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Current Policies:

To ensure customer safety and satisfaction, Amazon has instilled three company policies throughout the organization. These policies concern privacy, pricing, and product returns.

When a customer makes a purchase on Amazon.com, the company will ask for some personal information. This information is used to help personalize and improve further shopping experiences. Some of the gathered information includes name, address, phone number, social security number, credit card information, and driver’s license number. This information is used to improve the company’s communication with the customer. Information is automatically obtained every time customers interact with the company. Examples of this information are e – mail address, purchase history, products viewed by customers, and shops visited. E – mail communication is quickly established between Amazon.com and the customer. It receives a confirmation when customers open e – mail from Amazon. It is an important part of business to obtain information about customers. Amazon.com does not sell this information to other companies. It is, however, shared with subsidiaries of Amazon.com. All information is protected on the website using various methods. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypts information imputed into the computer so no one outside of Amazon can access information customers provide. When a credit card is used to pay for an order, only the last five digits are revealed in the order confirmation. Amazon does all of these things to protect its customer’s privacy. (Amazon.com Information), (Amazon.com Privacy), (Amazon.com Automatic)

Many times what lures a customer to buy is the price of the item and its availability. Each item has a price and availability listing on that item’s page. Low prices are always offered on all CDs, books, toys, electronics, DVDs etc Many items run for up to 40% less than in department stores. Sometimes there will be an item that is incorrectly priced in Amazon’s online catalog. If this occurs and the item’s price is lower than Amazon’s stated price, the customer would be charged the lower amount. If the item’s price is higher than Amazon’s price, Amazon will contact the customer before shipping or canceling the order. Recently, a price changing test was done in the DVD store to evaluate the website in the areas of site design and product pricing. “We’ve learned that certain aspects of our site resonates with customers in different ways, and we are continually fine – tuning our site presentation to see how these variables affect customers’ purchasing decisions” says Patty Smith, Amazon spokeswoman. Customers began complaining about the price differences and felt this practice was dishonest. In fact in this process of price changing, Amazon lost many customers. Because of these factors, Amazon.com altered its price testing policy and gave partial refunds to customers who paid higher prices than others on the same items. In the event that price testing is done in the future, customers will always be charged the lower price and anyone who pays anything higher will automatically receive a refund for the difference. (Rosencrance, 2000), (Gates, 2000) (Rosencrance, DVD Pricing), (Amazon.com Pricing)

The simplest out of all of Amazon.com’s company policies is its return policy. A customer can return an item within 30 days of the receipt of the order for a full refund. Simply indicate the reason for return, include the packing slip and wrap the package securely. Gifts can also be returned within 30 days of receipt. A gift certificate will be sent as a refund. Amazon.com will basically take any of their merchandise back and always gives the customer the benefit of the doubt. (Amazon.com Return)

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

Amazon.com is the leading online bookseller. Its competitors, Barnes & Noble and Borders, cannot even come close. Amazon.com was the first company to establish an online bookstore and is the leader in that space. (AMZN, 2000)

In addition, Amazon.com is also the leading online music retailer. This site offers everything any other music store does, with the convenience of online service. (AMZN, 2000)

Amazon.com has many high profile online partnerships and alliances. The two biggest are America Online and Microsoft. Both are allowing Amazon to branch out and reach new target markets. (AMZN, 2000)

Amazon.com has a very powerful position in the media industry. Due to the vast amounts of partnerships, Amazon now has a strong market position in the non – media industry. (AMZN, 2000)

Weaknesses:

Many people value the time and energy saved from buying books online. Many people also believe that buying books online is impersonal verses browsing a bookstore. Because Amazon.com is an online bookstore, Amazon does provide the personalized service and attention one would find in a bookstore. (AMZN, 2000)

Waiting for a product delivery is another weakness of Amazon.com. Although the item offered is immediately shipped when the order is placed one could go to the store and instantly have the item they want. (AMZN, 2000)

A major weakness of Amazon.com is its inability to make a net profit. The company does very well with sales and overall is very successful. All of the money Amazon makes is reinvested into the company. (AMZN, 2000)

Amazon.com, within its short life, has become very prosperous. The company has many partnerships

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