HistoryThe launch of Amazon.com in July 1995 represented the creation of a bold new way of doing business on the Internet. Amazon.com has forced the traditional physical retailer of the book industry to change the way it targets the industry's consumers and has thus epitomized Business-2-Consumer electronic retailing. Although Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, according to eRetailNews, it has since expanded its wings into other industries such as music, DVDs, toys, videos etc… Subsequently, this has created a multitude of direct competitors for Amazon. com in different sectors. As Amazon.com continues to grow and forge new alliances with other industry leaders, competition for global online market share grows intensely.-------------------------------- ----------- --------------------------------- Strengths.* Amazon is a profitable organization. In 2005 profits for the three months to June fell 32% to $52m (£29.9m) compared with $76m in the same period in 2004. Sales jumped 26% to 1 .75 billion dollars. Until recent years, Amazon was suffering large losses, due to huge initial setup costs. The recent decline was due to promotions that offered reduced delivery costs to consumers.* Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Information Technology (IT) support Amazon's business strategy. The company carefully records data on customers' shopping behavior. This allows them to offer an individual specific items, or bundles of items, based on preferences demonstrated through purchases or items visited.* Amazon is a huge global brand. It is recognizable for two main reasons. It was an early dotcom and has developed a customer base of around 30 million people over the past decade. It was one of the first exploiters of online technologies for e-commerce, which made it one of the first online retailers. It built on early success with books, and now has product categories that include electronics, toys and games, DIY and more. Weaknesses.* As Amazon adds new categories to its business, it risks damaging its brand. Amazon is the number one book retailer. Toy-R-Us is the number one retailer of toys and games. Imagine if Toys-R-Us started selling books. This would confuse its consumers and endanger its brands. Likewise, many of the new categories, such as automotive, may prove too confusing for customers.* At some point the company may need to reconsider its strategy of offering free shipping to customers..