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Adlucent. (n.d.). The Top Three Amazon Challenges, And How To Solve Them.

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Adlucent. (n.d.). The Top Three Amazon Challenges, And How To Solve Them.

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The Top Three Amazon Challenges, And How To Solve Them

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As Amazon’s first agency of record starting in 2001, we are well-versed on the ins and outs of the marketplace, focusing on helping clients boost their sales on Amazon. So let’s dive right into the top three challenges we hear from brands selling on Amazon. Keep reading to learn more!

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Amazon’s extraordinary evolution. (n.d.). CNN.

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Amazon’s extraordinary evolution. (n.d.). CNN.

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Amazon starts selling clothing - November 7

Amazon announces a partnership with several major clothing companies to offer 400 apparel brands in its online store. Amazon has now moved far beyond books, with offerings that include electronics, toys, kitchenware, and even magazine subscriptions.

Amazon launches web hosting business - June 10

Amazon launches web hosting business

June 10

The company starts to generate extra income by licensing its platform to other e-commerce sites, like Borders.com and Target.com. Fifteen years later, Amazon Web Services dominates cloud hosting and is one of the company's biggest revenue drivers.

Amazon enters China - August 19

Amazon enters China

August 19

Amazon pays $75 million to buy Joyo, the largest online seller of books and electronics in the growing Chinese market. But the division - renamed Amazon China - faced stiff competition. As of 2018, it only had 0.7% of online sales, trailing far behind Alibaba's 58.2%, according to eMarketer.

Amazon Prime debuts - February 2

Amazon Prime debuts

February 2

During an earnings call, Bezos announces a $79-a-year loyalty program that includes free two-day shipping on any order. Now, with more than 100 million members worldwide, Prime is considered one of Amazon's most valuable assets.

The Kindle goes on sale - November 19

The Kindle goes on sale

November 19

Just as the holiday shopping season is about kick into full gear, Amazon unveils its Kindle. The electronic reading device enables users to wirelessly download books, magazines and newspaper articles among other content. Starting price: $399.

Amazon announces a new headquarters in Seattle - December 21

Amazon announces a new headquarters in Seattle

December 21

In a decision that will transform Seattle's real estate market, Amazon makes a deal with the city and a developer to consolidate its scattered workforce into 1.6 million square feet in a gritty industrial neighborhood north of downtown. The city raises height limits to accommodate larger buildings. The company's new headquarters will eventually house 40,000 employees in more than 8 million square feet.

Amazon acquires audiobooks company Audible* - January 31

Amazon acquires audiobooks company Audible

Amazon pays $300 million for Audible, which comes with a library of 80,000 programs in the United States and Europe. The move comes just two months after Amazon launched its Kindle device for e-books. Audible now holds 41% of the audiobook market, which has been growing rapidly with the rise of smartphones and streaming-enabled car stereo systems.

Amazon acquires shoe shopping site Zappos - July 22

Amazon acquires shoe shopping site Zappos

July 22

If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Amazon buys online shoe retailer Zappos in an all-stock deal worth nearly $900 million. Despite attempts to penetrate the shoe market Amazon hadn't been able to catch up with Zappos.com, which provides free returns and overnight shipping. After the deal closed, Amazon allowed the company to remain based in Henderson, Nevada, under CEO Tony Hsieh.

Amazon acquires the social video game streaming site Twitch - August 25

August 25

Amazon buys Twitch Interactive, the three-year-old video game streaming company, for $970 million. The deal not only complements the work being done at Amazon's own game production division, but it helps pull the global gaming community towards its cloud platform, Amazon Web Services.

Amazon acquires Whole Foods - June 16

June 16

After struggling for years in the intensely competitive grocery delivery business, Amazon ups the ante and purchases Whole Foods' 471 stores for $13.7 billion. It has since started to integrate the two companies' distribution networks and offer discounts to Prime members.

Amazon announces its search for
a second headquarters - September 7

September 7

Pushing the boundaries of its growth in Seattle, Amazon sets off a race between scores of cities across the United States and Canada to host its second headquarters. Bids include lavish tax incentives and real estate for the campus, among other goodies. A decision is expected by the end of 2018.

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After Jeff Bezos first launched Amazon in his garage, here's a timeline of how the company grew from an online bookseller to a major part of our everyday lives.

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Castro, F. (2021, September 13). To Create Better Company OKRs, Follow Jeff Bezos’ Advice. Felipe Castro - OKR Trainer, Speaker, Author.

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Castro, F. (2021, September 13). To Create Better Company OKRs, Follow Jeff Bezos’ Advice. Felipe Castro - OKR Trainer, Speaker, Author.

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Felipe Castro - OKR Trainer, Speaker, Author

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Many organizations adopt OKR because they want shorter and more frequent goal cycles. But companies often discover that using only quarterly OKRs can cause teams to miss the big picture and focus solely on what they can accomplish in three months.

That is why OKR uses different cycles:

What is the best approach when creating annual, company-level OKRs?

Follow the advice of Jeff Bezos, Amazon's Founder. Focus on what won't change:

I very frequently get the question: "What's going to change in the next 10 years?" And that is a very interesting question; it's a very common one. I almost never get the question: "What's not going to change in the next 10 years?" And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two - because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. ... [I]n our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that's going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery; they want vast selection.

It's impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, "Jeff, I love Amazon; I just wish the prices were a little higher." "I love Amazon; I just wish you'd deliver a little more slowly." Impossible.

When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it.

Bezos knows what won't change and focuses on it. His long-term goals are clear: more products, cheaper, and faster. You can think of the Kindle and things like drone delivery as means to achieve those goals. Initially, they were experiments.

Separating Strategy from Experiments

When working with my clients, I usually ask them to review their company OKRs and tell me how it went, in a short OKR Retrospective.

I often hear comments like: "Oh, we gave up on the first KR... The fourth one was no longer our strategy. And we didn't have the resources to go after the last one."

When this happens, it becomes clear to me that they don't know how to use different OKR cycles. The beauty of the model is that it allows companies to separate validated strategies, things that won't change, from experiments.

While every strategy is, in the end, a hypothesis, companies needed data showing that the approach works at least on a small scale. If you don't have that data, you can run an experiment during a few quarters before committing the whole company to it.

Before including a Key Result in your company OKRs, ask yourself:

Have you validated all the components of this strategy?

Do you have the data to back it or it is still an experiment?

I had the following dialogue with a client a few years ago:

Client: We have included this Key Result at the company level: Sell 30 million through partners. That is 30% of our revenue target for the year.

Me: Really? How much did you sell through channels last year?

Client: Zero. We have never used partners before.

Me: Why do you want to bet such large part of your revenue target on a non-validated idea? We need to test it first. Let's include it as a team-level KR for Q1 to see if you can find partners that generate revenue. If it works, you can put more resources into it.

Client: Ok. Let's keep our options open.

Focus on What Won't Change

A good strategy is a blend of commitment - to give you focus - and flexibility. Although OKR will not help you formulate your strategy, different OKR Cycles can help you separate the components with stronger evidence from the more uncertain ones.

To create good OKRs for your company, remember Bezos advice and focus on what won't change.

Although OKRs should not be written in stone, this approach will force you to gather data before committing, and that is always a good thing.

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To Create Better Company OKRs, Follow Jeff Bezos' Advice - Felipe Castro

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Many organizations adopt OKR because they want shorter and more frequent goal cycles. But companies often discover that using only quarterly OKRs can cause teams to miss the big picture and focus solely on what they can accomplish in three months. That is why OKR uses different cycles: What is the best approach when creating annual, company-level OKRs?

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Hopstack, T. (2023, January 11). Amazon FBA in 2022: Biggest Challenges and How to Overcome Them. Hopstack Inc.

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Hopstack, T. (2023, January 11). Amazon FBA in 2022: Biggest Challenges and How to Overcome Them. Hopstack Inc.

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Large and small sellers have faced significant issues with the Amazon FBA by losing fulfillment control and paying exorbitant costs to Amazon. Here is a guide on the most common challenges Amazon FBA merchants face and how taking ownership of the fulfillment process can solve them.

There is no doubt that Amazon provides a stellar system for merchants to reach out to their customers and fulfill orders in an efficient manner. That is the reason why over 300 million people globally buy on the Amazon marketplace each year and over 2.5M third-party sellers (FBA and FBM) are active on the platform.

However, selling on Amazon comes with its own set of challenges and drawbacks. What makes matters more complicated is the fulfillment process carried out by Amazon and the exorbitant fees that take away control from the original merchant and make fulfillment a costly affair.

This is why the majority of sellers prefer to adopt a different strategy as they grow in revenue and customers. They may turn to the Fulfilled-by-Merchant strategy or may do a combination of FBA and FBM. Some may completely part ways with Amazon and manage sales channels, orders, inventory, and fulfillment independently. This helps them retain control and lower operational costs at scale.

Here is a guide on the most common challenges merchants on the Amazon platform face and what they need to bring their fulfillment process in-house.

Compromised Cash Flow

Amazon has a strict structure around payouts. Usually, the payouts are made every two weeks.

On the other hand, vendors need to pay to acquire/produce inventory that they later sell on Amazon and other channels. Many manufacturers in China, for example, expect a 25% payment upfront. The manufacturing process, coupled with shipping, customs clearance, and Amazon payout cycles could mean a merchant gets paid after 3-4 months post the advanced payment for obtaining the goods. This way, the sellers are subject to long periods of time before they achieve any return on their investment in inventory.

Cash flow is certainly a massive challenge faced by merchants that sell on Amazon. One solution to this problem is setting up one's own sales channels such as an e-commerce store. This way a merchant can retain control over sales and also be the direct recipient of payouts anytime a sale is made. This also helps in eliminating Amazon as an intermediary in the payments process. More details of how Amazon charges for its services can be found later in the article.

High Degree of Competition

Amazon allows a large number of sellers to sell the same product. At the same time, the barrier to entry for sellers on the Amazon platform is extremely low.

Unless the merchants are selling an exclusive product, they are always competing with a large number of other players. The excessive competition also makes it typically hard to be discovered by enough customers to convert more sales. The said competition isn't just local. Out of the 900,000 Amazon sellers registered in the United States, almost 38% of them are based out of China where manufacturing goods is a lot cheaper giving them an opportunity to penetrate the market with lower prices. In fact, in 2020, 2/3rd of all Amazon FBA sellers interviewed in a survey expressed concern and fear over the increased competition leading to a steep decline in prices.

Having one's exclusive sales channels and marketing mediums provides merchants a chance to create a unique positioning for their products and go one step further in building the brand that they wish to.

Packaging Restrictions

Amazon has strict guidelines on how products must be sent to the Amazon Fulfillment Centers. The company has over the years suggested certain box sizes and deviations from them could either slow down the process or worse, may render the entire consignment improper. In the latter case, the items are sent back to the merchant and all costs associated with the activities completed previously are borne by the merchants. The charges for both the delivery and the return from the Amazon warehouse are paid for by the seller. This also poses a major opportunity cost since the inventory stuck in transit/inspection could have been sold on other channels. There are various other reasons why Amazon could reject shipments such as unaffiliated shipping partners, failing to meet Amazon pallet requirements, cancellation due to delay, etc.

Both FBA and FBM merchants are bound by policies that dictate their packaging process. The packaging process typically consists of two pillars, the labeling and the actual packaging of individual products and the consignments sent out to the Amazon Fulfillment Centres. Amazon expects each merchant to follow international labeling standards for their manufacturing labels, Amazon labels (such as FNSKU), and brand owner labeling (to prevent counterfeiting of high-value items). Amazon sellers also have a choice to let Amazon produce labels for their individual product units. However, the FBA Label Service may turn out to be costly for low-margin products as Amazon charges about £0.15 or $0.20 for each unit it generates and places a label on.

Once the merchant has taken care of the labeling and the barcodes, the next step is to adhere to all the packaging requirements for selling on the Amazon platform. Amazon has rigid guidelines around loose products, sets, boxed units, polybagged units, and case-packed products where each box with the same product must have the same number of units and the same SKUs. This ends up adding to the operational complexity and the costs associated with the fulfillment process.

Merchants do also have the alternate FBA Prep Service, where Amazon prepares the consignments to be sent to the Fulfillment Centers and properly packages the products. However, the cost of this service can range anywhere from $0.95 to $3 and isn't available for each category of product. Similarly, merchants can also choose to buy the recommended packaging material from providers of Amazon Preferred Packaging, but, this again isn't cheap and may not be suitable for lower margin products.

Strict Inventory Expectations

Merchants on Amazon are expected to maintain prescribed levels of inventory at all points. Too little inventory with high turnover means frequent stockouts. High levels of inventory that doesn't liquidate for longer periods of time means high storage charges and penalties imposed by Amazon. Both situations tend to impact a seller's performance on the Amazon marketplace. Businesses in today's age need an algorithmic forecasting and recommendation system to attain optimal inventory levels based on historical inventory and sales data. This helps companies save on inventory holding costs and drive higher customer satisfaction and retention.

Amazon doesn't just have restrictions around inventory levels but it uses a metric called Inventory Performance Index (IPI) to assess a seller's handling of inventory. The metric is based on the 12-month performance of four components, excess inventory, sell-through rate, stranded inventory, and in-stock inventory.

There are quite a few disadvantages associated with a low IPI score. First, sellers with lower IPI scores may have their products show up lower in the search results. This leads to them losing their product positions to their competitors in an already highly competitive environment. A lower IPI score can also lead to sellers losing on the Amazon Buy Box leading to other vendors for the same being prioritized in the product page on the platform.

They may also lose their Amazon Prime status making their listings less appealing to the consumers in the age of rapid and expedited deliveries. This way, a seller is totally dependent on Amazon for how well their products are discoverable to the consumers and if they get the Amazon Prime tag. Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused severe disturbances to inventory and supply chain operations, the recommended IPI score is between 300-700. However, as of the 2021 Holiday Season, Amazon has also started using the IPI to prescribe certain limits on the restock quantity and the storage space allocated to a seller with some sellers only being allowed up to 25 cubic feet worth of inventory.

Vendors with IPI scores of less than 500 are subject to losing out on allocated storage space and are supposed to operate under the limits imposed on them. There is no way a merchant can appeal these restrictions and has to wait till the next quarter when the inventory performance is reassessed and new IPI scores are computed.

High Amazon Fees

Amazon charges medium to high fees for its services at every step of the process. These charges range from one-time to regular. As these charges pile up, some Amazon FBA sellers have even recorded up to 53% of their entire revenue going to Amazon in the form of various fees and charges. Even for the FBM or Fulfillment-by-merchant model, sellers have had their Amazon-related costs as high as 27% only for the product listing and any search ads they may have run.

First-off, Amazon charges 39.99 for setting up a seller account for 'Professional Sellers'. This is a recurring monthly payment irrespective of the number of products and volume of sales. Additionally, merchants must also pay the referral fee or commonly called the commission. This ranges anywhere from 6-45% depending on the retail price and the product category. The referral fee is bound by the 'Minimum Referral Fee' which sets the lower threshold for the commission in each category. The Minimum Referral Fee is typically 0-2% depending on the category.

The biggest contributor to the costs is by far the fulfillment fees under the Amazon FBA program. Amazon clubs the picking, packing, and shipping costs as one and it is to be paid for by the merchants. These costs can range anywhere from $2 to $6.8 in the US depending on the size, weight, and category of the products. Additionally, a lot of sellers do fall prey to the storage fees if their inventory is not liquidating quickly enough. Amazon normally charges $.75 per cubic foot for most parts of the year but during the October-December period, the charge is around $2.4 per cubic foot of storage space used. In order to keep up with the demand and the competition during this period, sellers end up paying exorbitant amounts towards storage that hampers their profitability.

To top it all, it is becoming increasingly difficult for merchants to rank higher on search results without the use of paid advertising. 3 out of 10 top results on Amazon are normally the products being promoted for the keyword/category. In fact, Amazon earned over $9.7B from their advertising segment only in 2021. This leads to sellers bearing more costs in addition to their regular promotion and marketing spends.

Way Forward

As manufacturing and trading companies grow in revenue and volume of units sold, there is an innate need for them to set up their own fulfillment operations. This involves setting up their own order fulfillment warehouses and tying up with a shipping service such as FedEx, UPS, etc. Taking ownership and control of the entire fulfillment cycle proves to be beneficial to a growing company in many ways such as:

Consistency in Storage Fee

‍ Having one's own warehouse prevents sellers from any fluctuations in storage fees due to seasonality or their previous inventory performance, which Amazon assesses using the IPI.

No Seasonal Restrictions

‍As discussed above, Amazon may at any point in time, impose limitations on the storage space allocated and the restock quantities allowed to a merchant. This is the reason why the number of FBM sellers grew by over 20% in 2021. FBM allows sellers to have full control over their warehouse space utilization.

Control over Fees and Costs

‍ Businesses have a lot more control over their cost structures when they have independent fulfillment operations and are not subject to Amazon's exorbitant pricing.

Inventory Control

‍Should a company wish to move its inventory out of Amazon's warehouses, it is subject to high fees and taxes. This is a major issue faced by sellers and is all the more severe in the age of the pandemic where 93% of all SME Amazon sellers have experienced supply chain disruptions. However, this can be prevented with the company's own independent warehouses.

The pandemic has been a challenging period for all retailers alike, e-commerce or not. One important lesson learnt is that Amazon doesn't always have the sellers' best interests in mind. That's why so many companies, from multi-billion dollar Nike to SMEs are parting ways with Amazon and taking charge of their fulfillment process. A lot of scaling businesses are beginning to realize that the benefits of taking ownership of their operations far outweigh the vast network Amazon provides.

The move from an arrangement like the Amazon FBA to insourced fulfillment is complex and challenging for large and small businesses alike. Firstly, they must find and compare different shipping services that can provide the transportation infrastructure suitable for their products and the target market. Similarly, they also need to have a robust Warehouse Management System (WMS) that can assist and automate the activity of providing data-driven actionable insights for better inventory control, multi-channel order management and batching, picking and packing processes, and overall fulfillment efficiency.

Schedule a demo today to understand how Hopstack's AI-driven WMS can help you supercharge your warehousing operations and can make the switch to in-house fulfillment seamless!

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Biggest Challenges Faced by Amazon FBA Sellers in 2022 and How to Solve Them

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Large and small sellers have faced significant issues with the Amazon FBA by losing fulfillment control and paying exorbitant costs to Amazon. Here is a guide on the most common challenges Amazon FBA merchants face and how taking ownership of the fulfillment process can solve them.

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Malik, E. (2022, July 29). Amazon History Timeline. Office Timeline Blog.

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Malik, E. (2022, July 29). Amazon History Timeline. Office Timeline Blog.

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Updated on July 15, 2022

Amazon 's history is most certainly wild and chock-full of controversy. Nonetheless, at its core, it's one of the most famous business success stories about how perseverance against all odds and staying on the critical path is the only way to transform vision into reality.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, started the venture as an online book retailer on July 5, 1994, but the business has expanded over the years to sell almost anything one can think of and is now one of the most valuable companies in the world.

To help you get a better understanding of the multi-million-dollar business and see how it evolved over the years, we've put together a visual Amazon history timeline, along with a set of frequently asked questions about the company.

The history of Amazon: a timeline

1994: Amazon founded

1997: Amazon IPOs at $18.00/share

1998, May 27: Acquires IMDB

1998, Aug 5: Expands beyond books

1999: zShops launches

2002: Lawsuit against Barnes & Noble

2003: A9.com is launched

2004: Acquires Joyo

2005, Feb: Amazon Prime is launched

2005, Nov: Amazon Mechanical Turk

2006, Mar: Amazon S3 is launched

2006, Aug 25: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is launched

2007, Aug: Amazon Fresh is launched

2007, Sept 25: Amazon Music is launched

2006, Nov 19: Amazon Kindle is launched, which will turn out to be an important milestone in Amazon's history timeline

2008: Acquires Audible

2009: Acquires Zappos

2010: Kindle e-books outsell hardcover books on Amazon by almost 50%

2011, Feb: Amazon Instant Video is launched

2011, May 2: Amazon Appstore is launched

2012: Acquires Kiva Systems

2013, March: Acquires GoodReads

2013, Jun: Amazon launches in India

2014, Jul 25: Kindle Fire is launched

2014, Aug 25: Acquires Twitch

2015, Aug 26: Amazon Underground is launched

2015, Nov 2: 1st physical store in the history of Amazon

2016: Amazon Prime Air is launched

2017, Jun: Acquires Whole Foods

2017, Sept 7: Amazon announces search for second headquarters

2018, Jun 1: Acquires PillPack

2018, Sept 4: $1 trillion market cap reached

2018, Oct 2: Minimum wage raised to $15/h

2018, Nov: NY and Virginia to become Amazon HQ2

2019, Feb 1: NY HQ plans scrapped

2019, Jul 5: 25-year anniversary

2019, Sep 24: Amazon Care is launched

2021, Jul 5: Jeff Bezos steps down as CEO

2022, Mar 17: Amazon acquires MGM

Frequently asked questions about Amazon

The Amazon timeline can give you a straightforward overview of the company's evolution, product launches, and innovations. If you want to dig deeper, below you can find answers to the most common questions about the business giant.

How did Amazon get started?

Amazon started out on July 5, 1994, as an online bookstore. Jeff Bezos, together with his then-wife and a few employees, began operating the company from his garage in his rented home in Bellevue, WA. Bezos funded Amazon with $10,000 of his own money to get things moving, and soon the company was popular enough to go public in 1997.

What did Amazon originally start?

Amazon was originally launched as a website that sold exclusively books, competing with local book sellers and with Barns & Noble. Based on research he had conducted, Bezos decided that an online bookstore was the most logical option as an initial undertaking because books were easy to source, package and deliver, allowing the business to be competitive and to offer convenience and affordability.

However, although Bezos settled on a web bookstore initially, his vision was much bigger right from the beginning. He did not see Amazon just as an online retailer, but as a tech company whose real selling point was to streamline web transactions for its customer base.

Who is the founder of Amazon?

The founder of Amazon is entrepreneur and investor Jeff Bezos, one of the top richest people in the world. Born in 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he graduated from Princeton University, where he studied computer science and electrical engineering. After graduation, Bezos worked on Wall Street in various related fields, and, in 1990, he became the youngest senior VP at the hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw. In 1994, he left the firm to open his own business, Amazon.com.

The notorious businessman is not only Amazon's founder, but also the owner of The Washington Post, Blue Origin, and Bezos Expeditions. If you're curious, check out our Jeff Bezos timeline for more insights into the life of the man behind it all.

How long did it take Amazon to get big?

Despite being met with skepticism when it opened, Amazon managed to prove naysayers wrong and grew surprisingly fast, reaching 180,000 active user accounts after its first full year of operation, in 1996. And, just a year later, in 1997, the number of accounts grew to a whopping 1,000,000. As for its revenues, the company rose rapidly from $15.7 mil in '96 to 148 mil in '97, and then to 610 mil the next year. 1999 marks another important milestone on Amazon's timeline, when founder Jeff Bezos is designated Person of the Year by the Time magazine, thanks to his business' rapid growth and success.

Why is Amazon named Amazon?

The name "Amazon" wasn't Bezos' first choice. "Cadabra" (as in Abra Cadabra) was his first option for the business name, under which he even incorporated the company back when starting out. However, very soon after, Bezos changed his mind, supposedly because his trademark lawyer misheard the word as "cadaver" - not quite the image you'd like your bookstore business to be associated with. Eventually, Bezos took a shine to "Amazon" as the brand name, not only because of the exotic allure, but also because it's the largest and longest river in the world, and that would fit really well with his grand vision for the store.

Where is Amazon located?

Amazon's main headquarters are located in Seattle, Washington, in a three-tower complex in the Denny Triangle neighborhood. The full address is 410 Terry Ave. N Seattle, WA 98109.

Amazon HQ2, the company's corporate headquarters, is under development in Arlington, Virginia, and planned to finish in 2023.

Is Amazon the biggest company in the world?

Amazon is currently the largest online retailer on the planet by market cap, but it is not the biggest company worldwide. Amazon has hired over 800,000 people since the pandemic started, in a bid to meet the immense demand from online consumers. This led to a 70% growth in sales, helping the corporation jump up four spots on Forbes' Global 2000 list, which means it is now the 6th biggest company in the world.

How much money is Amazon worth?

How much a company is worth is usually represented by its market cap, which is the total market value of the company's outstanding shares. As of July 2022, Amazon's market value is 1.175 trillion USD. In terms of sales, Amazon stands at 469 billion USD as per the last 12 months' financial data available, with a profit of 33 billion USD. In case you're curious about how much Amazon is worth in assets, these amount to 420 billion USD.

Why is Amazon successful?

Amazon's history timeline spans decades, often marked by controversy. Despite that, the e-commerce store continues to be one of the most successful businesses in the world. Here are the top reasons why:

Customer-focused. Amazon is relentlessly committed to offering high-quality customer service. It has developed helpful tools to make the purchasing process as convenient and possible, and their support team has won multiple awards throughout the years.

Diversification.The e-store now sells everything one could think of, from skates to soup.

Reliable delivery speeds

Reasonable prices

Regular discounts

Global reach

Innovation. The company's success also stems from its focus on innovation, integrating state of the art technologies and practices into their business model. Take, for instance, Amazon, Echo and Alexa, which have proven to be extremely popular.

Safe environment

Kindle Direct Publishing. Another factor that played an important role in Amazon's success is that it allows authors to publish e-books and hardcover books free of charge, unlike most publishing services.

Who owns Amazon now?

There's a common misconception that Jeff Bezos was the owner of Amazon up until recently, when he stepped down as CEO in 2021, and people are wondering who owns the company now. The thing is, Bezos wasn't the owner even before he gave up his CEO role. As you can see on the Amazon history timeline, Amazon IPOed in 1997, so it's been publicly owned since then. With around 11% shares in the company, Bezos is still the largest shareholder, followed by Andrew Jassy and Jeffrey Blackburn as top individual shareholders, and by Advisor Group, Vanguard Group and BlackRock as institutional shareholders.

Who are Amazon's competitors?

Amazon's biggest retail competitors today are:

These are all companies that offer products online (although some note exclusively) and have a vast global presence. But the e-commerce retail world is not the only area where the giant faces fierce competition. In the virtual assistant sector, Amazon competes with Google (Google Assistant) and Apple (Siri), while in the streaming industry, it faces Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, Disney and even Spotify as competitors.

About the Amazon History Timeline

The Amazon history timeline was created with the Office Timeline add-in for PowerPoint, a robust and easy to use timeline maker that effortlessly creates and updates visual plans and chronologies. The Amazon timeline can be downloaded for free as an editable, fully functional PowerPoint slide. To modify it, you can either use PowerPoint's controls, or install the trial version of Office Timeline Pro+, which will automate and speed up the process.

Get free trial

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Updated on July 15, 2022 Amazon 's history is most certainly wild and chock-full of controversy. Nonetheless, at its core, it's one of the most famous business success stories about how perseverance against all odds and staying on the critical path is the only way to transform vision into reality.

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Sikder, T. (2022, November 22). The Great Amazon Success Story: Journey From A Garage Bookstore To Trillion Dollar Empire. weDevs.  

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Sikder, T. (2022, November 22). The Great Amazon Success Story: Journey From A Garage Bookstore To Trillion Dollar Empire. weDevs.  

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Amazon Success Story: 11 Learnings for Startups in 2022

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No business can be successful without a digital presence in this day. The e-commerce industry is a cut-throat industry, and only those with a strong online presence thrive and succeed in it. But one company that happens to start off from a mere bookstore has now become the biggest and the most successful eCommerce brand in the world.

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Who we are | About Amazon. (n.d.). US About Amazon.

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Who we are | About Amazon. (n.d.). US About Amazon.

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Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's most customer-centric company, Earth's best employer, and Earth's safest place to work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon.

Amazon's "Day 1" mentality is our approach of doing everything with the energy and entrepreneurial spirit of a new organization on its first day.

Working to earn and keep our customers' trust is the single biggest driver of Amazon's Day 1 approach. Amazon's decision-making process that asks employees to consider whether an action is a one-way door-consequential and nearly irreversible-or a two-way door, easy to change course and go back. Discover more about who we are through our Annual Letters to Shareholders from 1997 through today .

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Amazon's mission is to be Earth's most customer-centric company, Earth's best employer, and Earth's safest place to work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon.

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What was in my mind while receiving the guideline? 

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What was in my mind while receiving the guideline? 

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Exciting and can't wait for that day

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We should prepared our own padlet link and submit it to our lecturer and it is quite easier for all students.

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Time constraint. It is because we need to prepare for the Exhibition as well as we also need to complete our assignment it have a lot of assignment that need to be done before the Exhibition day.

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What was in my mind while receiving the guideline? 

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What was in my mind while receiving the guideline? 

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Expecting for something that memorable since I am in semester 7 which is final semester.

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It was really nice except the preparation part. This is because our group lack of leadership abilities. Our group's leader was extremely determined and wouldn't listen to other peoples opinions. This is due to the fact that our group leader completely changed the poster's appearance to satisfy her own preferences after rejecting the one we had created. Additionally, she disregarded her own task, which is a peer activity, at the last minute and gave the work to another member instead of adhering to the previously arranged task distribution. She wanted to change again and complete her own peer task once we finished the group activity. And I think this is a bad behavior and hopefully it will not happened anymore.

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The planned activity was really work which is The Wheel Spin and Choose Card. This is because we received a good comment from the judges, participants as well as the visitor. This make me so happy.

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"Expecting for something that memorable." At it really create a memorable which we manage to complete our Exhibition Day even though facing a stressful situation with our group leader.

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The player are choosing the card based on the number that they get from the spinning.

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Pss: Photo session with our beloved Integrated Case Study Lecturer!!

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Dr Arifatul also joined our game session!!! Hehe

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I'm so happy that she give a good comment for our group especially in peer activity even though it quite simple but the player can get more knowledge on it.