Amazon vs. Ebay

Over the last two decades Amazon has grown at an exponential rate and retained many advantages over its competitors along the way. Amazon has primarily two different types of competitors, brick and mortar retailers, and other online retailers. To distinguish itself it had to prove to be better than the rest through competitive advantages over each type of competitor.

First, to establish Amazon as a powerhouse in the online retailer industry, it had to prove to be superior over traditional retailers, brick and mortar retailers. One specific competitive advantage that Amazon took used to separate itself was its access to a significantly larger customer base. By being an online retailer they can provide goods to more than just local customers. In the late 1990’s Bezos made it his goal to make Amazon more accessible and invested in its supply chain and distribution network allowing it to provide goods to a greater range of clients. This new increased distribution capacity far exceeded that of traditional brick and mortar retailers.

Another advantage it had of retail stores was its ability for customers to write reviews. Amazon allowed customers to post and read reviews on products and used it to their advantage. Their research team found it to be extremely beneficial in completing sales by sorting the highest rated comments first and allowing customers to easy display the types of comments they are looking for. This is a feature that Amazon expanded rapidly and did a lot of research on to make it as beneficial as possible. It is also a feature that brick and mortar retailers cannot replicate in stores and helped them distinguish themselves from those traditional stores, offering advantages to buying online over buying in store.

Offering an auction business similar to that of eBay’s provided yet another feature for it to use as an advantage over brick and mortar retailers. Amazon had become more diverse and was able to provide a greater...