Amazon, the world’s largest retailer is synonymous with amazing customer service and a thriving marketplace where you can buy whatever you want! If you shop online, it is likely you have purchased with Amazon at least once! Here are ten things you should know about Amazon –

10 Key Things about Amazon

1. One of the world’s leading retail stores, Amazon.com is a force to reckon with on a global scale. It has exclusive retail sites for 13 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom.  The company is headquartered in Seattle, USA and was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos.

2. Amazon started as an online bookstore  and was going to be called ‘Cadabra’. However, the name was changed to ‘Amazon’ as Bezos thought it would reflect the might of the biggest river in the world and that’s what he aimed to turn Amazon into- the largest retailer in the world. It’s logo, with an arrow running from a to z, indicates the variety of products available and it’s shaped like a smile, indicating the focus on customer satisfaction.

3. Amazon has become synonymous with e-commerce and is also one of the largest retailers in the world. Its sales have zoomed from $48.08B in FY11 to $107.01B in FY15, with a net income of $596M in FY15. E-commerce has been changing the way consumers purchase and Amazon is leading the way in this revolution. It’s earnings per share are also 1.28 in FY15 up a 346% increase from -0.52 in FY14.

4. The company has also invested in several other online businesses in order to expand their user base and some of the brands under the Amazon umbrella are IMDb, Casa.com, Comixology, Createspace, AmazonFresh, Diapers.com, Goodreads, Junglee.com, Soap.com, Tenmarks.com, Woot!, Yoyo.com and Zappos.  It has a highly profitable subsidiary- the Amazon Web Services- which provides cloud computing services and is highly sought after for its unique pricing and capabilities. As of December 2014, it has operated more than 1.4 million servers across 12 regions worldwide.

5. As an online retailer, Amazon.com works on a different model to the traditional retailer. It does not have stores however its infrastructure is divided across the headquarters, software development centers, customer service centers and fulfillment and warehouse centers. The USA headquarters are in Seattle, where the Europe headquarters are in Luxembourg. All the other centers are present worldwide as Amazon also ships internationally. Its fulfillment centers are the humongous warehouses with state of the art technology.

6. Innovation is the keyword at Amazon and all its resources and employees are directed towards this one goal. Over the years it has invested in creating great products like the Kindle and the efficient online marketplace. It has also designed the ‘Amazon Echo’, which you can ask questions about anything and it gets back with the answer. They are also experimenting with a futuristic drone delivery which will deliver within 30 minutes. There is also a unique ‘Dash button’ which allows for purchase of regular household items at the click of one button. All these initiatives are made with the purpose of focusing on the convenience of the customer.

7. It ranks  fourth among the Global 500 brands for 2016 and is also the top retailer brand in the world. It is worth an approximate $69,642M in FY16 of brand value (up from $56,124M in FY15). This signifies its work towards the various initiatives and brand building exercises it has done over the past year. Even in the largest market -India- it is the most trusted online shopping brand as compiled by The Brand Trust Report, India Study 2016.

8. More than 230,800 employees are on the payroll of Amazon.com worldwide and has always been a top employer brand. From fresh graduates to engineers to sales professionals, the top talent is recruited by Amazon to deliver amazing innovations in its products and services. It has a unique Career Choice program which encourages its hourly associates to earn certificates and degrees in high demand occupations by pre-paying 95% of the tuition fees. The atmosphere at Amazon is one of leadership and growth and this has proved true as many of its employees have gone on to create their own successful ventures including Flipkart by Sachin and Binny Bansal, Hulu by Jason Kilar, Quora by Charlie Cheever and Jet.com by Marc Lore.

9. Amazon is focused on creating a vibrant community around it and has involved in itself in several causes. It donates reading devices especially Kindle and Fire tablets across the world in schools from USA to Africa to promote reading habits. It is also encouraging young girls to get into technology and hosts special programs. It has enabled its customers to donate seamlessly to their choice of charities by creating AmazonSmile where they can buy products for these charities.

10. Environmental impact is changing the way corporations are conducting and Amazon has also pitched in. Although, online retailing has a reduced environmental impact over traditional retailing,  packaging is a big concern and Amazon has introduced leaner, frustration free packaging which uses 100% recyclable materials. Its headquarters also have a LEED Gold certification for creating a sustainable design, in fact it tries to incorporate these sustainable designs across their fulfillment centers worldwide. Amazon Web Services even has a commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy usage and currently, at least 40% of global infrastructure energy comes from renewable resources including solar and wind power.

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