Strike the iron while it is hot

Strike the iron while it is hot.

How e-commerce won its popularity. Amazon.

Startling, as it may be, how spanking the contemporary world is. Its stampede cannot but be the inevitable condition of development. The progress itself is a kind of a chain reaction suggesting in its turn the forthcoming impulses. Thus, the introduction of novelties leads to the emergence of a new conception in their implementation. In this connection, the accelerant of further outcomes was the Internet, the Big Boy in a world-spanning interaction. It first sprung into history in the 1960’ with the advent of an incipient network called ARPANET. Such a revolutionary breakthrough eked out the scope of alternative forms of communication. Owing to the fact that it was a brand new idea, on the tide of its penetration into the lives of masses, from corporations and their representatives to the grass-roots, Internet gave birth to e-mail correspondence.

Giving the convenience and velocity of such a way of information exchange, those involved in commerce-related fields, deservedly evaluated and appreciated the advantages they had at their disposal. So, they didn’t hesitate but stroke their iron. Indeed, it was hot. Obviously, the prerogative kindled the interest of marketers and commercial transactions became electronic. Such technologies as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) facilitated commodity and service turnover. As a result, a new notion appeared on the horizon – e-commerce that is also known as electronic commerce, eCommerce, or e-business. It tremendously gathered its pace, since firms, corporations, organizations were striving to keep up with the times. Still, not until the 1994 the Internet communication became secure. It was made possible by the DSL and HTTP data protection.

What is more, the vendors endowed with entrepreneurship sense, understood and envisaged the valuable and enticing perspective to exploit the increasingly growing internet space in propelling their goods. They started using the World Wide Web, arranging virtual items on the shelves of cyberspace shops. Clearly, such innovation was opposed to the conventional brick-and-mortar systems. It offered customers an impressively comfortable world-wide access to the variety of products with a click of a mouse or a button on a keyboard. Needless to say, consumers were attracted by the opportunity to shop without even leaving their houses. The mentioned scheme of providing and distributing articles to buyers is known as business-to-consumer strategy (B2C). Besides this, there is also a business-to-business (B2B) marketing, meaning the interchange between business participators.

In addition to the merits of such a kind of trade and ads dealing, one can zoom in to see the inner nature of e-commerce. So, one is taking an amplifying glass of one’s skeptical wit and tries to analyze if the iron is worth striking. With this purpose it is essential to scrutinize the e-business functional gist. Thus, the e-means of data transfer in the face of e-commerce covers a range of services, some of which being interchange of electronic resources and information, Internet merchandising, online transactional operations, etc. Naturally, the benefits are evident and obvious. So, no wonder, that on the fertile soil of vast Internet field were planted the first seeds of e-bound entrepreneur’s businesses. Beyond all doubt, these seeds sprouted and gave a good harvest. Among the founding fathers, that were the first to cultivate this trend, were such nowadays giants as Amazon, Staples, Office Depot, Hewlett Packard, Dell, E-bay.

The full-flowing Amazon.

Actually, the Amazon growth spoke louder than words. Jeff Bezos, now the president and the chairman of Amazon, ventured to commence a web retailing network in 1994. Not only a well-knit business plan was put into action, but also was a felicitous, capacious in meaning name chosen for the company. The Amazon did appear to be full-flowing. Initially the customers were offered just books. With time passing the virtual shop extended its assortment of goods to be the CDs, MP3, DVDs, software, health products, footwear, musical instruments, sporting goods, jewelry, health and personal-care items, watches, beauty products, clothing, industrial goods, groceries etc.

However, the business scheme didn’t start to work right ahead and the development rates turned out to be not as stunning and astonishing as expected. Notwithstanding, the 2001 proved the efficiency of the elaborate project with $1 billion income. Amazon e-commerce continued to broaden the web-site coverage, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, China, and Japan with the centre in Washington, U.S. Gradually, the famous brands such as Marks & Spencer, Sears Canada, Lacoste, Timex, the NBA, Bebe Stores, Target, etc. began to be inspired by an alluring idea to cooperate with the prosperous e-marketplace.

The fruit-bearing and lucrative strategy comprised the accessible search system, which was appealing and handy to users. Consumers in quest of necessary information could easily use key-words that assisted them in choice making. Besides, there was available the ranking approach that presupposed, each client could evaluate the items suggested and comment on them. So, in 2006 the discussion forums were embedded. All in all, it was mutually beneficial for both sides. The company was able to improve or upgrade the range of products and meet the demand of buyers. The latter in their turn would satisfy their fastidious nature.

As a matter of fact, the Amazon flow seems to be flawless. It embraces inconceivably vast and boundless field of its service application, ranging from books to software and web products. Moreover, Amazon doesn’t seem to cease its facile bonus-prone policy aimed at its favorites by giving them in 2010 a 2% discount provided they transact and pay through Amazon paying system.

What contributed to and stipulated its success was that first of all Amazon resorted to a client-targeted policy. Second of all, not of the least importance was the emphasis on novelties. Third of all, not to stand still but use every moment possible to generate ideas was another top-priority direction. Any business must have the owner whose potential and aspiration will be a guaranty of further company’s progress. That is an important factor that counts as well. A decision making process when employing and forming the personnel of the company is based on a strict and preferential approach. That means a candidate is supposed to favor and bring along the business development.  Amazon is also quite reasonable in its expenses and money investment, what can’t but be one more precondition that matters a lot. For the above mentioned reasons, it is true to consider Amazon a clever combination of ingenuity, reasonableness, strategy.

References

Patricia Picket, former Tech Careers Guide (2008, December 2). [Tech Careers blog]. Message posted to http://jobsearchtech.about.com/b/2008/12/02/amazoncom-company-profile.htm

Donna L Montaldo. About.com Guide. Amazon coupons and deals, from http://couponing.about.com/od/storesofferingdiscounts/a/Amazon.htm

Laura Schneider, former About.com Guide. Amazon.com history, from http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/companyprofiles/a/Amazon.htm

Rick Aristotle Munarriz (2008, February 27). Amazon in 2010, from  http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/02/27/amazon-in-2010.aspx

Kenneth C. Laudon, Carol G. Traver (2008). History of Ecommerce, from http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html

From the Economist print edition (2010, January 28). A special report on social  networking. Towards a socialized state, from

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=526352&stor

Clark Fredricksen (2010, October 27). Retail Ecommerce spending to grow 13% in 2010. Message posted to http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/retail-ecommerce-spending-grow-137-q4-2010/