Bus 508 assignment 2

Discuss whether or not Amazon has lost its identity by expanding into markets well beyond books?

               I think Amazon have done well for itself, because many companies when expanding don’t do well or their brand start losing is reputation. Amazon on the contrary expanded to become the largest online retailer with a customer base of over 30 million people. Amazon also has done well over the years not to lose their brand identity by still selling their books at a lower price. In fact many other large retail companies now use Amazon to power and host their websites (Borders, Virgin Megastores, Target, Sears and many more) because they know that Amazon system works. Beyond these expansions to its own service offering, Amazon invested and partnered with many other companies. For many, one unfortunate venture came to characterize the dot com bubble. It involved a singing dog and in March 1999, Amazon acquired about one-third of the then privately held online pet supply store start-up, Pets.com for $58 million. This was Amazon’s second investment in an e-commerce start-up. In February 1999, Amazon acquired 40 percent stake in Drugstore.com and an online pharmacy and self-care products store. It works so well that Amazon.com attracts over 50 million visitors every month from just the United States alone.