Amazon is not just a books, music, video, games and
media retailer, it is the major online 'one stop shop' for many and one that has a cross
merchandise offer that is very powerful and even threatens the likes of Walmart. If
we take the latest UK news that they are increasing their take on of temporary UK staff
for the Christmas run-up from 3,000 to 10,000 short-term packaging jobs in just
three weeks, we see not only their commitment, but also their decisiveness to do
business. How many retailers can you name who are taking on such numbers? Some 2,000
of the workers will also retain their roles after Christmas and join Amazon’s growing 56,000 full-time worldwide workforce.
Amazon have also just announced
that, Amazon Studios, has optioned its first novel, the
Amazon-published, Southern horror 'Seed'. The book is a Southern gothic
suspense tale of an "ordinary man with a demon on his back." It was authored by Ania Ahlborn, under Amazon’s sci-fi, fantasy and
horror imprint, 47North. The book is a self-published and a viral driven Amazon ebook bestseller. By developing Amazon Studios Amazon is
now becoming a content developer with multiple channels to develop, promote and
exploit content. This offers authors something that is truly unparalleled within
the media market and could further fuel author deals that others will not be
able to match.
Amazon Studios already claims to have optioned 10,000
movie scripts and 1,800 series pilot scripts, and although this number will reduce to a mere
handful of projects such as 'Seed', the process and momentum is there for all to aspire to.
But Amazon's growth is not just driven internally and by themselves. Marketplace is further fuelling its 'one stop
shop' environment and building on the realisation that books are books, be they
new, old or used and being able to compare and buy from within one trusted store offers
more than any simple comparison sight. Again Amazon have thought out consumer
behaviour and matched their service to fit it. Many now have feed their
catalogues into Amazon’s marketplace and are happy to get new sales and pay a
commission on price paid and the postage incurred. This is without the many 'agents' who simply refer their sales to Amazon to fulfil.
Amazon’s growth is also being
fuelled by the likes of Pogoplug who have launched an Amazon-powered cloud
backup service in the US and UK. Pogoplug allows users to stream photos, music
or video from their home computer to wherever they are in the world. Pogoplug
mobile is a new device that allows users to access unlimited media streams from
their mobile device using Amazon’s new budget cloud Glacier service for offering users low price
fast cloud storage with prices around £19.99 a year for 100GB of offsite
storage. Building a further trusted layer to many consumer relationships.
As Amazon continue
their path to dominate many markets, they do have another side to their business
face. They are giving back to one community around its fulfilment centre in
Spartanburg, US by donating some 40 Kindles to the local School for the Deaf
and the Blind. The students will also received $2,500 in gift cards to download
resources to the new devices. The Kindles have a number of disabled-friendly features
such as text-to-speech and large print and thereby obviate the need for visually
impaired students to have wait for the audio book or large print edition.
Amazon is developing and
creating its own ecosystem which is fuelling growth and is the only giant who
not only understands the consumer but marries technology, media, retail and a
thriving marketplace under one roof.
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