Abstract
On December 5, 2016, Amazon went way off script again by opening Amazon Go, an offline retail store in Seattle, where customers could pick up goods and just walk out, without having to queue up and pay at the checkout.
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Notes
- 1.
Source: Jeff Bezos’ 2011 Letter to Shareholders.
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was designed as a numeric book identifier. The ten-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and unveiled in 1972. An ISBN number consists of group (indicating the country, geographic region or language), publisher, title and check digit.
- 4.
Bezos registered the company as “Cadabra” at first, and then changed it to “Amazon”, because the name suggested the scale and website listings at that time were mostly alphabetical.
- 5.
Source Jeff Bezos’ 1997 Letter to Shareholders.
- 6.
One-click was launched in 1997 and granted a patent in 1999. In 2010, it obtained a permanent patent. The patentability of one-click, however, had been broadly disputed. Other online vendors argued one-click was such a simple flow chart that it was unfair to pay patent fees for adding one-click button on their product page. Apple purchased the patent license from Amazon in 2000.
- 7.
By October 2016, customers had been able to place one-click orders for more than 150 commodities with Dash Button.
- 8.
Users of Amazon Prime had to pay an annual membership fee of USD 99. During the membership period, users were entitled to two-day free shipping services for orders of any amount or weight. The annual membership fee for members of Amazon China was RMB 388. By February 28, 2017, Chinese users could enjoy the Prime service at the price of RMB 188 in the first year.
- 9.
Source: Amazon’s Financial Reports (2016Q3).
- 10.
Amazon China’s four strategic focuses: cross-border e-commerce, Amazon E-Reading, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
- 11.
Amazon Logistics Plus was launched by Amazon China on October 27, 2015.
- 12.
Cubiscan is an automated static and in-motion dimensioning and weighing system.
- 13.
Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a real-time software application designed to optimize management of information, resources, practices, inventories, and distribution operations based on rules and algorithms in order to meet the requirements for productivity and precision.
- 14.
A* (A-star) search algorithm is the most effective computer search algorithm that plots the shortest distance between multiple points in a static network. The closer the estimated distance to the actual distance, the faster the search speed will be. The algorithm can be described as f’ (n) = g’ (n) + h’ (n).
- 15.
Source: the U.S. consulting firm Gartner’s 2015 Magic Quadrant.
- 16.
Andy Jassy fired back in an interview with BI at Oracle’s CTO, who belittled AWS, October 14, 2016.
- 17.
Salesforce is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software service provider founded in March 1999. Salesforce (stock code: CRM) was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2004. The company had been listed as the world’s most innovative company by the Forbes for four years.
- 18.
Sonos is the world’s leading smart home wireless speaker manufacturer founded in 2002.
- 19.
Source: report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partner.
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Acknowledgments
This case is co-authored by Professor Zhu Xiaoming, Case Writer Qian Wenying, Research Assistant Shi Tianyu, and Research Assistant Zhu Yifan.
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Zhu, X. (2019). Case XI: Amazon’s DNA: Driving Technology Innovation in the Digital Economy. In: Emerging Champions in the Digital Economy . Management for Professionals. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2628-8_13
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