Amazon is a Fortune 500 company that retails its products on the internet. The e-commerce organization allows traders to sell items through its platform, Amazon.com. Amazon sells toys, books, music, e-books, e-book readers, clothes, and other products. Over the years, the firm has expanded its operations to include cloud computing web services through the Amazon Web Service. Amazon has 840,400 employees, and is worth $1,633 billion as of August 20, 2020. The organization faces stiff competition from rival firms such as Netflix, e-Bay, and Etsy. Over the past five years, Amazon has made vital decisions propelled by in-depth research outcomes from various sources.
Amazon has acquired several assets between 2015 and 2020 through unanimous support from junior, middle-level, and senior management. On November 2, 2015, the firm opened a physical bookstore in Seattle at a share price of $628.35 ( DePillis & Sherman, 2019). Amazon may have used vendor and client surveys to acquire information on the need for a physical store as a sign of solidarity with other brick-and-mortar based book vendors. First, the organization may have conducted exploratory research to ascertain existing client complaints. Amazon might have possibly called a sample of book vendors to check for elements that may have engendered the vendors’ claims received ( Harrison & Reilly, 2011). Additionally, Amazon may have analyzed secondary data feedback from social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter ( Malhotra, 2011) . The company may have then decided to create a physical store in response to the information collected. Thus, Amazon’s decision to create a book store in Seattle may have been propelled by exploratory research.
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On November 10, 2015, Amazon released the Echo speaker that Alexa uses at a share price of $659.68. Echo was an instant revenue trigger with more than 3000 stores in the United States purchasing it for their consumers ( DePillis & Sherman, 2019) . The decision to create and release Echo for sale by other stores may have been advanced by conclusive research to prove the hypothesis that Americans would love to own home products with in-built artificial intelligence. Amazon may have conducted online interviews to ascertain their assumptions. Moreover, the organization may have used observation to check for user-experience feedback from individuals who pioneered the purchases of Echo speakers before their release for public procurement ( Lam, Ho, Wu, & Choy, 2014). Therefore, Amazon might have concluded that Echo speakers should be released for sale from the conclusive research performed by the firm.
Further, Amazon acquired Whole Foods, a grocery supermarket chain of 471 stores, for $13.7 billion. Whole Foods’ share price was $987.71 at its acquisition ( DePillis & Sherman, 2019). The decision to acquire Whole Foods may have resulted from descriptive research that firms conduct to ascertain market phenomena, such as the proceeds realized from the e-sale of groceries in the United States ( Malhotra, 2011). Perhaps Amazon collected information concerning the client traffic it would have received from the sale of Whole Foods groceries. Maybe Amazon conducted an online focus group to check the number of clients who purchase their groceries on e-commerce platforms. Amazon may have created Facebook chat rooms, sent survey emails, or requested clients to fill in questionnaires that would provide information on its research hypothesis. Therefore, Amazon may have decided to purchase Whole Foods from descriptive research conducted through various methods.
On September 7, 2017, Amazon announced its search for a second headquarters (HQ) because Seattle was overwhelmed by the company’s expansion. The decision to construct the HQ may have resulted from conclusive research that there was a need to delegate its operational procedures. Amazon might have conducted a quantitative data analytics of its sales income to determine its financial capacity to procure a second headquarters. Additionally, the company might have used observation to determine that existing management was overwhelmed by responsibilities. Therefore, perhaps Amazon used the conclusive research to ascertain the need for a second headquarters.
The company also indicated that it would raise its employees’ minimum wage to $15 per hour on October 2, 2018 ( DePillis & Sherman, 2019) . Amazon might have conducted causal research to ascertain employee complaints about being overworked with minimum pay. The firm may have conducted internal face to face interviews to collect feedback from workers on their preferred minimum wage and if low wages might have adversely affected their job performance. Perhaps the organization also requested its competitors to fill questionnaires on their hourly employee pay. Amazon may then have used the feedback collected to design a reasonable compensation for its workers. Thus, Amazon may have decided to raise the minimum salary for its workers based on causal research.
Finally, Amazon announced that it would station its new headquarters in New York on November 13, 2018 ( DePillis & Sherman, 2019). . The decision may have been impacted by a descriptive study to ascertain the viability of New York as a potential HQ location. The firm might have conducted line-manager interviews to gain insights on New York’s suitability as a headquarters for Amazon. Therefore, Amazon’s decision to station its HQ in New York may have resulted from descriptive studies.
In summary, the analysis of Amazon’s five significant decisions in recent years ascertains the data that the company might have collected to advance its choices. Amazon may have used descriptive, causal, or conclusive research to search for information to propel its decisions. Further, the fortune 500 company might have used data sources, such as online and face-to-face interviews, to conclude its hypothesis that some choices were necessary to advance the firm’s profitability.
References
DePillis, L., & Sherman, I. (2019, July 5). Amazon's extraordinary 25-year evolution . CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/10/business/amazon-history-timeline/index.html
Harrison, R. L., & Reilly, T. M. (2011). Mixed methods designs in marketing research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal , 14 (1), 7-26. https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1352-2752
Lam, H., Ho, G., Wu, C., & Choy, K. (2014). Customer relationship mining system for effective strategies formulation. Industrial Management & Data Systems , 114 (5), 711-733. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-08-2013-0329
Malhotra, N. K. (2011). Basic marketing research: Integration of social media (4th ed.). Prentice Hall.
