Amazon is now the largest online retailer in the world as it has almost any product imaginable. With the addition of the Amazon Echo and other original products, Amazon has quickly become synonymous with the other tech giants such as Apple and Google. Amazon is expanding faster than ever before, which prompts the question: How has Amazon grown so fast, and what are their plans for the future?
To answer this question, one must look to the origins of Amazon. In 1994, Jeff Bezos, a Princeton University graduate with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, started Amazon as an online book retailer in his garage. His logic surrounding the growth of online retail was simple. He believed that the cheapest way to lower prices was to cut out the middleman; even with the shipping cost, selling online books would drastically lower prices.
“Today, online commerce saves customers money and precious time,” said Bezos.
He used this ideology to launch Amazon, which quickly became the largest online retailer ever.
Amazon’s goal is to implement its products into every aspect of consumers’ lives, slowly expanding their products and services into different parts of society. They started with simple online retail and quickly expanded to Online Cloud Computing (Amazon Web Services). Amazon Web Services allowed people to buy servers from Amazon to store data on. This allowed Amazon to control much of the internet.
In 2007, Amazon then released the Kindle, an e-reader that allowed Amazon customers to carry hundreds of books on a tablet the size of one. By this point, they were dominating the online retail and E-Book industry, putting other companies like Borders, another popular bookstore, out of business. From 2011 to 2015, Amazon started to release other online services such as Amazon Music and Amazon Video. This put Amazon on the playing field with other streaming companies such as Netflix and Hulu, and other music services such as Spotify and Google Music. In 2013, Amazon purchased the Washington Post, attempting to redefine the news industry as well. By this time, Amazon had become a household name, and by 2015, its sales surpassed those of Walmart.
Currently, Amazon has control of much of the internet, the online retail industry, and the ebook industry. Amazon is also a major player in the tech industry, with products such as the Fire TV and Amazon Echo.
One region that Amazon hasn’t been involved in is the retail industry, where live stores such as Walmart and local grocery stores such as Hy-Vee have dominated. Amazon aims to increase its control and reach into these fields as well, as many products can only be offered in person.
Recently, Amazon made moves to enter the retail market. On August 28, 2017, Amazon purchased the popular supermarket chain Whole Foods. This gave them access to the world of grocery stores. But Amazon wasn’t finished there.
On January 22, 2018, Amazon opened Amazon Go, its own store in Seattle. This store offers several ready-made meals, along with many other options. However, there is one key difference between this store and every other grocery store.
When you walk into the Amazon Go store, you will see no lines, no registers, and no checkout. The process is simple. First, download the Amazon Go app, and sign up for an Amazon account. Then, walk into the store and set your phone, with the Amazon Go app open, on one of the screens as you walk in. Once you’re in the store, simply grab what you want and walk out. When you leave the store, the items you took will be charged to your Amazon account.
This technology is cutting-edge. If you look up in the store, you will see hundreds of cameras watching every move you make. If you look at any of the items in the store, you will notice a special code on the label and, under any of the items, you will observe a pressure plate under every item tracking what products you pick up. This system of advanced technology makes the customer’s experience more fluid than ever before. Amazon is so confident in their system that they have even stated, when someone claimed to have taken a yogurt without paying for it, that they could keep it. Amazon has also relied on the honor system for mistakes; if you are charged for something you didn’t take, simply notify Amazon on the app and the purchase will be removed. Obviously, if one consistently returns items that they claim they never took, Amazon will know as it is linked to their Amazon account.
Amazon has constantly been increasing its reach and its profits have never been higher. Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon, has recently become the richest person in the world, surpassing Bill Gates by $12.2 more billion in net worth.
Over the last two decades, Amazon has grown from a small online bookstore to a tech world power. It has done this by taking control of many distinct fields in order to implement its name into every part of your life. You wake up in the morning to an alarm on your Amazon Echo, you open your door with an Amazon Lock on it, and you pick up your breakfast at the Amazon Go store. At school or in the car, you pull out your phone for a quick read on the Kindle App. Once you get home, you notice an Amazon package at your doorstep. Amazon has successfully inserted its name into many aspects of your life, and it’s only a matter of time before they take over the industries once thought untouchable, like many times before.
