Strategic Management: The SWOT Analysis of Amazon
The article is about SWOT analysis for the Amazon Company, an essential topic in strategic management. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, Amazon is the leading online retailer as it has had many achievements, made significant profits, and successful launches. It is famous all over the world, with about 340 million users. SWOT analysis seeks to identify the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external threats and opportunities. It will help develop strategies for working on the liabilities and risks to maintain a competitive advantage.
The critical course concepts that this topic relates to is the SWOT analysis in the strategic management process. The SWOT analysis identifies the strengths Amazon uses to counter its weaknesses, maximize the opportunities, and counter the threats to maintaining a competitive advantage. However, I shall narrow down to the weaknesses and threats since they are the company’s strategies. Weaknesses are areas that hold the company from reaching its full potential. The company works online. Hence, it does not provide a physical presence for people who value e-commerce. Also, it offers free shipping to its customers, which is costly. Lastly, the company incurs losses at times, for instance, fire phone disasters.
In terms of threats, the company faces stiff competition from unhappy competitors. Again, there is increased cybercrime and theft of data, posing a danger to inline shoppers.
Amazon has sought a strategy that has helped it navigate through its weaknesses and opportunities while maximizing the strengths and opportunities. The company has leveraged the use of technology to maintain a competitive advantage. It has also reaped the benefits of economies of scale. However, the company needs to develop physical centers and target the growing e-commerce businesses to maintain its position.
Reference
Greenspan, R. (2019). Amazon.com Inc. SWOT Analysis & Recommendations. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-swot-analysis-recommendations.