Since its inception in 1995, ecommerce is very important in the business environment in terms of money and time. Today’s, consumers are not only spending but also demanding optimized and personalized sites that could offer them a richer and more relevant online experience. Facing a tough competition, every ecommerce site promises and offers a lot. While some ecommerce sites can attract customers, some can’t. In my blog I will discuss why Amazon.com is the king in the ecommerce industry.
According to an article which has been published on April 23, 2013 in Forbes.com, world’s biggest ecommerce battle is now in between Wal-Mart, world’s largest retailer of any kind and Amazon.com, the biggest online store on the planet. But the battle is not only in between them. As the internet becomes more commonplace and the concept of web marketing is ever expanding, every company small or big is trying to grab more sales traffic through their web portal. By 2013, global ecommerce sales will be crossed over $1.25 trillion.
So what ecommerce is? Electronic commerce or ecommerce is a type of industry where people buy and sell products or services using electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Today, we can buy almost everything and anything through online. While it’s very easy to get into an ecommerce website and dreaming start selling products, but it is important to make sure that the website must have all the necessary features than can help to convert all traffics into sales. Here we have three giants of American retailing: Amazon.Com, Walmart.com, and Costco.com. All three are from same mass merchant industry. Each of them promises savings. While Amazon delivers through online, Wal-Mart delivers through supercenters and Costco from warehouses.
Amazon
Though Amazon has been started as online bookstores in 1995, but its expansion has been propelled rapidly in innumerable directions and Earth’s biggest bookstore has become Earth’s biggest everything store. While the website still offers millions of books, games, movies, and music, the site offers all kind of electronics, health and beauty aids, toys, groceries, home furnishings, auto parts, and of course general merchandise categories, including apparel and accessories. It offers products and services such as e-commerce platform, online advertising, self-publishing, hosting, and a co-branded credit card. From the site, consumers can download games, MP3s, e-books, and films to their pc’s, handheld devices and in Amazon’s own portable e-reader, the Kindle. Amazon’s fourth quarter revenue in 2012 was $21.27 billion.
Wal-Mart
Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, Wal-Mart now has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. As the world’s #1 retailer and fourth largest e-commerce retailer, Wal-Mart has operation both in stores and through their website. With more than 2.2 million employees, Wal-Mart basically sells groceries and general merchandise through more than 4,000 stores, including 3,000 supercenters in the US. While Wal-Mart’s total revenue exceeds the revenue of Amazon, but its ecommerce sales are behind of Amazon. The projected revenue of Wal-Mart by 2013 will be $9 billion, whereas Amazon’s revenue is projected to exceed $65 billion
Costco
Our third company is Costco. Founded by James Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman on September 1983, Costco Wholesale Corporation is a membership-only warehouse club that provides a wide selection of merchandise. Costco is the 2nd largest retailer in the US and 7th largest in the world. Based on membership, Costco’s main competitors are BJ’s Wholesale Club and Sam’s Club. Costco acquired 68.2 million members by February 2013. Though its sales totaled $97.062 billion by August, 2012, with $1.709 billion net profit, but its online sales are far behind compare to Amazon and Wal-Mart. However, it did a decent business last year through ecommerce about $2 billion in sales.
Comparative study based on essential parts
So far, e-commerce has been experienced different phases. Now we have phases of the online shopping experience going back to the 90s up to the modern, fully social shopping experience. A modern e-commerce site is increasingly social, optimized for all kinds of browsing devices, has a rating system, and makes it fast and easy to purchase. Let’s sketch the comparative analysis of the website of Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Costco based on the basic components that an ecommerce must have.
E. Blog
Under Amazon associates, Amazon offers wide range of blogging. Anyone in here can posts their experience with Amazon or can share, review products that help others to make ample decision. Like its popularity in the web, Amazon is also popular in the social networking sites, blogs, and also in the customer reviews. It’s not possible to please everyone, but most of the customer reviews of Amazon are positive. Amazon has 8,247,518 likes in its Facebook page and 311,861 followers in Twitter with 1,041 tweets. In addition, it has lot of videos uploaded in the YouTube. Wal-Mart has their insider news and views page that reflects company’s present situation. Wal-Mart has both positive and negative feedback and has 18,717,089 likes in its Facebook page and 235,805 followers in Twitter with 35,755 tweets. It has number of videos in YouTube. Costco has much positive feedback than Wal-Mart. It has a blog operated by the consumers who share and discuss prices and promotions. Most of them are true and helpful. Costco’s twitter has 7,991 followers and Facebook has 796,992 likes.
Why do I choose Amazon compare to Wal-Mart and Costco?
The main reason I choose Amazon compare to Wal-Mart and Costco is that the Amazon can offer much lower price for any similar kind of product. Since they don’t have physical storefront presence and overhead, they can pass the savings directly to the shoppers. By 2017, e-commerce will gain more ground compare to any other segment of the retail industry with a compound annual growth rate of 11% each year. No doubt Amazon is the leader in the e-commerce industry. Everyone including Wal-Mart or Costco more or less is copycatting some of the Amazon’s most successful tactics. Customers are loyal to the Amazon for lot of good reason. Amazon has geared up with convenience, price, sales, and good customer service which are a powerful combination.