Amazon.com strives to be Earth's most customer-centric company where people can find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online. By giving customers more of what they want - low prices, vast selection, and convenience - Amazon.com continues to grow and evolve as a world-class e-commerce platform.
Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com in 1995 by selling books because of the unique customer experience the Web could offer book lovers. Bezos believed that only the Internet could offer customers the convenience of browsing a selection of millions of book titles in a single sitting. The first book he sold was "Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought." During the first 30 days of business, Amazon.com fulfilled orders for customers in 50 states and 45 countries - all shipped from his Seattle-area garage.
It is by design that technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently, and at even lower prices. Among its many technological innovations for customers, Amazon.com offers a personalized shopping experience for each customer, book discovery through Search Inside The Book, convenient checkout using 1-Click Shopping, and several community features like Listmania and Wish List that help customers discover new products and make informed buying decisions.
Since 1995, Amazon.com has significantly expanded its product offering, international sites, and worldwide network of fulfillment and customer service centers. Today, Amazon.com offers everything from tennis rackets to live Maine lobsters to diamond jewelry, and operates sites for the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, and China (Joyo.com). The company's 21 fulfillment centers around the world encompass more than 9 million square feet.
In 2000, Amazon.com began to offer its best-of-breed e-commerce platform to other retailers and to individual sellers. Today, hundreds of thousands of world-class retail brands and individual sellers increase their sales and reach new customers by leveraging the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform. Through programs such as Marketplace, Advantage, and by working with Amazon.com subsidiary Amazon Services, sellers of all shapes and sizes offer their selection to Amazon.com customers by using various components of the e-commerce platform. Partners such as Target Stores and The Bombay Company work with Amazon Services to power their e-commerce offering from end-to-end, including technology services, merchandising, customer service, and order fulfillment. Other branded merchants such as Nordstrom and Land's End offer leverage Amazon.com as an incremental sales channel for their new merchandise. Smaller sellers participate in Amazon Marketplace where they offer new, used and collectible selections at fixed prices to Amazon customers around the world.
Independent software developers also derive value from the platform through Amazon Web Services (AWS). Launched in July 2002, the AWS platform exposes Amazon technology and product data that enables developers to build innovative and entrepreneurial applications on their own. More than 120,000 developers have signed up to use AWS since its inception. Applications built using the AWS Software Developers Kit range from enhanced Associates sites that advertise products on the Amazon.com website to integrated solutions for retailers selling merchandise through Amazon.com. Developers make money by earning referral fees from their Associates sites or by charging users for the applications they build.
Amazon's evolution from Web site to e-commerce partner to development platform is driven by the spirit of innovation that is part of the company's DNA. The world's brightest technology minds come to Amazon.com to research and develop technology that improves the lives of shoppers and sellers around the world.
Information courtesy of Amazon.com
