AFTER ANALYSING THE ACQUISITIONS, INVESTMENTS & INTERVIEWS, I HAVE A STRONG FEELING THAT AMAZON IS VENEERING TOWARDS AN ALL PACKAGE STRATEGY. PRESENTING TO YOU, PART 3 OF THE AMAZON SERIES.
Amazon is not an E-COMMERCE company. It's a tech company. Remember the "complete package" I wrote about in the beginning? It encompasses all aspects of our life from gadgets to food, travel to entertainment & healthcare to housing. Amazon can influence all of these in the near future if Jeff's plans see the light of the day. So let's explore what I think is Bezos's grand strategy:
PRIME MEMBERSHIP: THE CRUX
If you notice keenly, you will observe that attracting new consumers to Prime membership is the primary aim of every move Amazon makes. For instance, Amazon has reduced Prime delivery from 2 to 1 day in the United States at the beginning of 2020. Other notable endeavours include giving a special discount to Prime members in WholeFoods (a chain of stores similar to Walmart acquired by Amazon.), starting Prime Video (Replicating Netflix), Amazon Music (Spotify alternative), Audible (for book lovers like me) & offering discounts on PillPack (recently acquired). Currently, Amazon has more than 100 million Prime members in the US alone. So why does Amazon want more Prime members? The simple answer is to keep consumers in the Amazon ecosphere so they continue buying goods, utilizing services & giving personal information (regarding habits and preferences) so Amazon knows more about you!
THE COMPLETE EXPERIENCE
To be honest, being a prime member has many perks. You get free & fast shipping, prime days, unlimited music, quality content and millions of e-books. But on the flipside, you are likely to spend more if you are a Prime member. Also, the books you read, the music you listen to, the movies you watch and the stuff you order says a lot about you. Through its intricate & state of the art algorithms, Amazon can predict the products you are most likely to buy next. I touched upon this in more detail through the lens of Alexa HERE.
THE FUTURE
These are some recent Amazon acquisitions and their possible future influences:
Audible (monopoly on audiobooks)
Audible already has a dominant share in the audiobook market (49%). So strong dominance in the market of ebooks is not a mere fantasy as Amazon also owns Brilliance Audio (a pioneer in audiobooks), Comixology (digital comics platform with over 200 million comic downloads as of September 2013.) & Goodreads (a reader platform having reviews on books exerting heavy influence on public perception about new releases).
Health-based startups have also been acquired by Amazon recently showing how important this sector is. It has acquired PillPack (home delivery of medicines) for $735 million & Healthnavigator (a startup developing APIs for online health services.)
Another future target sector is an internet provider. Kuiper Systems, similar to SpaceX's StarLink Programme with satellite in space providing Internet.
Smart home-focused startups like Blink & Ring with Amazon Echo at its central unit.
Streaming platforms like Twitch to offset competitors like YouTube and also recommend the game you watch most on Amazon.com.
Offline chain stores like WholeFoods & Amazon Go to cater to the traditional & orthodox consumer base & attract new prime members by special offers.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is currently the most profitable Amazon company to maintain pole position in internet infrastructure.
Amazon Prime Video & IMDb can know the genre & films you like suggesting the purchase of related product. For example, if you like Star Wars a lot then Amazon can recommend the purchase of Star Wars merchandise the next time you log in.
Amazon also has its foot in the education industry by owning startups like TeachStreet (online business management tools for teachers and schools.) & Tenmarks Ltd. (provides personalized online math practice). It also announced plans to open up Amazon Academy in India to tap into the edtech boom in the country.
Amazon has also purchased various robotics companies like Kiva (which makes small orange robots that can autonomously carry items around a warehouse). Dispatch (develops delivery robots) & Canvas (autonomous robots). These are essential in autonomous warehouses being operated in North America.
It also owns Zoox, a self-driving car company purchased recently, much to the ire of Elon Musk it seems.
Jokes aside. I hope you get the bigger picture. I just want people to know the things Bezos has up his sleeve. It might not be as privacy evasive as I portray it but he is no angel from heaven either. This is one of my best 100% original work yet without any external reference or source so I hope you like it. Suggestions are welcome.
Cheers!