storage for photos, videos, documents, and files in other
formats.

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Amazon Studios:
Amazon Studios is Amazon.com's division that develops television shows, movies and comics
from online submissions and crowd-sourced feedback. It was started in late 2010. Content
would be distributed through Amazon Video.

Amazon Webseries:
Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002, which provides programmatic access to
latent features on its website.
In November 2005, Amazon began testing Amazon Mechanical Turk, an application
programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors.
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 terabytes in size,
can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for
data stored and transferred. In 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Simple Queue
Service (Amazon SQS), a distributed queue messaging service, and product wikis (later folded
into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow
standard message board conventions.
Also in 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site
farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure to run applications ranging from running
simulations to web hosting. In 2008, Amazon improved the service by adding Elastic Block Store
(EBS), offering persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances and Elastic IP addresses, and
offering static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud computing. Amazon
introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a
high-reliability, high-performance database system. In 2008, Amazon graduated EC2 from beta
to "Generally Available" and added support for the Microsoft Windows platform.

29
Amazon Smile:

Amazon also created "channels" to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazon allowed customers
to donate $6 to $200 to the campaigns of 2004 US presidential candidates, providing links that
raised $300,000 for the candidates. Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation
channel after crises such as Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2004 earthquake and
tsunami in the Indian Ocean. By January 2005, nearly 200,000 people had donated over $15.7
million in the US.
In 2013, Amazon launched a charity initiative called Amazon Smile. It can be accessed by going
to smile.amazon.com when normally shopping, and allows Amazon to donate 0.5% of the sale
price of eligible items to the customer's selected charity as its sponsor.

Amazon local
Amazon Local is a daily deal service launched in June 2011 in Boise, Idaho. As of 2013, Amazon
Local offers daily deals to over 100 regions in 36 U.S. states. Amazon Local also acts as a deal
aggregator; some of the deals are actually offered through LivingSocial, a firm in which Amazon
has heavily invested.
It was launched gradually in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2012, starting in London and
expanding to more towns and cities.
On December 18, 2015, Amazon Local stopped selling daily deals however purchased deals will
remain valid according to its terms.

Amazon Go:
On January 22, 2018, Amazon Go, a store that uses cameras and sensors to detect items that a
shopper grabs off shelves and automatically charges a shopper's Amazon account, was opened
to the general public in Seattle. Customers scan their Amazon Go app as they enter, and are
required to have an Amazon Go app installed on their smart phone and a linked Amazon
account to be able to enter. The technology is meant to eliminate the need for checkout
lines. Amazon Go was initially opened for Amazon employees in December 2016. By the end of
2018, there will be eight total Amazon Go stores located in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and
New York. Amazon has plans to open as many as 3,000 Amazon Go locations across the United
States by 2021.
Amazon Home Services:
In March 2015 Amazon launched a new on-demand service, Amazon Home Services, aimed at
offering homeowners a marketplace for professional services such as plumbing, electrical,
audio/visual installation, and lawn services. The Home Services category designed to make
finding a specialist easy by verifying that providers are properly licensed and insured for the job.
Service is "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and offers a refund if you are not happy in the end.
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  From bookstore to super store
(Success Story)

Can you believe that a little more than two decades ago, Amazon was still one man, a light bulb
idea and a home garage?

Circa 1994, Jeff Bezos began working on a business plan (yes, in his garage) for what would
eventually become the largest internet retailer in the US. In 1995, the company made its official
debut.

Since then, a lot has changed.

The marketplace that originally started as an online bookstore now produces consumer
electronics, cloud computing services and the world’s most competitive delivery services — and
these elements don’t even reach beyond the tip of Amazon’s iceberg.

Now well past its 20th birthday, Amazon is going stronger than ever. Here’s a look at (some of)
the marketplace’s most memorable moments for first- and third-party sellers:

The Year-by-Year Evolution of Amazon

1994:
Cadabra.com (yes, as in “abracadabra”) is built by Jeff Bezos in his garage, located in Bellevue,
Washington.

1995:
“Cadabra” is quickly dumped in favor of “Amazon” after Bezos’ lawyer reveals he misheard the
original moniker as “cadaver.” Bezos decides to go with a more authoritative name —
referencing the largest river basin in the world — to suggest the business’ scale. (Its launch
tagline was “Earth’s biggest bookstore.”)

1996:
Amazon bumps its employee count to 11 and moves out of the garage and into a small
warehouse — its second official headquarter

1997:
Amazon issues its initial public offering (IPO) of stock at $18 per share.

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1998:
Amazon’s appetite grows, resulting in its takeover of multiple companies — including
Drugstore.com, Pets.com and Overstock.com.

1999:
Amazon’s online shopping platform secures the national spotlight when Time magazine name
Bezos its “Person of the Year”

2000:
Amazon updates its logo, introducing the curved arrow pointing from A to Z that the world
recognizes today. Meanwhile, the marketplace begins offering free shipping on orders over $100
and opens to third-party sellers.

2001:
Amazon turns its first profit — $5 million (1¢ per share) on revenues of more than $1 billion.

2002:
Amazon Web Services (AWS), a platform for developers to include features of Amazon.com into
their own sites, launches.

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2003:
Amazon launches Search Inside the Book — a feature allowing customers to hunt for keywords
in the full text of books listed on Amazon.com.

2004:
Amazon’s consumer electronic sales surpass book sales for the first time.

2005:
Amazon Prime, the company’s now-overwhelmingly popular membership program, is born.

2006:
Amazon launches Amazon Simple Storage, an online storage service.

2007:
Several new services make their debut: Amazon Fresh, a home grocery delivery service; Amazon
Music, Amazon’s online music store; and Amazon Kindle, the now-famous e-reader.

2008:
Amazon releases a paid search feature called Product Ads to allow advertisers to drive Amazon
traffic back to their own websites.

2009:
AmazonBasics, a private-label product line primarily consisting of consumer electronics
accessories, launches.

2010:
For the first time, sales of Kindle eBooks outnumber sales of printed books.

2011:
This is the year Amazon launches the Subscribe & Save program to offer discounts on items
delivered monthly. It’s also when the Kindle Fire comes on the e-commerce scene.

2012:
Amazon eclipses Google as the place more people start when searching for products.
Meanwhile, Amazon Supply (now known as Amazon Business), launches as an online
marketplace for industrial and scientific goods.

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2013:
Amazon Art launches as an online marketplace for original and limited-edition fine art from
select galleries.

2014:
Prime Pantry, a delivery service for dry goods and non-perishable groceries for Prime
members, gets its start. Prime members in Manhattan are given access to one-hour delivery .

2015:
Amazon turns 20! In celebration of the milestone, the company rolls out the Dash Button and
launches Prime Day. On a quieter note, Amazon also starts to roll out Seller-Fulfilled Prime to
increase the number of items eligible for Prime two-day shipping.

2016:
Amazon’s private label line expands to the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving
consumer goods (FMCG) categories.

2017:
Amazon Prime Day sets a new record, with sales growing by more than 60% compared with
2016. The marketplace makes even more headlines when it announces the acquisition of Whole
Foods. Additionally, features including Amazon Stores and coupons are introduced to help third-
party sellers connect with more customers.

2018:
Continued rapid-fire growth, which has now reached 100 million Prime members, leads Amazon
to buy land for its growing fleet of cargo jets.

And the expansion continues. Amazon has fast become one of the most critical components of
successful online selling — one that requires a robust strategy to ensure you’re taking full
advantage of the marketplace giant’s many options for both 1P and 3P sellers.

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  How Amazon aims to help women in India
achieve their goal of working in technology.
 AmazeWIT will offer talks, leadership and mentoring sessions, as well as panel
discussions to inspire women to attain their professional goals.

 The percentage of women in technology is low compared to their counterparts, and this
trend has been on for decades. Several tech companies have been trying hard to
increase the percentage of women in technology, but the percentage is still low. The
reason is, women join companies as technologists but switch to other roles soon, or just
leave the company due to societal pressures—marriage and family .

 Amazon is also focused on increasing the percentage of women in technology. It has

launched AmazeWIT—Amazon Women in Technology Conference 2017—in Bengaluru.
The conference aims to help women who seek a career in technology or those who are
already in the technology sector.

 The conference will offer a host of talks, leadership sessions and panel discussions to
mentor and inspire women to achieve their professional goals.

 The conference will see the presence of some renowned women in technology, which
will extend their knowledge and insights to the women participants. There will also be
discussions on the roadblocks specific to women professionals.

 Some of the senior women leaders present in the conference will be – Colleen Aubrey,
VP of advertising business, Amazon; Aparna Nandyal, senior development engineer,
Alexa Comms; Laura Grit, senior principal engineer; Sandra P, vice-president, HR at
Amazon; Libby Johnson McKee, director- recommerce; and other industry leaders.

35
  Speaking about the conference, Raj Raghavan, director, human resources, APAC, Amazon
said “Women today are leading innovation and transformation across verticals and
industries. In fact, in our Endeavour to be the world’s most customer-centric company,
we see women leaders as an integral part of our mission. Through AmazeWIT, we aim to
showcase their great work and throw light on the many opportunities that lie in store for
women to build a promising career”.

 Around 350 women technologists from external companies and 100 senior women
technologists from Amazon have registered for this conference.

The conference is geared towards women who are considering a profession in

technology, or those already flourishing in the sector. It is aimed at inspiring women to
achieve their professional goals and be a guiding light for other women, through a host
of talks, leadership sessions, panel discussions, and mentoring opportunities.

The event provides an opportunity to extend knowledge and insights from renowned
women in technology to the community. The conference will also revolve around
networking and discussing the roadblocks that are more specific to women
professionals.

The conference will give an opportunity to many women to engage and gain insight from senior
women leaders in the industry such as Colleen Aubrey, VP of advertising business, Amazon;
Aparna Nandyal, senior development engineer, Alexa Comms; Laura Grit, senior principal
engineer; Sandra P, vice-president, HR at Amazon; Libby Johnson McKee, director, returns and
recommerce; along with other key industry leaders.

36
The conference has received registrations from almost 350 women technologists in external
companies, while about 100 senior women technologists from Amazon are also participating,
Raghavan said.

 Prohibition to sell on Amazon

Today, the Amazon Marketplace sells more than 600 million products, but there is definitely a
lengthy list of restrictions on what you can and can’t sell to consumers.

Some products are banned for obvious reasons like endangered animals, explosive devices, or
human remains (gross!)

But what about baby formula, antique coins, or surveillance equipment?

It gets even more complicated when we start talking about selling in categories such as makeup
or dietary supplements (the list of restrictions is pretty astonishing in these verticals).

If you’ve ever had to ask yourself – can I sell this on Amazon? We’ve got the ultimate list of what
you are restricted to sell on the Marketplace today.

List of product you can’t sell on Amazon

Alcohol

Amazon doesn’t necessarily restrict all types of alcohol (for example, there’s some exceptions
for wine) but keep in mind if you supply alcoholic products for sale on Amazon, you must

37
comply with all federal, state, and local laws and Amazon policies applicable to those products
and product listings.

Permitted Listings include:

 Wine sold by pre-approved sellers

 Wine and beer making kits and products that do not contain alcohol

 Alcohol-related accessories and products, including corkscrews, decanters and

containers

 Alcohol-related memorabilia and collectibles that do not contain alcohol

Prohibited Listings include:

 Alcoholic beverages (except from pre-approved wine sellers)

 Liquor licenses

 Any product marketed for customers over 21 years of age

 Any product that encapsulates raw alcohol

Animal and Animal products

Permitted Listings:

38
  Live shellfish and crustaceans

 Live insects and worms used for agricultural purposes, bait, or pet food

 Products made to resemble prohibited animal parts or products, but which are not
made from those animals. If the listing includes a clear title and description that the item
is not genuine; for example, faux tortoise shell is permitted if the listing states the item is
fake or artificial.

 Animal parts or products that are not otherwise restricted, such as:

 Shark teeth jewelry

Prohibited Listings:

 Animal feces

 Most live creatures, such as: pets, livestock, or marine mammals

 Illegal wildlife products

 Fish or wildlife that are taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of the Lacey
Act

 Insects or other creatures designated as “plant pests”

 Parts or products, including fur and feathers, from federally endangered or threatened
species

Art- Fine Art

39
According to Amazon, whether you’re selling an edition of lithographs, 18th century oil
paintings, or contemporary mixed media work, accurate data is crucial to discoverability and
sales in Amazon Fine Art.

Providing a clear and concise listing while following a consistent format will better inform
customers and enhance discoverability of your art.

For this category in particular, sellers are required to obtain approval from Amazon before listing
in this category.

Permitted Listings:

 One of a kind paintings, watercolors, drawings, and two-dimensional mixed

media

 A print or photograph in a limited edition with the following requirements:

 In an edition of 200 or less

 The only edition of the work published in that size (the same image can also have
editions of up to 200 in other sizes)

 The prints should be numbered (X/XX) and signed, or accompanied by a

certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and stating the number of the print
(X/XX)

 Artist proofs or color test proofs (CTP) are allowed for editions of less than 200

 Secondary-sale works (artwork with a sales history): Works must be

authenticated by the seller; the seller must have proof of purchase or title for the
work and provide it to the buyer; listings should include provenance (with sales
history) where applicable.

 Ex-libris prints are qualified for the site, but they must have a named artist, be
hand-signed or numbered and from an edition of less than 200.

Prohibited Listings:

 Three dimensional artwork, such as sculptures

40
  Textile or anthropological or archaeological-based art (for example, Navajo blankets or
Arts and Crafts textiles )

The following types of artworks do not qualify for the Amazon Fine Art category:
 Artwork without a named artist

 Artwork that is a mass-produced or commercial work that has been hand-painted (also
called “brush to canvas”)

 Artwork that was created as a reproduction of an existing work; the artist did not
deliberately make more than one version of the same artwork (such as artist Edvard
Munch did with The Scream) even if there is a named artist or the artwork otherwise
meets the requirements above.

 Giclée print on canvas

 Promotional posters or advertisements even if they otherwise meet the requirements

above

 Artwork in a limited edition that consists of any of the following:

 Estate signed or estate editions

 Plate signed editions

 Creative Commons images or editions: CC

 An edition of over 200, even if numbered and hand signed or otherwise meeting the
requirements above

 Open editions, even if hand signed or otherwise meeting the requirements above

 Products related to art, but that are not artworks themselves (for example, books about
or containing art, posters of artwork, artwork printed on clothing, and decorative mouse
pads)

Art- Home Décor

41
Permitted listings:

 Exact replicas or reproductions of artwork if the listing includes the word “reproduction”
in the title and the description

 Genuine artwork for which the seller has and can provide evidence of authenticity

 Artwork for which the seller clearly and prominently discloses its condition, alterations
and conservation or repairs in the listing description

Prohibited listings:

 Unauthorized copies or reproductions of artwork that violate any copyright or

trademark.

Automotive and Powersports

42
Permitted listings:

 New catalytic converters that are certified to conform to the Clean Air Act standards

 New tires

 Automotive batteries

 Portable fuel containers certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Prohibited listings:

Motor vehicles that are required to be registered

Photo blocker sprays or license plate covers designed to block detection by red light cameras,
toll both systems, police cameras, and other photo detection sources

Products intended to defeat, bypass, or shut down emission control devices, including oxygen
simulators and CAT, DPF or EGR delete kits

Products intended to override malfunction indicator lights

High-intensity discharge (HID) conversion kits

Used tires

Products intended to affect traffics signals

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Products designed to intentionally block, jam, or interfere with licensed or authorized radio
communications, such as:

Cell jammers

GPS jammers

Laser jammers

PCS jammers

More Amazon restricted items

 Offensive and Controversial Materials

 Organic Products

 Pesticides

 Plants, Plant Products, and Seeds

 Postage Meters & Stamps

 FBA Prohibited Products exceptions

 Recalled Products

 Recycling electronics

 Blockbuster Sell on Amazon

Amazon annual/quarterly net income history and growth rate from 2006 to 2019. Net income
can be defined as company's net profit or loss after all revenues, income items, and expenses
have been accounted for.

Amazon net income for the quarter ending September 30, 2019 was $2.134B, a 25.98%
decline year-over-year.

Amazon net income for the twelve months ending September 30, 2019 was $11.347B, a 27.47%
increase year-over-year.

Amazon annual net income for 2018 was $10.073B, a 232.11% increase from 2017.

Amazon annual net income for 2017 was $3.033B, a 27.92% increase from 2016.

44
Amazon annual net income for 2016 was $2.371B, a 297.82% increase from 2015.

18 billion dollars net profit from 2017

1Q – 2018 = 5 Billion dollars

2Q – 2018 = 6 Billion dollars

Amazon Annual Net Income

(Millions of US $)

2018 $10,073

2017 $3,033

2016 $2,371

2015 $596

2014 $-241

 Future Plans of Amazon

Amazon's ambitious projects for the future
Now valued as a trillion-dollar company, Amazon has grown from humble beginnings as a
modest online bookstore into a global e-commerce and cloud colossus – and you ain't seen
anything yet. Seemingly intent on world domination, the Seattle-based company has a whole
bunch of projects in the pipeline that will make your jaw drop. Join us as we take an eye-
opening look at what Amazon plans to do next.

Cashier-free stores
Waiting in line at the grocery store could soon become a thing of the past thanks to Amazon. In
January 2018, the company opened up its cashier less Amazon Go convenience store in Seattle
to the general public.

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Cashier-free stores
Amazon has launched a further two stores in Seattle this year, which are doing a roaring trade,
and cashier-free convenience outlets are planned for several major US cities, including New
York, Chicago and San Francisco, with more likely in the future.

Cashier-free stores
The 'Just Walk Out' stores are fitted with sensors and cameras, and use deep learning
algorithms and other state-of-the-art technologies to monitor customers' purchases, which are
relayed to an app and charged to the relevant Amazon Prime account.

46
AI-powered home robots
In April, Bloomberg revealed that Amazon is working on a top-secret project that could really
shake things up: a next-generation smart robot for the home that will be powered by artificial
intelligence (AI).

Not much is known about this secret project but it is apparently called Vesta, named after the
Roman goddess of home and family. It's fitting: this robot will help around the house with
cleaning and other chores, making everyday home life just that little bit easier.

The domestic robot is being developed by Amazon's Lab126 hardware and research division,
which is distinct from Amazon Robotics, the subsidiary that makes industrial fulfillment robots
for the company's warehouses. Lab126 has reportedly been working on the project for a
number of years and is said to be nearing the final stages. Vesta robots will be deployed to the
homes of selected Lab126 staff at the end of the year for testing.

Domestic robots are nothing new, but Vesta is expected to boast the latest AI, camera, sensor
and other futuristic technologies, and may be able to do everything from simple household
chores to complex problem-solving, as well as providing companionship. We can expect a
launch date in the next year or so.

Ubiquitous voice assistance

Amazon has big plans for Alexa, its cloud-based voice assistant. Priya Abani, director of Amazon
Voice Services, sums them up succinctly: “We basically envision a world where Alexa is
everywhere.”

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Amazon wants AI-powered Alexa to be a constant companion, with you 24/7 to help run your
life and keep you company. Just imagine. No matter where you go on the planet, Alexa will be
there to call upon.

Amazon is stone-cold serious about making Alexa ubiquitous and inescapable, and is spending
millions to ensure you're never out of reach of the voice assistant.

Earlier this month, Daniel Rausch, the vice-president of Amazon's Smart Home division,
announced that Alexa has been integrated in 20,000 devices, up from 4,000 devices in January.
That's quite a jump.

As well as speakers, laptops and other gadgets for the home, Alexa is also finding her way into
offices, hotels, cars, you name it. That soothing voice is set to get a whole lot more familiar to
millions of people around the world. Be that as it may, Amazon faces especially stiff competition
from Google and Apple, which have their own hugely popular voice assistants, and may find it
that bit harder to dominate this particular market.

Fleets of delivery drones

Amazon has been hyping up its Prime Air drone delivery service since December 2013 when
CEO Jeff Bezos mentioned the firm's exciting plans to develop the concept during a 60 Minutes
interview with Charlie Rose.

48
The company is well on the way to rolling out the futuristic service, which will deliver packages
weighing up to five pounds within just 30 minutes using miniature drones. In December 2016,
the first Prime Air package was delivered at breakneck speed in Cambridge, England. Amazon,
which has built a Prime Air fulfillment hub near the city, is currently testing drones in the
surrounding countryside. Getting the service off the ground will depend on the regulators. Right
now, US regulations state that a drone must remain within the pilot's line of sight, but the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has started to issue waivers, which Amazon is hoping is a
sign of things to come. In fact, there's a very good reason Amazon Prime Air is being developed
in the UK rather than the US – the service is poised to launch in Britain first. The country's
National Air Traffic Control Service (NATS) is a lot more enthusiastic about the technology than
the FAA. NATS is relaxing the 'beyond the line of sight rule', which means Amazon's drone
deliveries could get the regulatory green light in the UK as soon as next year. Whether the
service actually gets going in 2019 though remains to be seen.

Innovative healthcare
It may be news to you, yet Amazon could end up being the next big name in healthcare. The
trailblazing company has been supplying hospitals for years now, but now intends to take the
healthcare side of the business to the next level.

49
In January, Amazon teamed up with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway to develop a non-
profit company that will offer their collective employees "simplified, high-quality and
transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost.” Analysts have suggested that the initiative could
help drive down costs in the sector and make healthcare significantly more affordable for the
vast majority of Americans, without compromising care standards. Amazon is also getting into
the multibillion-dollar prescription drugs market, a move that should further lower healthcare
costs across America. In June, the company snapped up online pharmacy PillPack, enabling it to
dispense prescriptions in 50 states, something that would have taken years to achieve
otherwise. Looking further ahead, Amazon is aiming to develop Alexa as a healthcare assistant
that could offer advice on how to manage common illnesses, remind patients to take their
medication and so on. It hired a special team in May to work on the project. Along with
developing Alexa's healthcare skills, Amazon is reportedly working on a telemedicine platform
that will host virtual consultations between doctors and patients. Whether all these projects
come to fruition or not, one thing's for sure: the future looks very bright indeed for the
powerhouse company.

 Logo Revaluation

50
 Future Plans of Amazon for India
51
An Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch the investment would “enhance Amazon’s existing
portfolio of investments in the payments landscape in India.” The spokesperson added, “Amazon
has agreed to invest in Future Coupons Limited, which is engaged in developing innovative
value-added payment products and solutions such as corporate gift cards, loyalty cards, and
reward cards primarily for corporate and institutional customers.”

Future Coupons owned warrants that would give it a 7.3% stake in Future Retail as of early this year,
according to prior regulatory filings. This means that today’s deal would give Amazon a 3.58% stake in
Future Retail. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though based on Future Retail’s current
market cap — about $2.9 billion — a 3.58% stake in the company would cost about $104 million.
“Pursuant to these agreements, Amazon has agreed to make an equity investment in Future
Coupons Limited for acquiring a 49% stake comprising both voting and non-voting shares. As
part of the agreement, Amazon has been granted a call option,” Future Retail said in a
filing (PDF) to the local stock exchange.

As part of the agreement, Amazon will have the right of first refusal to purchase more stakes in
Future Retail both directly as well as via entities. “The Promoters have also agreed to certain
share transfer restrictions on their shares in the Company for same tenure, including restrictions
to not transfer shares to specified persons, a right of first offer in favor of Amazon, all of which
are subject to mutually agreed exceptions (such as liquidity allowances and affiliate transfers).
The transaction contemplated above is subject to obtaining applicable regulatory approvals and
customary closing conditions,” Future Retail added.

Amazon has been reportedly looking to acquire as much as a 10% stake in Future Retail, which
operates more than 1,500 stores, including “Big Bazaar” retail stores, across 400 cities in India.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Future Retail was seeking a valuation of about $281
million for selling stakes in the firm. Future Retail runs a wide swath of retail brands in India,
covering a range of things from grocery to perishables to electronics to fashion apparel. On
Thursday, Amazon India announced it was launching Amazon Fresh in parts of Bangalore.
Amazon Fresh is currently offering 5,000 kinds of items, including fresh fruits, vegetables and
meat, as well as some items from home and personal product categories.

According to earlier media reports, the company is also in talks to acquire a more than 25%
stake in Reliance Retail, the largest retail chain in the country. Brick and mortar stores continue
to drive much of the sales in the country. Amazon also owns stake in the Indian supermarket
chain More, and department store chain Shopper’s Stop.

“One thing to keep in mind is that e-commerce is a very, very small portion of total retail
consumption in India, probably less than 3%,” said Amit Agarwal, manager of Amazon India, in

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an interview this week. India’s retail market is estimated to grow to $188 billion in next four
years, up from about $79 billion last year, according to research firm Technopak Advisors.
Earlier this week, Amazon opened an office in Hyderabad to house more than 15,000
employees, thereby making it the company’s biggest campus globally.

India has become the latest battleground for American giants Amazon and Walmart. Amazon
India competes with Flipkart, which currently leads the e-commerce market in the nation. Last
year, Walmart acquired a majority stake in Flipkart for $16 billion. Like Amazon, Flipkart has also
made it no secret that it wants to expand into grocery and other categories. Both Amazon India
and Flipkart took a hit earlier this year in India after the New Delhi government enforced some
regulatory changes to the way e-commerce conducts business in the country. The changes were
largely structured to help local companies.

Amazon India’s Agarwal urged the government to relax the regulatory pushes. “There is so
much opportunity to just let e-commerce thrive versus trying to define every single guard rail
under which it should operate. I feel e-commerce can actually accelerate India’s economy in a
big way, if it’s just allowed to thrive,” he told Reuters.

The deal with the Mumbai-based company, which operates its flagship “Big Bazaar” grocery
store chain, will give Amazon more exposure to the business after it bought Whole Foods
Market Inc. for $13.7 billion in 2017 and secured a foothold in the U.S. food retailing segment.
The proposed investment in Future Retail offers some parallels, enabling Amazon to tap into
India’s rising demand for household products and home-delivered fresh produce and
vegetables. Discussions are yet to be finalized, and the deal could still falter or be delayed.
Representatives for parent company Future Group and Amazon in India.

It’ll also give the Jeff Bezos-controlled firm an edge over rival Walmart Inc. and the planned e-
commerce venture of Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, that plans to combine the online and

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offline retail formats in India. Walmart, which spent $16 billion last year to acquire Indian e-
tailer Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd., has a local unit that is allowed to sell goods to smaller
grocery stores but not directly to consumers. Amazon has been acquiring tiny stakes in other
Indian brick-and-mortar chains such as Shoppers Stop Ltd. and a grocery chain from the Aditya
Birla Group in the past couple of years.

That’s on top of directly plowing in $5.5 billion into its own operations in a bid to grab a bigger
slice of India’s modern retail market which, according to consultant Technopak Advisors, wills
more than double to $188 billion by 2023, up from $79 billion last year.
Discussions between the Seattle-based retailer and Future Group revived recently, said the
people, after waning earlier this year when India tightened rules related to online retail,
throwing Amazon and Walmart’s grand plans. Future Retail operates over 2,000 stores across
400 Indian cities, including the “Big Bazaar” stores that are designed to appeal to the value-
conscious urban consumers who have traditionally shopped in India’s chaotic street markets.

54
 Objective of the study
1. To study about marketing strategies of Amazon

2. To check the effectiveness of marketing strategies of Amazon

3. To suggest the improvements in the marketing strategies of Amazon

4. To know the customer reviews on Amazon

5. To study history about Amazon

6. To know about Amazon future strategies

7. To know-how Amazon plans for India

8. To know Amazon plans for women improvement

9. To know about Amazon failures in marketing

10. To know success story of amazon

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 Research methodology
Research is a systemized efforts to gain new knowledge. A research methodology defines the
purpose of the research, how it proceeds, how to measure progress and what constitute
success with respect to the objectives determined for carrying out the research duty. The
appropriate research design formulated in detailed below. A scientifically carried out research
project has a define framework for data collection. This framework constitutes the research
design. It determines the data collection method, sampling method, the fieldwork and so on.

Research design:

The research designs for the present study in descriptive as it matches well with the objective of
the study.

Data collection:

There are two sources from which data can be collected. For the purpose of study, both primary
and secondary were required.

Primary data:

Primary data is that type of data which is collected first time for some specific purpose. There
are various means of the primary data collection. Here the mean of the collection of the
primary data is questionnaire method which was devised to be brief and simple.

Secondary data:

Secondary data is data which is collected already for some other purposes. Secondary data is
collected from internet, publications, research papers & journals.

Sample size:

For this study the sample size was 20 respondents from Bhayander who uses amazon app for
shopping.

Sampling techniques:

Initially a rough draft was prepared keeping in mind the objective of research. A pilot study was
done in order to know the accuracy in the questionnaire.

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 Limitation of the study
In attempt to make this project authentic and reliable, every possible aspect of the topic was
kept in mind. Nevertheless, despite of fact, constraints were at play during the formulation of
this project. The main limitation are as follows:

1. This study is purely based on the responses received from the respondents.

2. Since I was not the authorized researchers so this study is made keeping in view utmost
cost effectiveness.

3. This study is done in limited time span.

4. Mixed responses were there among different age group of respondents.

5. People were some time unwilling and hesitated in replying questions.

6. The consumer behavior being dynamic in nature, there is every possibility that over the
time findings of today may become invalid tomorrow.

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 Data analysis & Interpretation
Do you use amazon app?

Did you shop anything from Amazon?

How was your shopping experience on Amazon?

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What payment method you use?

How was your delivery service?

Which app do you prefer for shopping?

Are you going to use amazon in future also?

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What is most important to you when you shop on amazon?

Have you ever heard of Amazon prime?

Do you have subscription of Amazon?

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How often do you shop for products on Amazon?

Please describe your overall feeling towards amazon company as a whole?

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 Hypothesis
1. On the basis of the survey it was found that maximum number of respondents
are aware about Amazon app

2. It was found that respondents have mixed response when they shop on Amazon.
Some said ease to use, some said reliability, some said price, some said free
shipping and some chooses other option.

3. It has been observed that almost all respondents shop from Amazon at least
once in a month, except a few which clearly indicates the popularity of Amazon.

4. It was found that all of the respondents are aware about Amazon prime and its
subscription.

5. It was observed that maximum number of respondents lie in the age group of 15-
35 years and out of them most of the visitor are students.

6. It was found many of the respondents have positive feeling towards amazon app
and also they are going to use in future.

7. It was shown that consumer are having problem in user interface. They have felt
very bad about this problem. Some want Amazon to do CSR activities.

8. Most of the consumers are happy with delivery service of Amazon but some are
feeling ok about delivery service.

There are some features which people like to add in Amazon

1. Deliver goods at rural area

2. EMI availability on Bajaj card

3. Quality product

4. Active response

5. Quick delivery

6. Cost effective product

7. Improvement in user interface

8. Free shipping

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 Questionnaire
Dear respondents,

I Shweta pandey a student of M.com in Shankar narayan college, Bhayander, am conducting a

survey on online firm “Amazon”. I would be extremely thankful if you spare some time to
answer the following question. I hereby declare that all the information collected throughthis
questionnaire will kept confidential and will be used for academic purpose only.

Please tick (√) at the appropriate box.

1. Do you use amazon app?

Yes □

No □

2. Did you shop anything from Amazon?

Yes □

No □

3. How was your shopping experience?

Good □

Bad □

Ok □

4. What payment method you use?

cash on delivery □

Net banking □

Paytm □

Other □

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 5. How was your delivery service?

Good □

Bad □

6. Which app do you prefer for shopping?

Flipkart □

Amazon □

Myntra □

Other □

7. Are you going to use amazon in future also?

Yes □

No □

8. What is the most important to you when shopping on Amazon?

Ease to use □

Reliability □

Price □

Free shipping □

Other □

Have you ever heard of Amazon prime?

Yes □

No □

Do you have subscription of Amazon prime?

Yes □

No □

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How often do you shop for products on Amazon?

Once in a week □

Once in a month□

Once in a year □

Never □

Please describe your overall feeling toward the Amazon company as a whole?

Positive □

Negative □

Neutral □

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  Conclusion
In conclusion, Amazon under the leadership of Jeff Bezos passed the three tests of a winning
strategy. First, its consumer-centric focus is providing the company with the strategy to address
the need to widen its market base. With consumers its mind, the company made it cost-
effective, simple, and convenient for consumers to purchase products online through strategic
alliances and technological innovation .Second, the strategy is a fit to Amazon’s position in the
online retail industry. The company is beset with competition from a saturated retail market,
where it rivals with more established retail companies such as Wal-Mart or Target. As the first-
mover in the e-commerce industry, Amazon was able to get a head start and perfected online
purchasing to make it not only convenient, but also reliable and secure.

Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Bezos took to the astonishing growth of internet
firms to make a dollar, but ended up making much more. Amazon is the internet retailing
juggernaut we know it as today from a long history of acquisitions and key strategic moves such
as going public, establishing extra distribution channels, and having a longer product line.
Amazon overcame the dot-com bubble burst, made its first profit, and acquired more firms.
Amazon has implemented different features such as Amazon Prime, introduced the Kindle
eReader, and the Fire Phone. Amazon’s future plans include more acquisitions most likely, and
even the introduction of a drone delivery service. Amazon’s journey from a Seattle basement to
a worldwide company is a key example in how strategic management is key in today’s business
world, and how learning the history of such firms is equally important. This has been my blog
for Amazon.com’s history. It was essentially an overview of how the firm got to where it is today
from its humble beginnings. I hope you found it as informative as I have and learned the things
that I have learned from this assignment. Amazon is truly a company to be analyzed for the
steps to success, and their history holds the answers.

Amazon is a revolutionary e-marketplace that is both world-renowned and extremely efficient.

Amazon has gone from a small company run out of a garage, to a Fortune 100 company run all
over the world. Amazon fulfills their mission statement every day by being a customer-centric
company that offers over 200 million products at the lowest prices possible. Amazon is a very
innovative company that creates and manufactures many products. They are always expanding
and try to create new ways to make their company and their lives better.

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 Google is vast ocean of knowledge,
Face Book is vast ocean of relation,
Amazon is a vast ocean of getting
Things by touch point

Sometime something sound to be true than

There will be always unseen disadvantage

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