International Expansion of an E-Tailer Essay

International Expansion of an e-tailer „We seek to be Earth ? s most customer-centric company for three primary customer sets: consumer customers, seller customers and developer customers. † The story of Amazon. com is a marvelous successful one. A company ? s biography which since the foundation in 19941 (followed by webpage launch one year later in 19952) became the world’s market leader in e-tailing by fully focusing on customer satisfaction and consequently aligning all organization activities, such as for example corporate strategy as well as technological portfolio, towards the consumer needs. From day one Jeff Bezos leads Amazon. com with a conspicuous overall philosophy of customer orientation and the strategic decision to focus on an increasing market share, instead of stock profits after Amazon went public (IPO) in 19973. Under consideration of these company’s aims, a powerful corporate structure has been built which became source of the flourishing first years in the US market (1995-1998) and also, specifying this as the crucial learning years in terms of consumer requirements and behavior, the preparation and basis for the future expansion. According to Cochran, customer satisfaction is a strategic decision and â€Å"the ultimate goal† of an organization – adequate investments and the full involvement of all employees are necessarily crucial. For the measurement and organization around the subject of customer satisfaction, numerous tools are available, such as reports, client comments, complaint processes and surveys representing elementary solutions for all kind of company-sizes and business4 as well as more sophisticated and comprehensive processes, such as the Balanced Scorecard5. However enterprises cover this part of their relationship towards customers, satisfaction ever has to be managed methodically, continuously, substance and process-broadly as well as differentiated by segments and target groups. 6 As a result of my research, no detailed and reliable information related to the customer relationship & satisfaction management of Amazon are available – nevertheless, Bezos has a clear picture of the customer needs and remains of the conviction that at Amazon they get exactly what they want: â€Å"selection, low prices, and fast delivery†. Consequently, for instance even the logo of Amazon has a relation to the organizations key objective of customer satisfaction8 and finally the overall strategy converts into measurable excellent results, such as the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) scale in which Amazon constantly ranks under the top best since the establishment of the â€Å"Internet Retail† category in 2000. 9 Exhibit A contains a division table which, on one hand, imparts a better visual understanding of the historical development that took place and, on the other hand, demonstrates how ambitious this sector is performing in the area of customer satisfaction – currently, but also within the prior years of internet boom. Impressively, Amazon. com ranked first in 7 out of 11 years in which this Index category has been tracked. Displacement of the first position appeared only in 3 specific cases, such as barnesandnobel. om (strongest competitor in the US with the objective to keep up with