亚马逊物流管理分析

English for Academic Purposes (2013)
Amazon’s Logistics management system
Chaocong Zhuang
De Valera
08 .Aug. 2013
, Inc. is an electronic commerce (E-Commerce) in America. It is one of the world’s largest online retailers. Statistics by Spiro showed that the company had sold products in all 50 states and in 45 countries in 2009, like America, Canada, and United Kingdom (Spiro, 2009). Amazon started as an online bookstore, then numerous commodities were on sale, like electronic products, furniture, food, and sports goods, etc. Since 2002, it has earned the fat profit (Barney, 2012). Because of the internet and information bubble (dot-com bubble) from 1997 to 2000, many e-commerce companies went bankrupt, but Amazon survived (Johnson, 2010). The main factor leads to success of Amazon is Logistics transportation, which was treated as one of the largest obstacles in the development of e-commerce. This essay will discuss the features of logistics management in Amazon, and analyze how Amazon succeeds due to its specific logistics management.
In the tough time of e-commerce (dot-com bubble), Amazon’s strategy was unusual, it did not make any profits in these years. A case study from Chaffey, Amazon put forward an innovative promotion strategy – providing the delivery service for free. If consumers purchase certain price of commodities, they will receive free-shipping service (Chaffey 2012). This measure promoted greatly the consumer’s passion in shopping online, and reassured them the worry of high cost on online shopping. As a result, the growing consumer group brought great economic benefits. According to Spector’s research, the client base of
Amazon increased to 40 million, and the profits in the forth quarter of 2001 is 5 million dollar (Spector, 2002). The reality of high prices in online shopping lead to the loss of consumers in many companies, such as and Cisco, failed completely. In contrast, Amazon used logistics as the promotion strategy, which sold products at a lower price, making less profit but the higher turnover. Therefore, it occupied most of the market in online shopping (Lashinsky 2012). However, while bringing huge profits, this strategy is accompanied by risk. If Amazon can not solve the cost caused by logistics strategy and remove the burden of finance, it will fail completely (Stanley and Thomas, 2002). To solve these problems, Amazon took some measures which will be mentioned below to decrease spending.
Free delivery service was the key factor for Amazon’s success. However, it is also a double-edged sword, because it increases the high cost. According to Johnson, the method used by Amazon is to cut down the cost on financial management, like reducing spending, downsizing, using the advanced order system to decrease mistakes, integrated delivery and saving investing costs, which can reduce the logistics cost (Johnson, 2010). In other words, Amazon gains more sales profit through these methods while the number of consumers increases. Thus, a good cycle in business is created, but high requirement of the cost control ability and logistics system are also required. In addition, Amazon found a new way for profit growth. Second-hand products are
available on Amazon. On the other hand, Amazon cooperates with other companies, collecting rents by selling their products. Moreover, the customers in Amazon can purchase products from different brands. It provides various products to attract more persons to shop, and reduces the inventory risk. These effective measures are the security for Amazon to run successfully promotion strategies.
E-Commerce is based on modern information technology and computer networks (Sandeep, 2002). The characteristics include trading virtualization, visualization, low cost and high efficiency. In e-commerce, the information, transaction and cash flow can be finished on the internet. Only logistics can not be achieved on the internet (Jeff, 2012). As a result, logistics became the most indispensible part of e-commerce. The low efficiency of logistics will destroy the advantage of e-commerce such as economy, convenience and shortcuts. The success of Amazon benefited from its perfect logistic management system. And that is why the logistic strategy can be used by Amazon. In order to reduce investment and operational risks, Amazon entrusted its domestic delivery service to the U.S Postal Service and UPS, and entrusted international service to international shipping companies. In addition, Amazon itself can concentrate on developing operation and core business (Calin, 2001). Because of the cooperation between companies, Amazon keeps a low inventory. In general, Amazon will pay the payment to the public 45 days after
selling the books. Thus, the turnover on inventory and capital increased, and significantly enhanced the effect of business. Although Amazon operates many kinds of products, the price for products is reasonable, and the quality and delivery service can satisfy the customers. Therefore, it keeps a low rate on return of goods. The low ratio on returning of good not only reduces the cost of returning purchases, but also acquires a good business reputation. In addition, Amazon built distribution centre according to different kinds of goods, so the products ordered by consumers may be distributed to different centers. In order to save time, the carrier loaded the same kind of good, which are bought by different persons, in the same car. It therefore saves a large amount of times in transport, and decreases the cost of transport. Finally, Amazon provides choice about type and date of delivery to consumers. People can choose to receive their commodities by shipping or land transportation, and what time they want to receive their merchandises.
In conclusion, Amazon shows the scientific logistics management system to the world. It provides convenient and flexible delivery service to consumers. Amazon is known for its low price and satisfactory service. It sets up a good image to costumers and strengthens their trust. The revelation from Amazon is the importance of logistics in e-commerce. It is a good sample for other electronic business enterprises to use for reference. They will be booming if they take logistics as their developmental strategy like Amazon.
References
Barney J. (2012) ‘The Amazon Economy’ London: The Financial Times
Calin, G. (2001) ‘Internet transactions and physical logistics: conflict or complementarity?’ Bingley: MCB UP Ltd
Chaffey, D (2012) ‘ case study’ Smart Insights
Available from: /digital-marketing-strategy/online-business-rev enue-models/amazon-case-study/
Jeff, B. (2012) ‘Amazon Web Services (AWS) Training Guide: ALTO UK Project’ London: University of the Arts London
Johnson, M.W. (2010) ‘Seizing the white space: business model innovation for growth and renewal’ Boston: Harvard Business School.
Lashinsky, A (2012) ‘Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: The ultimate disrupter’ CNN Money Available from: /2012/11/16/jeff-bezos-amazon/ Sandeep, K. (2002) ‘E-Commerce Management: Text and Cases’South-Western Thomson Learning
Spiro, J. (2009) ‘The great leader series: Jeff Bezos, founder of ’Inc.
Available from: /30years/articles/jeff-bezos.html
Stanley, D.B and Thomas, R.L. (2001) ‘Ecommerce’New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Spector, R (2002) ‘: Get big fast’New York: HarperCollins Publisher Inc.。