What You Can Learn From Amazon’s Marketing Strategy

Amazon is considered an online retailing powerhouse, holding its own against platforms such as eBay and Walmart. Amazon has developed a sturdy and reliable marketing strategy to ensure that they get the best results out of the online market.

Amazon, like many other eCommerce powerhouses, relies on both demographic and psychographic segmentation of the markets. They focus directly on the behavior of customers with regards to purchasing: this is not specifically what customers show interest in rather what the customers did (buying or not buying).

This approach to segmentation (micro-level segmentation) targets individual buyers, allowing Amazon to turn casual buyers into loyal, big money buyers.

To further explain eCommerce segmentation, online retailers invent profiles of people who confidently purchase products and target specific products.

In the case of Amazon, they focus on catering to middle and upper-class customers who possess a basic understanding of technology but lack the time and are not fans of physical shopping.

In this article, we are going to break down Amazon’s marketing strategy in detail:

They possess a competitive edge

Amazon set itself apart from other online retail companies by investing in several IT and eCommerce start-up platforms such as Junglee.com, Zappos.com, IMDB.com, and audible.com. This has been useful in providing more excellent value to their buyers while relying on the technology of their start-ups at a much lower price.

In addition to this, Amazon has expanded the list of products they offer to include things like eBooks, electronics, DIY products, toys and many other products. Such additions are crucial to ensuring that Amazon maintains low costs while giving its customers added benefits.

Amazon has been around in the world of online retailing for many years. It has since expanded to foreign markets such as Asia and Europe and being a powerhouse in the USA. Their marketing strategy has helped them cement themselves as a step above the rest in global markets.

Branching into entertainment and tech world

Amazon has expanded its services in recent years, making its mark in the entertainment and tech world. With the introduction of Amazon Prime, movie streaming services, and e-books, Amazon has been raking in millions of dollars in annual revenue, creating bigger profit margins.

They have even decided to reach out to freelance filmmakers to create profiles and upload scripts or film samples to be analyzed by award-winning producers, writers, and filmmakers. They can invest in the project, a perfect platform for struggling and upcoming filmmakers if they are interested.

Amazon movies and series are that good. Many have had Emmy, Oscar, and Golden Globe nominations in recent years, cementing the company as a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment industry.

Although some services such as Kindle and Amazon web have become somewhat obsolete, some other features like the e-book are growing in popularity as time goes by. Products such as electronics and other related products are working in the online retail giant’s favor with their high growth rates. Still, Amazon’s market share for said goods is also relatively high.

Distribution Strategy

If there’s one thing buyers are not a fan of, it’s waiting around on the delivery of an ordered product. Amazon developed a platform for efficient distribution, creating over 55+ centers for delivery that cover over 43 million square feet.

They are quite determined in their approach, targeting warehouses and using them to store consumer-packed products to better their delivery process. This has brought Amazon to new locations and more buyers.

Amazon has developed an in-depth and carefully planned platform to ensure that products are delivered to remote areas, free of charge up to certain product limits. Globally, their delivery network has grown quite rapidly as a result.

Amazon’s Brand Equity

Amazon was once a humble e-book platform, but today, it is the second-largest online retail company globally. Paying greater attention to advertisements and promoting its product has helped Amazon develop more significant brand equity.

In 2015, Amazon.com was estimated to be worth US $176 billion, complete with over 55% repeat customers. It is also counted as one of 13 of the “world’s most valuable brands” by the Forbes list.

A closer look at its competitors

Comparing Amazon to other online providers is not a one-step process as the brand covers different sectors from books to retail products. It’s important to break the sectors out and analyze them individually:

• Books and related content: Apple is its biggest rival in this department, delivering audiobooks and magazines. Amazon has had trouble shaking off the iTunes store due to its delivery of top-rated products such as the MacBook and iPhone.
• Web related services: Google has grown to be its biggest rival for web services, with many preferring it as a reliable search engine.
• Retail market: With over $9 billion made through internet sales, Walmart is slowly flexing its retail muscles as a contender to Amazon’s global dominance. So far, Amazon has managed to beat its rival out, making over double the amount that Walmart makes annually.

Amazon keeps a close eye on its competitors and notes adding in extra features that its rivals don’t offer like, personalized shopping experiences. They are constantly testing out new ideas to stay ahead of the competition, and it cannot be denied that for now, they are a cut above their rivals. With solid, determined, marketing strategies and a finger on the consumer’s pulse, Amazon is only going to continue to grow as an online retailing company. Here’s a really cool infographic on their history over 20 years.

We wish to thank Mari Jasmine Smith a digital marketing writer for SEO consultants for this article.