Marketing Plan

Amazon E-commerce Competitors

eBay

In the e-commerce segment, eBay is the top competitor of Amazon. eBay Inc. is an e-commerce marketplace founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar headquartered in San Jose, California. The company website engages both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales. After its humble beginning, eBay turned into a household name.

It is the online marketplace where individuals and businesses buy and sell a variety of goods. Buyers can freely use websites but sellers are charged fees for their items sold after providing limited free listings. Countless transactions go through the eBay website on daily basis. After Amazon, eBay is the second largest e-commerce company in the United States in sales share at 6.1%.

Walmart

Walmart is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce retailers in 2019. This retail giant surpassed Apple to become the third-largest e-commerce retailer. Walmart e-commerce sales up 43% in Q4 of 2018 in the US market. This was made possible due to growing online grocery, delivery business, and a huge collection of assortments on Walmart.com. Walmart has become the strongest competitor of Amazon, Instacart, and many other grocery businesses. Wal-mart.com is working with several partners to offer grocery delivery to customers doorstep at more affordable prices.

Home Depot

Home Depot is an American home improvement retailer that sells tools, construction products, and services. It has 2290 stores located in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and these stores are the hubs of its business. In the year 2018, the company generated 108.2 billion which increased by $7.3 billion as compared last year. The Home Depot online generated 7.9% of net sales which was 6.7% of the net sales in 2017. The company's online sales grew by 26.2% in 2018.

The analysis I gave shows that Home Depot online community presence is increased as a result it is gradually investing in a website and mobile application to enhance search capabilities and overall website functionality that will increase the user experience. As compare to Amazon the Home Depot has maintained its position as a home improvement retailer. No doubt Home Depot has one of the key competitors of Amazon.

Etsy

Etsy also etsy.com is an online marketplace that focuses on craft and vintage items under the categories of jewelry, home decor, furniture, clothing, bags, and many more. It provides a storefront to sellers where they can offer their listings for a certain fee per item.

There is no comparison of Etsy with Amazon, as it generated only $603 million in revenue in the year 2018 which was 441.23 million in 2017. But my logic behind this mentioning is the survival of Etsy in this competitive business environment. Amazon launched Amazon homemade in October 2015 to target the artisan community. Etsy charges a lower commission and provides more freedom to sellers. With all initiatives, Etsy is not only competing with the Amazon homemade marketplace but also improving its sales figures year by year.

Best Buy

Best Buy Co. is an American Consumer Electronics Retail Company operates in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and headquartered in Richfield Minnesota.

According to forbes.com, the company's e-commerce sales are around 14% of the total revenue. The company is focusing on e-commerce growth to remain competitive in the Amazon dominated eCommerce marketplace. This consumer electronic company is working hard to cut costs, stabilize its revenue stream, and increase its online sales. Best Buy made huge investments in the online platform and shown improvements in online sales. The company is also looking forward to building digital capabilities that can increase customer shopping experience on digital devices.

Amazon China Competitors

• Amazon China is facing fierce competition not only from Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba.com and JD.com but small domestic companies like Pinduoduo, sunning and VIP.com are a huge threat to Amazon in the Chinese e-commerce market. Amazon has less than 1% market share in China which was 15% in 2011 and 2012. According to CNN.com, the U.S e-commerce giant is partially retreating from the Chinese e-commerce market. It will shut down its e-commerce platform in China in the coming few months. Other operations like cloud computing services and Kindle e-readers and content will be fully functional in the country. Here is a list of top E-commerce retailers in China.

• Alibaba
• JD.com
• Suning
• Pinduoduo
• Vip.com
• Gome

Amazon Competitors in Brick and Mortar Retail Industry

Walmart

Walmart Inc. is the world-leading brick and mortar Retail Corporation. The company achieved a milestone of $514.4 billion in revenue. The company expanded its wings and operating 11,368 stores worldwide and one of the worlds leading employers with 2.2 million employees.

Walmart is the top competitor of Amazon. Walmart is worried about Amazon.com for a decade. Walmart started its online presence to beat Amazon's business strategy. After acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon has become a direct competitor of Walmart in groceries. In the Indian market, Walmart has acquired the majority of shares in Flipkart, which is one of the leading eCommerce retailers in India and both giant retailers are competing for market share and loyal customer base.

Costco

Costco Wholesale Corporation is another American retailer that operates membership-based warehouse clubs. Costco is behind Amazon and trying to give a tough time to Amazon in the retail business. Costco offers a bulk quantity of products at discounted prices to its members who pay annual membership fees.

According to Costco fiscal report 2018, Costco generated annual revenue of $141.576 billion with a reported net income of $3.134 billion. Over the previous fiscal year, this total revenue is 9.7% increased. The company has a worldwide presence with over 770 warehouses globally.

Kroger

The Kroger Co. is a retailing company founded in 1883 by Bernard Kroger in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kroger has a huge presence in 35 states and operates more than 2700 supermarkets and multi-department stores. Kroger became a direct competitor of Amazon after Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion. Amazon offers a two-hour delivery service but not able to find success in the grocery business. Walmart and Kroger have made a huge investment in technology and stores and one of the key advantages they have is the number of physical stores.

Kroger has not only increased the number of organic food items but also charges lower prices than Whole Foods. This really affects the competition between Kroger and Amazon. Huge product assortment and lower prices allow millions of customers to shop at Kroger and Walmart instead of Whole Foods which is part of Amazon.

Target

Target is another brick-and-mortar store and a strong Amazon competitor. Like Walmart, Amazon, and Costco, Target offers a huge list of products. Target Corporation is a huge presence in the United Stated operating 1851 stores as of May 2019.

The merging of online and offline retailing is a key advantage to Walmart and Target as both retailers have a large neighborhood store presence. Retailers like Walmart and Target have changed the retailing game in the industry. If Amazon wants to snatch a huge chuck from the $800 billion grocery market, it has to create a business model for its e-commerce capabilities with a physical store network. Amazon must expand its physical presence in order to fulfill its retail ambitions.

Amazon Competitors in Streaming Media

Netflix

Netflix is Amazon's competitor in the segment of streaming media services i.e.Amazon. It is a video-on-demand service founded in 1997 by Reed and Marc headquartered in Los Gatos, California. The company offers subscription-based streaming services with a huge collection of tv series, feature movies, and documentaries. Being one of the leading internet entertainment services having 148 million subscribers in more than 190 countries around the globe.

If we compare Netflix and amazon , Amazon is also a subscription service that only offers streaming videos, music, and reading books but the service also includes two-day free delivery and several other benefits. Netflix is purely a streaming-video platform whereas Amazon offers a variety of added benefits. Amazon doesnt charge extra for different video quality whereas Netflix charges for video quality and a number of devices.

Other Amazon Competitors

Microsoft Azure

Both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are the leading cloud computing services around the globe. Microsoft Azure is a leading cloud computing platform offered by Microsoft. Azure is responsible to build, test, deploy, and manage the different applications with the help of Microsoft-managed datacenters. Microsoft reported $30.6 billion in revenue in Q3 2019 where Azure revenue has grown by 73% which makes its one of the largest cloud computing services in the world.

Facebook

Facebook is a huge social media platform and dominates the social sphere while Amazon online retail business. Amazon is trying to add social aspects while Facebook wants to enter e-commerce. The Facebook marketplace has a huge success in 2018. Small business owners and local sellers are using the Facebook marketplace to offer goods and services. This is a direct threat to Amazons resale market which is moving Amazon to private labeling even more. Facebook and Amazon are marketing competitors where small business owners use Facebook sponsor ads and Amazon PPC.

Question:

1. Amazon company inc competitors (External environment)?
2. Amazon review of direct and indirect competitors? Describe in detail?
3. Examines the past performance of the product and the elements of its marketing program. (Example, Distribution, Promotion)?