Business Strategy and Outlook
| Dan Romanoff |Amazon dominates its served markets, notably e-commerce and cloud services. It benefits from numerous competitive advantages and has emerged as the clear e-commerce leader thanks to its size and scale, which yield an unmatched selection of low-priced goods for consumers. The secular drift toward e-commerce continues unabated with the company continuing to grind out market share gains despite its size. Prime ties Amazon’s e-commerce efforts together and provides a steady stream of high-margin recurring revenue from customers who purchase more frequently from Amazon’s properties. In return, consumers get one-day shipping on millions of items, exclusive video content, and other services; this results in a powerful virtuous circle where customers and sellers attract one another. Kindle and other devices further bolster the ecosystem by helping attract new customers while making the value proposition irresistible in retaining existing customers. Through Amazon Web Services, Amazon is also a clear leader in public cloud services.