Maeyur Vishwanath Nigudge

 What are the distinctive factors that make amazon.com successful in USA and Amazon.in successful in India? Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction3 1.1 Introduction3 1.2 Background of the Study4 1.3 Research Aims and Objectives7 1.3.1 Research Aim7 1.3.2 Research Objectives7 1.4 Research Questions7 1.5 Research Rationale8 1.5 Outline of the Dissertation9 Chapter 2: Literature Review10 2.1 Theory of Planned Behaviour10 2.1.1 Attitude10 2.1.2 Subjective Norm11 2.1.3 Perceived Behaviour Control11 2.2 Intention to Transact11 2.3 Trust12 2.4 Culture Differences12 2.5 Growth of Amazon13 2.6 Amazon and United States of America13 2.6.1 Growth in the USA13 2.6.2 Strategies Adopted for the USA market14 2.6.3 Success Factors of Amazon in the USA15 2.7 Amazon and India17 2.7.1 Growth in India17 2.7.2 Strategies Adopted for Indian market18 2.7.3 Success Factors of Amazon in India20 Chapter 3: Research Methodology23 3.1 Research Design23 3.2 Research Philosophy23 3.3 Research Approach23 3.4 Data Collection Methods24 Data Collection Instruments and Data Analysis25 3.5 Sampling Technique25 3.6 Ethical Considerations26 3.7 Limitation of the Research Methodology27 3.8 Summary28 Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings29 4.1 Data Analysis (Responses from Questionnaires)29 4.2 Findings of the Study44 Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations46 5.1 Conclusion46 5.2 Recommendations48 References49 Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter gives a brief overview of the topic, “What are the distinctive factors that makes amazon.com successful in USA and amazon.in successful in India?” It gives an introduction on the growth of ecommerce business in the world and also presents a background of the study. It explains the research aims and objectives and formulates the research objectives that the researcher wants to answer. It also gives a rationale of the study and the outline of the paper. 1.1 Introduction The development of computer in the year 1950 and the rise of technology since then gave birth to the Internet. In the beginning, it was only restrained to point-to-point communication between the terminals and the mainframe computers. Since then, there has been an expansion in the development of the Internet in accordance with the increasing growth of computers. During 1990s, electronic commerce first steeped into the market. This happened because Internet was then made open for business and commercial use. It was however in 2000 that electronic commerce first got introduced in Western Europe and the United States of America where the big corporations represented their brand, products and services on the web platforms (Wani, Raghavan, et.al, 2013). This platform was used to promote and sell their brand and offerings to the customers and businesses. Prior to studying the success factors of Amazon in India and the US, it is important to know what electronic commerce and electronic business refers to. Though these terms are usually used interchangeably, however there is a slight difference between these terms. According to Business Dictionary.com, E-commerce is referred to “Business conducted through the use of computers, telephones, fax machines, barcode readers, credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) or other electronic appliances (whether or not using the internet) without the exchange of paper-based documents. It includes activities such as procurement, order entry, transaction processing, payment, authentication and non-repudiation, inventory control, order fulfilment, and customer support” (Chan, 2015). However, Reddy and Divekar (2014) defined E-commerce as the purchase and sale of products and services through the Internet or any other computer network. On the other hand, she defined electronic business as the Internet business as well as a business that makes uses of Internet technology in order to improve the profitability and productivity of the company. Now days, there are a lot of companies that are solely operating through the Internet to offer preferred products and services to a wide base of global customers. Companies like eBay, Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Alibaba, AliExpress are solely operating through the Internet with one or two offices situated to handle the delivery of products. These companies though face a lot of risks and benefits; however Amazon is running successfully not only in its home country but also in international country. This paper is written with an attempt to understand the factors that contributes in the success of Amazon.com and Amazon.in in the USA and India respectively (Antin and Shaw, 2012). It focuses on identifying the factors and recommending the marketing teams of the company to accordingly implement the strategies for increased online market presence in all the countries. 1.2 Background of the Study Amazon is a Fortune 500 organization with itsheadquarters in Seattle and is among the earliest electronic commerce companies in the world. Opened in 1995 on the World Wide Web, it presently offers the biggest assortment of products and services to the customers. The company also possesses three subsidiaries, that is, a9.com, Alexa Internet and Internet Movie Database (Khanal et al., 2015). The company as well as other sellers provide millions of distinctive new, used as well as refurbished products and services. Amazon bookstore is among the largest bookstores present in the world. It offers approximately 310 million books that are 15 times more than any other bookstore in the world. In spite of employing 1600 employees in the Amazon bookstore, the company doesn’t need any special requirements or a large building or increased number of employees. The sales of this bookstore reach 37.5 million dollars per capita. This is 3 times more than that of Barnes and Noble, which is considered to the biggest bookstore having 27000 employees (Mathur and Chhibber, 2015). The business activities of the company concentrate on marketing as well as after sales service. The aim of the company is to attract customers as well as establish a good image in the market. The mission of the company is to be termed as a customer-oriented organization. In 2002, the company started generating profit from its bookstore business, which served as good news to the international electronic commerce development. According to a survey that Temkin Group carried out concluded that Amazon has gained a lot of customer loyalty in the United States of America. In order to chart this loyalty, three factors were considered – readiness to purchase more products from the organization, hesitation to switch to another organization and the readiness to recommend the company to the others (Prabhu and Satpathy, 2015). According to the survey, the companies were losing out on the customer loyalty; however there was no impact on the Amazon’s customer loyalty. This is because of the ability of the company to attract repetitive customers and this has offered the company a customer loyalty of 68 per cent (Sundar and Vj, 2015). The customers prefer to choose Amazon for their online purchases because of the company’s ability to offer the right results. The performance of the company in customer loyalty is class-apart when other online companies are receiving low ratings. There has been a great transformation in the manner the business and the society operate due to the international business development, expansion of Internet users for humans and rapid development of Internet technology. Electronic commerce is the new manner in which the businesses operate and it completely depends upon the Internet development (Bhansali and Bhattacharyya, 2015). The rise in number of companies engaging into business to customers’ e-commerce business is mainly because of the demand and usage of Internet on the part of the customers and the ease of the businesses expanding their operations globally without incurring on infrastructure and also gaining a large number of customers. There has also been a rise in the demand for online shopping in the world. In America, online retail sales are projected to grow from $172 billion in the year 2005 to $329 billion in 2010 (Prakash,Sahney and Kavdia, 2015). Online shopping showcases various characteristics from conventional shopping. It allows the customers to choose from a huge assortment of product selection, convenience and accessibility without any restraints of space and time. There are also less intangible and tangible costs than conventional shopping when engaging in an online shopping process like price comparisons, product searches and delivery. These factors result in higher shopping values and convenience. Though there are a lot benefits in online shopping but it also associates itself with a few risks like trust on online shopping, lack of experience and shopping safety (Biswas, Roy and Chowdhury, 2013). However, the companies still strive to achieve increased customer base using this platform. Even though the companies might feel threatened to operate online, however, there are few online companies like Amazon that are strong and determined to rise in the online retail market (Iketani et al, 2016) They have not only expanded their product portfolio but have also spread their operations in different countries. This paper attempts to understand the success factors of Amazon.in in India and Amazon.com in USA and how the adopts different marketing and product strategies to target the customers of that particular companies. 1.3 Research Aims and Objectives 1.3.1 Research Aim The aim of the study is to identify and analyse the distinctive factors for the success of Amazon.in in India and Amazon.com in USA. 1.3.2 Research Objectives The following given objectives are intended to be achieved by the researcher: To investigate the growth of electronic commerce in the world To investigate the growth of Amazon in the world To identify the strategies of Amazon in the USA To identify the strategies of Amazon in India To compare and analyse the success factors of Amazon in USA and India To present the findings and recommend solutions to Amazon for improvement in its strategies and gain larger market share. 1.4 Research Questions The researcher intends to answer the following research questions: What strategies does Amazon in the USA and India adopt? Is Amazon more successful in the USA or in India? Why? What are the factors that make Amazon successful in USA and in India? How can Amazon enhance its performance in USA and India for increased market share and profitability? 1.5 Research Rationale Electronic commerce has taken a turn and has grown into a great platform for conducting business. Though, a few companies consider this medium as a secondary source to carry out business whereas certain organizations only operate through online platforms. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the distinctive success factors of Amazon in the US and India (Hansen, Ibarra and Peyer, 2013). This paper can help us get an insight into how Amazon establishes its presence in various countries and what marketing strategies it uses to increase its market share. It also allows the company to understand where the organization is performing well and map its position on the success chart in different country. Analysing the factors of Amazon’s success in several countries, the management can use this information to use the success strategies in one country and apply it in other with a little modifications that suit those countries. This will allow the company to gain a larger market share all over the world. This research study can also be helpful to the competitors or new players in the online retail shopping. The competitors and new players can understand the strategies used by Amazon and accordingly use competitive strategies to establish their own brand name and products and services in the market. This research study is also beneficial for the academicians because they can gain an understanding in to how a proper qualitative and quantitative research is carried out. 1.5 Outline of the Dissertation The dissertation is separated into five sections – introduction, literature review, research methodology, data analysis and findings and conclusions and recommendations. The first section of introduction specifies a shortintroductionabout the electronic commerce and electronic business across the world. It presents an understanding into the background of the study and enlightens the position of Amazon as the largest online retailer in the world. It also throws light on the research aims and objectives intended to be achieved along with the research questions that researcher wants to answer. This section also elucidates on the justification behind the study and summaries the structure of the dissertation. The second section of literature review analytically recognizes and examines the factors successful for Amazon in USA and India. Using discourse analysis, it also examines the growth of Amazon in US and India and the strategies adopted by them. The third section of research methodology presents an understanding into the approach approved for executing the research study. It offers a comprehensive description of the research design and method selected for the paper and the rationalization to choose that approach. It also focuses onthe data collection approaches and way it will be examined. The paper also focuses onthe sampling technique used and ethical considerations as well as limitations of the methodology. The fourth section of Data analysis and findings describes the analysis carried out using varied methods on the data collected using different instruments. Once the data is studied, the findings of primary data and secondary data are presented in a logical format. The fifth section of conclusions and recommendations gives the conclusion of the entire study. It associates the findings of the study to the intentions fashioned in the introduction chapter. Depending upon the conclusion, the researcher advocates solutions for the company to reform their strategies for effective market presence and performance. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter reviews and studies the growth of electronic commerce as well as Amazon in the world. It also studies the success factors of Amazon in the USA and India and the strategies they apply for enhanced performance and market share. The researcher attempts to collect information from previous studies published in recognised journals, articles, periodicals, books, and annual reports. The researcher chose the sources using specific criteria – date of publication, authentication, credibility of the author and relevance to the research topic. Using these sources, the researcher attempts present the information. 2.1 Theory of Planned Behaviour Theory of Planned Behaviour asserted that certain significant beliefs have an influence on the behavioural perceptions and actual behaviour of the individuals. This theory mentions three kinds of beliefs that have an effect on the perceptual concepts: normative beliefs that influence the subjective norm, behavioural beliefs that influence attitudes and control beliefs that influence behavioural control. These three concepts identify the behavioural intentions of a consumer along with the actual behaviour. This theory helps in identifying the intentions of the consumers’ purchase decisions towards Amazon, which is regarded as a major issue in ecommerce industry. 2.1.1 Attitude Attitude when considering the transactions made at Amazon is referred to as the total assessment of the interest of a likely transaction with a particular web retailer. This concept is described as a comprehensive attitudinal belief that a conduct will result into a specific outcome. 2.1.2 Subjective Norm Normative beliefs are those that arise from social pressures. The function of a subjective norm is the intention of the individuals to conduct a specific action or their viewpoint that others think they might carry out. This indicates that the perceptions of the individuals in the USA and India towards Amazon and ecommerce industry that would drive the sales of the company. 2.1.3 Perceived Behaviour Control This is general concept that deals with the perceptions of the consumers of whether the behavioural action is within control or not. This reflects those beliefs that have access to resources and chances necessitated for supporting behaviour. This indicates that the consumers in India and the USA shall have resources to acquire information regarding Amazon and that shapes the behaviour of the customers that drives them to purchase products and have perceptions regarding ecommerce services. 2.2 Intention to Transact Intention to make a deal can be described as the intention of the consumer to involve in an electronic give-and-take association with a Web retailer like Amazon. Intention to make a deal through online channels is considered as the objective of the consumers to involve in an electronic trade association with Amazon like sharing information, conducting business and maintaining relationships. Therefore, online transactions can be considered as an interactive marketing communication. Intention of the consumers to transact in e-commerce is considered as the behavioural intention to involve in online transaction with online retailers that is entirely based on trust. Thus, the major issue that ecommerce face is of trust. Hence Amazon should ensure to build effective relationships with the customers to build trust and confidence. 2.3 Trust When carrying out online transactions, the major issue is related to trust on online products and retailers. Therefore, the influence of trust factor on online transactions that consumers make is the main factor in predicting the adoption of ecommerce in India and the USA. It is highly important for the retailers to build trust with their consumers because without trust, the customers will not engage in any transactions. In India, people usually do not trust online transactions due to various issues like product quality and financial theft and hence do not adopt such activities on a large scale. However, in the USA online transactions are very common and people don’t really have trust issues with the web retailers like Amazon. 2.4 Culture Differences The most influential culture theory that has an effect on ecommerce marketing is the cultural dimensions theory of Hofstede’s. This cultural framework has also attracted empirical support. This framework was generated via most widespread study of cross-national values. The study identified that there is a separation of cultures depending upon the dimensions of individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. In studying the growth of Amazon in the USA and India, it is important to consider the cultural differences because it has a huge influence on the buying behaviour of the individuals. Taking into consideration the individualism and collectivism factors, Amazon’s growth is driven by the influence of individual factors and collective factors and so does the gender differences. Therefore when operating in the USA and in India, the ecommerce website needs to consider the cultural differences between both the nations and accordingly use marketing and positioning strategies for the growth of the website. 2.5 Growth of Amazon The rise in electronic commerce businesses has resulted in several companies being established on this platform. Amazon is the biggest player in the online market and is also recognised as the largest retailer in the world. Subsequently, it all operates the most successful cloud computing business in the world (Antin and Shaw, 2012). Amazon is not only enjoying growth in America but also all over the world. At present Amazon has grown past Wal-Mart on terms of market value i.e. it enjoys a market value of $264 billion. In the second quarter, the company earned a profit of $92 million on sales of $23.18 billion (Sridhar, 2014). This is the reminder of the predictably uncertain income potentials for the online retailer that for years has functioned on break-even. Amazon is spreading its operations in America as well as around the world and is sustaining its position as the largest online retailer across the world. 2.6 Amazon and United States of America 2.6.1 Growth in the USA In October, Amazon publicised that the third-quarter revenue showed an increase of 23 per cent, including a 15.2 per cent rise in the product sales to $18.5 billion as well as a 51.3 per cent rise in service sales to $6.9 billion. In the meantime, the net income of the company rose from $437 million loss to $79 million gain in the same period (Singh, 2016). Even the Amazon Web Services increased by 78 Per cent during the same period and reached to a rough estimate of @2.1 billion. Even though, it is only 8 per cent of total sales of Amazon, the impressive 25 per cent of operating margin of Amazon web Services indicate that the segment itself generated an operating income of $521 million (Singh, 2016). The North American retail sector of Amazon generated only a little higher operating income of $528 million on total sales of %15 billion. It is yet to achieve the most profitable global segment of revenue of approximately $8.3 billion (Singh, 2016). 2.6.2 Strategies Adopted for the USA market Amazon in the USA is known to be passionate to serve the shareholders of the company as well as the customers. Since its introduction in the market fifteen years ago, the company has seen a steady growth from a growing ‘dot-com’ company to a multinational corporation and a giant in the area of Internet retail. There are two goals of the company – efficient corporate expansion and satisfaction of the customers. The marketing strategies of the company in the USA are well recognised and its marketing manual proves to be an excellent example for budding businesses (Fouad et al, 2015). The company roots its marketing strategies on six pillars. These are to easily give the goods and services; to deploy an interface that is user-friendly; to extend from small company to large corporation; to exploit the products and resources of the affiliates; to use an existing communication system and to utilize widespread mentalities and behaviours (Chaudhari, 2015). Much of Amazon’s marketing in US is indirect or subliminal. It does not advertise $1 million adverts during the Super Bowls or post flyers in marketplaces. Instead Amazon.com depends upon strong partner associations, wily online ploys and a continuous announcement of quality to advertise itself to the public. One of the main strategies of the company in the electronic commerce business is to get closer to its customers in order to be able to provide more competitive attributes after understanding the demands and preferences of the customers (Rothaermel, 2015). Amazon presently enjoys a business that is rising in various geographical regions with many of the company’s newer services and attributes being exclusive for specific geographical regions, even in the American continent. In America, it possesses over 60 fulfilment and distribution centres with nearly 50 million square feet of space (Kumar and Dange, 2014). In the past the company also able to separate itself entirely on the basis of the huge online selection as well as affordable rates, however presently, its differentiation strategy will depend upon satisfying its customers and building close association with them allowing the company to undertake different kind of innovations. 2.6.3 Success Factors of Amazon in the USA The large presence of Amazon in the USA has resulted in huge success. The company also gained success due to other factors like management, innovation, customer service, execution, diversification and the fear factor. The management team of Amazon operates in a different manner than other corporations. The can be described as frenzied or chaotic. The employees of the company are motivated to let out the original screams (Caiazza et al., 2014). The company’s office comprises of a $40000 Ice Age cave bear skeleton, which a result of a failed attempt of the company to compete with eBay’s entry into the electronic commerce market (Joseph, 2015). The CEO of the company is not afraid to take risks and knows what is best for the company. Even though Amazon was not the first online retailer in the world but it was definitely the most innovative. Amazon started its operation with a single product category – books. The CEO had a vision that the company would become a one stop destination and it is presently offering huge collection of products and services to the customers worldwide. The launch of Kindle might not have beaten other retailers in the market but is the most popular among the consumers. Business Insider states that the company offers various innovative and new products as well as services. One such service if Amazon Locker that is a secure service for the Londoners, New Yorkers, and Seattleites (Lovelock, Patterson and Wirtz, 2014). Locker offers services to those customers who do not want their products to be shipped to the workstations and cannot even reach the post office before it closes. Another such innovation is Amazon Flow, which is an application that allows the customers to snap pictures of their products and add them to the shopping cart of Amazon (Billings, 2014). What makes Amazon great is the manner in which the company stays connected to the demands of the customers. The CEO of the company constantly ranks customer satisfaction be its prime importance. He reported that the customers need to be treated in a special way and believes that the organization should not focus on the activities of the competitors but on what is preferred by the customers. He gives a lot of preference to word of mouth and believes that if the customers spread a positive word of mouth it will add a lot of success to the company and vice versa. He says that a negative word of mouth though in offline market would reach only six customers but in an online market it will reach 6000 (Dutta, 2015). The most critical success factor of the company is its customer service strategy. Amazon is constantly ranking on the total satisfaction lists. This is because the most of the products and services they offer can be found anywhere on the web. There are online music stores, bookstores and clothing stores. The web also offers you full service grocery stores. Even though there are so many online stores, still there is a lot of demand and traffic on Amazon. This is because of the services as well as customer satisfaction it offers. In fact, the company enjoys a tie position with PetSmart for retail top honours and fourth in totality out of 293 corporations in 20 varied industries (Dutta, 2015). There is no other retailer in USA that is operating better than Amazon. However the best feature of this online retailer is the service it offers in comparison to its competitors. In spite of the initial growing troubles, the company has set things right while implementing the customer orders. They choose products as well as services that the customers need and demand. They have several distribution centres across the world the enables them to speedily ship the products. Not only this, the company also possesses an excellent vendor association that enables them to provide discounted pricing to the customers. Initially the company started as an online bookstore, however at present it offers a huge collection of products from soup to nuts. Search the website shows that there are more than 3000 items for vegetable soups and so is the case for nuts where the company stores more than 37000 nuts (Bhattacharya and Mishra, 2015). Amazon at present offers products in electronic, books, health and beauty, grocery and clothing, and automotive. The owners of the businesses can contract with the network of pros of Amazon to obtain furniture assembly, IT support and A/V services. 2.7 Amazon and India 2.7.1 Growth in India Though Amazon has flourished in the USA, however there are also other countries where it is making its mark. In India, the online retail sales are soaring due to the transformations in the customer preferences and market as well as retail patterns. Companies like Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc. are operating on this platform. However it is Amazon that is stealing the market away. Not only has it been seeing a rise in its retail sales but also in its web services. The company recently gained significance in India for its profitable cloud computing businesses. Amazon was officially launched in the country in 2013 and at present it is the largest online retailer in the country in terms of sales. The company enjoy the largest retailer position in the country with over 25 million sales of products. This is nearly 5 million more than what the local competitor Flipkart generates (Akash and Mishra, 2015). 2.7.2 Strategies Adopted for Indian market In accordance with the transformations in the macro-environment settings in India, Amazon.in decide to enter the market in the year 2012 with the help of a price aggregator service, Junglee.com, acquired in 1998. This site was basically a comparison tool for shopping that would direct the customers to the page of the retailer, which was actually dealing with the products and services (Jayaraman, Srivastava, et.al, 2013). The potency of Amazon brand in the country as well as the rise in the online retail market resulted in a great success for Junglee.com. Due to this Amazon considered the Indian market to be worth entering. Junglee.com was extensively used across the breadth and length of the nation for comparing shopping. Even though the site did not contribute to any revenue generation to the company, however the Amazon was able to obtain useful information regarding the demographics and products and services in which the Indians were interested. With the help of this information, the company entered the Indian market and launched Amazon India i.e. amazon.in (Klaus, 2013). Even though the company made a restricted entry in the year 2013 by introducing a marketplace for only media sales and books, in the past year the company has grown at a rapid speed and offer more than 15 million products in more than 20 categories (De Sade and Press, 2015). Amazon at present offers a variety of products ranging from the conventional stores like electronics to books and clothing apparel. The company in India only acts like a third part seller for the prevailing sellers in the country. It does not engage in selling products and services directly through its websites. Instead, the organization offers sales, marketing, technology, logistics and customer service abilities to the third party sellers while offering a customer friendly and unified marketplace to the consumers. The organization has deployed several practices that have allowed the Indian online retailers to take the market share swiftly like liberal return policies, cash on delivery payments, in-house logistics and subsidized or free shipping (Kulkarni, 2014).Amazon incorporated all these strategies right from the start of its operations. This was a huge advantage, which the company had over its rivals that evolved to integrate these strategies. Even though it was initially considered as a weakness, the marketplace strategy of Amazon is considered to be very profitable for the organization. Since the organization is more into selling services rather than products, the organization stands to generate large margins on the sales done through its website. This means the company only requires investing a small proportionate of funds to the business rolling in India. The organization only needs to establish a couple of fulfilment centres in the country though which the third party sellers are needed to deliver their inventories, which in turn are delivered to the customers with the help of the Amazon distribution channel (Phatak and Sharma, 2015). Amazon has taken advantage of the strength of the brand to increased effect in the country. There was previous knowledge in the marketplace about the company name even before it entered for profit making business. The company had gained a lot of reputation in the Indian subcontinent by functioning huge software development centres, which have given employment to numerous of Indians. This means that the organization was capable enough to create awareness in the Indian market. However in comparison to the US, the organization has positioned itself extensively using conventional sales channels that are still given a lot of preference in India. Amazon has launched a widespread advertisement campaign for radio, television and print media (Kalia,Kaur and Singh, 2015). Even though the outcome of these advertisement campaigns is yet to be recognised, the organization is enjoying success in the market. The local competitors cannot match the deep pockets of the company. Amazon has exceeded the local competition in relation to the collection of products that are provided through the website. Furthermore, there are various reports that show that the local competitors like Flipkart have used their primary funding sources. Even though these companies can raise funds from external sources however it is very difficult for them to do so if the company is not sustainable (Sahu, 2015). 2.7.3 Success Factors of Amazon in India Amazon is known to have eaten up the share of the local competitors in the online retail market. There are various success factors that have contributed to the increased market position of the company in India. These are long-term commitment; localise, adapt and localise policy and trust the manager of the country. The CEO of the company understood the Indian market and saw it through the microscope to understand the potentiality of the company in the Indian subcontinent. The company believes in long-term strategies and commitment and states that they do not focus on one or two years but projects it strategies for five to ten years. This view of surviving in the long-term is crucial to the business where profits are farther than expected. The patience as well as deep pockets of Amazon may undermine the local competitors like Flipkart. Companies like Amazon understands that in order to succeed in the developing markets, there is a requirement for adapting the business model in accordance to the market; instead of supposing that the market will adapt to the business model of the company (Billings, 2014). For example, in India there is still no role for majority of international ownership in retail. Instead of expecting the government regulations to change, the company operates in India like a marketplace and not a retailer. There are only a few Indians that possess credit cards and many of them are reluctant of using cards online. Therefore Amazon like the local competitors provides the customers a policy of cash on delivery. In order to achieve distribution in a he country, the company is racing to establish warehouses and has associated itself with the Indian Postal Service that is the largest in the world. It is also associating itself with the indigenous grocery stores in order to be their home-grown shipment pickup and delivery points in order to overcome the issue of failed deliveries. In order to influence the purchasers in a price sensitive country, the company provides a comparison-shopping website known as Junglee. On this website the customers can compare the prices from 2000 online stores and 100000 offline stores (Das and Ara, 2015). It is also critical for the company to have the right organization structure and local leadership. Amazon keeps the structure of the company simple and flat. In order to gain success in the growing and chaotic developing markets, there is a need to be able to move forward quickly and have a flexible operating model. This needs two things, firstly a simple structure of the company where the country manager is the CEO having real authority and accountability. Secondly, there need to be a high degree of trust in the manager of the company so that the decisions cannot be debated every time and are approved by the global headquarters. Developing markets like India are not easy places to establish and carry out business activities. Bureaucracy, corruption, poor infrastructure and instability of policies and politics affect them (Roy, Balamurugan and Gujar, 2013). Therefore, they are considered as developing markets; however these markets are also the ones where large number of growth is expected. Though there is a lot of chaos in the market, however Amazon has successfully built itself in the Indian market. Chapter 3: Research Methodology This chapter focuses on the methodology of the research study. It highlights the research design used for the project as well as the approach used to carry out the research study. It also sheds light on the data collection methods and the sampling technique. It also presents the ethical considerations and limitation of methodology. 3.1 Research Design Research design helps you understand the entire research process. The paper can either be descriptive or exploratory. This research paper is exploratory in nature wherein the researcher uses the human inference to analyse the data and the present the results accordingly (Creswell, 2013). The entire research is carried out to conclude a general theory regarding the success factors of Amazon.in and Amazon.com. 3.2 Research Philosophy The research philosophy is either positivism or Interpretivism. A positivism philosophy is based on the measurable data and analyses it using statistical tools whereas the Interpretivism philosophy depends upon the qualitative data analysed using human inferences. In this paper, the research adopts an Interpretivism philosophy wherein the researcher uses observation, interviews and focus group discussions to gather the data relevant to the research and uses human inference and judgement to analyse the data (Frels and Onwuegbuzie, 2013). In this research, such a method is adopted because of the vast nature of content. There are numerous success factors that make Amazon successful in America and India and quantifying that data is challenging and time taking, in fact may not give accurate results. Therefore the researcher adopted aInterpretivism philosophy. 3.3 Research Approach Based on the research philosophy, the research chooses his or her research approach. There is either deductive approach or inductive approach. A deductive approach is usually where the researcher forms a hypothesis in the beginning of the research and conducts the research to test that hypothesis whereas an inductive approach is one where the researcher carries out the entire research process and forms a conclusion at the end from the analysis of the paper (Maxwell, 2012). Wherein both the approaches are used independently, they can also be used together for gaining more accurate results. However, in this paper, the researcher adopts an indicative approach to carry out the paper. Here the researcher uses semi-structured interviews to understand the entire scenario of the research topic and from the analysis of the data and using human judgement forms a conclusion (Panneerselvam, 2014). This form of approach is suitable for the study because of the vast nature of the topic and the inability to quantify the data. 3.4 Data Collection Methods Research is based on the information that is collected. This information can be secondary and primary in nature (Flick, 2015). Primary data is the fresh data collected using different instruments for the research topic whereas a secondary data is the one that is already present and published in journals, periodicals, magazines or available on websites and annual reports. Primary data can be divided in two kinds, qualitative data and quantitative data. Qualitative data is the one that cannot be measured using statistical tools and is gathered using interviews, observations and focus group discussions whereas the quantitative data is the one that is measurable and can be carried out using structured questionnaires. In this research both primary as well as secondary data is gathered. Wherein the secondary data is used to carry out the literature review and is collected from journals, periodicals, magazines, websites and annual reports (O’Leary, 2013); the qualitative primary data is used for conducting the fresh research on thetopic(Matthews and Ross, 2014). Here the researcher uses qualitative data and analyses it using thematic analysis tools. Using this analysis tools, the information gathered through interviews allow the researcher to gather all the information and extract the important responses to form specific generalisations. Data Collection Instruments and Data Analysis In order to carry out the primary research, the researcher chose qualitative data. The qualitative data is collected using semi-structured interviews that are aimed towards the managers of the company in India and America. Five open-ended questions were askedbased on various strategies used by the company in their respective countries and the factors that make them successfuland unique (Mackey and Gass, 2015). It also aims towards asking the manner in which the competitors are being successful in the countries and what measures should they be taking to mitigate the risks and maintain their market position. Using interviews, the researcher will get in-depth information on the matter and would be able to easily build the conclusion. The collected data is analysed using thematic analysis wherein the researcher collects the common responses and compares it using human inferences to form the conclusion. 3.5 Sampling Technique There are various sampling techniques that help the researcher to collect a sample from the population on which the researcher will conduct his or her study on (Pickard, 2012). Using these techniques the researcher is able to carry out an authentic research since the sample would reflect the entire population they are targeting. Sampling technique comprises of snowball sampling, random sampling, judgemental sampling, stratified sampling, etc. (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 2014). In this research paper, the researcher aimed at using stratified sampling. This form of sampling is used because the researcher knows its target population and would choose the targetedrespondent from that population. Here the researcher is targeting the Amazon company and hence would choose 5 managers from Amazon in America and 5 managers from Amazon India both to conduct the research. The researcher contacted the Amazon’s HR head to take permission to conduct an interview on the managers of the company for carrying out the research that is for academic purpose. The researcher chose to select employees from Amazon Company working for at least 2 years with the company. Both the respondents were reached using phone-calls and video conferencing, wherein they were asked the interviews questions that was helpful for the study. The phone call with the interviewees lasted for 15 minutes per person whereas video conferencing lasted for 20 to 25 minutes per interviewee. 3.6 Ethical Considerations Every researcher needs to take into account certain ethical considerations before carrying out the paper (McMillan and Schumacher, 2014). Here are the ethical considerations that the researcher should follow: 1. The researcher did not coerce the interviewees to participate in the study. They were asked whether they are interested in an interview and then the whole process was started. 2. The researcher maintained the anonymity of the interviewees by not displaying the names of the person but only their posts. 3. The interviewees’ recordings were immediately deleted once the research paper was completed ensuring that it doesn’t get leaked for unethical purposes. 4. The researcher made sure that the interview questions do not constitute of any question that is immoral or against the aim of the paper. 5. The researcher used participant consent forms that had the detailed information of the interview so that the participant can accept it or reject it based on his willingness to participate. 3.7 Limitation of the Research Methodology Though the researchers consider that the research methodology they adopt is sound and effective for the study, however while carrying out the study, there are certain limitations that they face. The following are the limitations of the research study: Since the research is exploratory in nature, the major limitation is that the responses cannot be quantified. Since the researcher collected the information through semi-structured interviews, there are chances that information collected may not be right. Since there is no word limit to open-ended questions, the researcher faced issues with long answers that deviated from the question. There are chances the results may be biased due to Interpretivism philosophy wherein the researcher uses human inference to analyse the responses. The researcher may come across the problem of not reaching the managers on the time, which may delay the research study. There was a lot of wastage of time because the phone call could not get through due to the unavailability of certain managers in India. Two marketing officers refused to participate in the study stating they have a meeting and won’t be available. Majority of the interviewees stated the similar responses hence restrict the extent of the research. 3.8 Summary From the research methodology chapter, it is summarised that the researcher chose an exploratory research design and inductive approach to carry out the research. He chose to use semi-structured interviews aimed at the managers of Amazon in US and India to collect the information on the strategies adopted by the company in both the countries and its success factors. Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings In this chapter, the researcher intends to analyse the data collected using the above mentioned instruments. The data is analysed using thematic analysis wherein the researcher will collect the common responses from the data asked from the Amazon managers and use human inference to form a conclusion. Based on the analysis, the researcher will present the findings in the second part of the chapter. 4.1 Data Analysis (Responses from Questionnaires) Interviews were conducted with the managers of the Amazon using telephone and video conferencing in order to understand the strategies and success factors of the company in the US and India. The following responses were generated: 1. What strategies do you adopt for the growth of your company in your country? This question allows the researcher to understand how the company is treating the market it is operating in and whether or not they understand the needs and demands of the market. When asked the managers regarding the strategies they adopt for the growth of Amazon in India and USA, the first response generated from all the 10 managers of both the nations was customer satisfaction. The main objective and strategy of the company is to satisfy its customers in every way since they believe that the customers form the company. The managers replied that their main priority is to fulfil the demands and needs of the customers in order to offer them a convenient and satisfying shopping experience. Managers of Amazon, US: Marketing officer 1, Amazon US stated: “We prioritise our approaches to gain enhanced customer satisfaction.” Sales Executive, Amazon US stated: “We ensure that customers’ requirements are fulfilled.” Sales Manager, Amazon US stated: “Customer satisfaction is Amazon’s main objective to sustain the competition in the ecommerce market.” Marketing Officer 2 stated: “We make sure to understand the demands of the customers and accordingly formulate our strategies.” Marketing Manager stated: “Our strategies revolve around customer satisfaction.” Marketing Officer 3 stated: “Our activities comprise of evaluating the needs of the customers and offering them that.” Managers of Amazon, India Marketing Manager stated: “We aim to satisfy our customers” Sales Executive 1 stated: “Our activities involve fulfilment of customer demands” Sales executive 2 stated: “Customer should be satisfied” Sales Executive 3 stated: “We hope to deliver satisfaction to our customers” Sales Manager stated: “We push ourselves to satisfy the demands of the customers” Apart from customer satisfaction 3 out 5 managers from Amazon US stated that user-friendly customer interface and expansion strategy are also important for achieving the purpose of customer satisfaction. Marketing Manager 1, Amazon US stated: “User friendly interface is important for the customers to easily navigate through the website. We also intend to expand in different areas apart from being a bookstore.” Marketing Office 1, Amazon US stated: “It is important to allow the customers easily use filter search and shopping cart. We also offer new varieties to the customers.” Sales Manager, Amazon US Stated: “Filter search to easily go through the products offered is an important strategic action for the website.” However, the 2 out of 5 managers from Indian Amazon unit stated that they do not act as a retailer in the market but as a third party seller so that not only the customers get the finest and most reasonable products, but even the sellers are benefited from their platform. Sales Executive 1 stated: “We operate as a third party seller to the customers.” Sales Manager stated: “Our priority to operate as a third party retailer and not a direct platform to the customers.” Sales Executive 2 stated: “We believe in serving sellers too and so operate as third party sellers and not retailers.” 3 out 5 Indian managers also said that Junglee.com is the platform it provides for the customers to understand and compare the prices for their enhanced customer satisfaction. Sales Executive 3 stated: “Junglee.com is a platform to compare the prices of various products in Indian market.” Marketing Manager stated: “We provide our customers a service to compare the products with retailers in the market through Juglee.com.” 2. What are the factors that make you successful in your country? This question literally answers the topic of the research study. When asked the respondents regarding the success factors of the company, the collective response of the managers of Amazon in India as well as US was customer satisfaction. The company in both the countries are able to satisfy the customers with their products and services, in spite of the rising dot.com competition. Managers from Amazon, US: Sales Manager, Amazon US stated: “Our success factors are the satisfaction level of our customers identified through repeat purchases.” Marketing Manager stated: “Customer Satisfaction is our prime most success factor.” Marketing Officer 3 stated: “Customer Satisfaction.” Managers of Amazon, India Marketing Manager stated: “We believe the more satisfied our customers are, the most successful we will be.” Sales Executive 1 stated: “Satisfaction of customers.” Sales executive 2 stated: “Customer should be satisfied. ” 3 out of five managers from Amazon, US stated that customers are increasing purchasing products from their website and it is not only restricted to the books but has also spread to the other parts of the product portfolio like electronic, apparel, groceries, etc. On the other hand, 4 out of 5 managers from Amazon, India stated that books and electronics are the two products that are mostly bought by the customers in India using the Amazon platform and Kindle has been the most popular product that has been bought from the website. This indicates the variety of products that contribute the success of the company in respective nations. Managers from Amazon US: Marketing Manager, Amazon US stated: “We see a lot of demand for electronics, books, apparel and groceries, and hence offer a huge assortment of products to fulfil the demands of our customers.” Marketing Officer 1 stated: “A lot of customers repeatedly purchase books, apparel and electronics from the web store.” Marketing Officer 2 stated: “Groceries are clearly a perfect choice among the customers followed by electronics, apparel and books.” Managers from Amazon, India Marketing Manager stated: “Kindle is the product that is heavily sold in India. Electronic books and videos are also high in demand.” Sales executive 1 stated: “Electronics are highly purchased among Indian customers followed by books and Kindle” Sales executive 2 stated: “We got queries regarding the price and quality of electronics products resulting into an increased sales” Sales Manager stated: “Kindle is very popular among customers and a large number of books are ordered through the website” Apart from this success factor, managers from Amazon, US stated that innovation, execution, diversification and fear factor are also a few factors that are contributing to the growth of Amazon in America. 2 out five managers stated that innovation and diversification are highly important whereas three of them stated that fear factor; execution, diversification and innovation are the success factors of the company. The American citizens are complimenting the manner in which the company is innovating its product and marketing strategies and the manner in which they have diversified. The mangers say that the customer’s responses included that they now do not have to go anywhere else and just stop at Amazon to fulfil their purchase choices. The quality and prices offered by the company are the most appreciative factors among the consumers, as said by the managers of US. Managers from Amazon, US: Marketing Manager stated: “Our success relies on the innovation, diversification, fear factor and execution. We believe that expanding our product portfolio will help us attract more customers.” Sales Manager stated: “Diversification and innovation attracts a huge pool customers.” Marketing officer 1 stated: “We believe that customers look for innovation and diversification in our product portfolio.” Marketing Officer 3 stated: “Amazon’s success depends upon innovation, ability to take risk, huge assortment of products and execution” Marketing Officer 2 stated: “Innovation, fear factor, variety and execution” On the other hand, in India, “localise, adapt and localise” policy is the success factor. The managers say that the company has adopted this policy to understand the Indian market and the viewpoints of the customers. This strategy has allowed the company to attract million of customers on a daily basis adding to the sales and profitability of the company. 2 out of 5 managers stated that the responses they generated from the customers included that they liked the way the company is adapting to the Indian market and giving attention to the needs and preferences of the customers. Sales executive 1 stated: “Customers have appreciated the adaption of Amazon according to Indian market.” Sales Manager said: “Our customers are attracted towards the websites because of the adaption to the Indian market.” 2 out of 5 managers said that the customers were happy with Junglee.com as they can now compare the prices and make an informed decision, since majority of the customers in India are price sensitive and the company is fulfilling that demand. Marketing Manager stated: “Junglee.com is highly preferred among the customers for comparing the prices of products. We have seen our customers visit the web page to compare the products and look for the best buy.” Sales executive 2 stated: “Junglee.com has been a popular choice for consumers to compare prices of different products.” Apart from this, three out of five managerssaid that the company’s long-term commitment towards the establishment of the brand in the market also allows the company to stay in the market. Even though the market is flourishing but Amazon at the initial stage experienced losses. However the company did not withdrew its operations but carried on and is today among the most competitive dot.com businesses in India. Sales executive 3 stated: “Long-term commitment towards the company is a success factor”. Marketing Manager stated: “We believe in the company and ensure long-term commitment to enhance its performance in the market”. 3 out of five managers also said that the trust on the CEO of the company is major success factor of the company in India. The employees of the company trust their CEO and therefore the less interference from the employees have allowed the company to become more efficient in serving the customers. Sales Executive 2 stated: “We trust our CEO to facilitate more growth in the Indian market” Marketing Manager stated: “We know out CEO would consider the welfare of the company and its position in the market.” Sales Manager stated: “CEO of Amazon, India is trustworthy and efficient in ensuring long-term stability of the company in the Indian market”. 3. What other ways is the company using to enhance their performance in their respective countries? This question answers the manner in which the company is trying to extend their operations and make their business more successful. When asked about the various ways the company will be making its business performance effective, all the respondents answered that the intensive marketing strategies to attract a large base of customers is their first target. 3 out of 5 managers in America stated that their company is focusing using innovative marketing strategies to attract increased number of customers. Using different ways to attract the audience is the prime objective of the company. Marketing Manager stated: “We believe in undertaking innovative marketing strategies like emotional campaigns, etc. to attract our targeted audience.” Marketing officer 3 stated: “We involve our customers in our marketing campaigns to ensure their increased engagement with the company” Marketing officer 2 stated: “We ensure that our marketing strategies are new and unique to gain the attention of our customers” Not only this, all the five managers believe that diversifying in other product portfolios and marketing those products in the market will also have an enhanced effect on the performance of the company. The company is using ad campaigns and television adverts to promote its other products in the country apart from the books and groceries. Sales Manager stated: “Diversification is the key to enhanced performance” Marketing Manager stated “Offering our customers a one-stop-destination for shopping from the comforts of home will improve our performance, hence we look for expanding our product portfolio and promote using marketing campaigns.” However, in India, 3 out of 5 managers of Amazon, India stated that the company is focused on promoting its price-sensitive feature since most of the customers compare the prices of the products and services and accordingly make their decisions. The managers of the Indian Amazon said that the company is focusing on positioning its brand as the most reasonable online brand available in the country. In order to do so, the company is using Junglee.com to promote the price sensitive feature as the customers can easily compare the prices of the products and make an informed decision. Marketing Manager stated: “We believe price is the major factor that we need to highlight in Indian market and hence we focus on positioning the brand as affordable” Sales executive 1 stated: “Indian customers are price sensitive and therefore we assure them reasonable prices” Sales executive 3 stated: “We improve our business in Indian market by offering reasonable prices to the customers” Apart from this, the collective response of the 5 managers of Amazon in India and 5 managers in the USA was that they would train and develop their employees and customer interface in order to enhance the performance of the company. In America, the managers said that a friendly customer interface would allow the customers to easily navigate through the websites and accordingly enhance the shopping experience of the customers. This will contribute to the performance of the company. Marketing Manager, Amazon US stated: “Friendly user interface is essential to attract the customers and allow them easy navigation” Sales Manager, Amazon US stated: “Navigation is highly important for the customers and hence we offer smooth and friendly interface” They also mention that training the employees to be courteous with the customers and instantly respond to their queries is their prime motto for enhancing the business performance. In India, the managers stated that employees are the ones that can break or make the company. Though they are not directly in touch with the customers, however they should be trained to respond to the queries and problems of the customers instantly to give them utmost satisfaction. Marketing Manager, Amazon India stated: “It is important to have trained employees that would help the customers find the relevant products and resolve their doubts and queries”. Customer service being the prime aim of the company in America as well as India, the company needs to train and develop their employees in a way that they offer utmost customer satisfaction. The supply chain, distributors and the delivery people should all be trained and efficient to satisfy the customers and hence enhance the performance of the business. 4. Who are you competitors in the market and how do you plan to sustain your position in the market? This question allows the researcher to understand how competitive the market is and what are the managers of Amazon doing to beat this competition. When asked them regarding their competitors, the 3 out of 5 managers from America said that thought they do not see the other companies as competition but the manner in which the companies are exploiting the dot.com businesses; they are witnessing a lot of competition. The managers said that their main competition is with eBay.com, Netflix, Google, Time Warner Cable, Staples, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears and Big Lots. Marketing Manager 1 stated: “We don’t really see any company as our direct competitor but eBay.com and Netflix have emerged to capture a significant market share.” Sales Manager stated that: “Target, Wal-Mart, eBay.com and Google are the main competitors of the company” Marketing officer 3 stated: “We don’t find tough competition in the market but Big Lots, Sears and Time Warner Cable are emerging as threats”. In every product portfolio, there are number brick and mortar companies that are operating online posing a competition for the company. 2 out 5 managers said that they also face competition with Alibaba, Overstock,com, Family Dollar, and many such companies that are considering the online business to be very effective. Marketing officer 2 stated: “Alibaba is emerging to be a threat to the company because of their low priced products” Marketing officer 1 stated: “Mom and pop stores also compete with the company like Family Dollar and other retail stores”. On the other hand, the Indian Amazon Company though at the top of the leadership board is facing competition from eBay.in, Flipkart, SnapDeal, Jabong.com, Myntra.com and Alibaba. 3 out 5 managers said that the manner in which these companies are offering the customers reasonable products and using intensive marketing strategies, the customers would be attracted towards these companies. Sales executive 1 stated: “We face huge threats from Flipkart in India because of their intensive marketing strategies in the Indian market” Sales executive 3 stated: “eBay.in is a competition in the Indian market because of lesser loyalty among the customers” Sales Manager stated: “SnapDeal and Flipkart are Indian ecommerce companies giving competition to us because of their reach in rural markets”. 5. How will you differentiate yourself from your competitors? This question answers the manner in which the company will be able to keep its position in the market. When asked the respondents regarding the manner in which they will differentiate themselves from the competitors, though the managers’ collective response was enhanced customer service but the way they will be differentiating will be different for India and America. The American citizens are more concerned about quality and therefore the company will be focusing on differentiating itself on the basis of quality. 4 out 5 managers of in America said that they would differentiate itself on the basis of quality of products. The company will procure products and services from the best of the suppliers and make sure that these products are affordable and different from the ones offered by the competitors. Marketing Officer 1 stated: “Quality is very essential when dealing in online shopping and therefore our differentiating policy is superior quality products” Marketing Manager stated: “We believe in offering superior quality to our customers since quality is what the customers are paying for” Marketing Officer 3 stated: “Quality is our differentiation policy” Sales Manager stated: “We differentiate ourselves from the competitors on the basis of quality” In addition to this, 2 out of 5 managers of Amazon in America stated that they will be focusing on diversification strategy and will promote other products of the company too. They said that diversification would allow the customers to stop at one stop for all their purchase needs. Since the trend of one-stop shopping in US has increased therefore the company is focusing on differentiating on that trend. Marketing Manager stated: “Diversification is also important for the company because of the rising trend of one-stop shopping” Marketing Officer 2 stated: “Our range of products differentiate us from others as we focus on different areas of consumer demands” In India, 3 out of 5 managers state that the focus of the company is to provide the customers enhanced shopping experience by offering them the least possible prices. Marketing Manager stated: “Indian customers are price sensitive and therefore with low prices, we also offer them additional discounts and festive offers” Sales executive 1 stated: “Customers in India look for products of high quality and low price or discounts and thus we differentiate on the basis of price” Sales executive 3 stated: “Price is the factor we differentiate ourselves from apart from quality”. 2 out of 5 managers state that the customers in India are reluctant to purchase products online because of the security issues and therefore the company aims to position itself in the market and among the competitors as a company that will keep their information safe and provide them a payment platform that is safer to use. The company is responsible to make the customers feel safe while shopping. The company uses a password authenticated payment platform that allows the customers to enter their password when paying the money, hence keeping their financial information safe. Sales Manager stated: “Indian customers are wary of online transactions and hence we differentiate ourselves by offering them secure payment portals” Sales executive 2 stated: “We differentiate ourselves by offering different payment modes and quick delivery to the customers” The managers of Amazon in India as well as America mentioned that the company faces threat from Alibaba and hence they all are operating on reasonable prices platform, they need to focus on re-position themselves on enhance customer shopping experience and satisfaction. 4.2 Findings of the Study From the above analysis, the researcher is able to obtain in-depth information on the strategies of Amazon in India and in USA. It also gives an insight into the factors that makes the company successful in both the countries. From the analysis, it was observed that Amazon focuses on customer satisfaction in both countries. Wherein Australia they are focused upon delivering customer satisfaction in form of diversification and innovation, in India they offer enhanced customer satisfaction on the basis of price and quality. The company also focuses on delivering a user friendly customer interface as well as a protected payment procedure in order to allow the customers to enhance their shopping experience by easily navigating through the pages of the website as well as making payments through a secured portal. Serving the customers is the prime motto of the company, both in the US and India. Wherein Amazon in America is dependent upon using customer satisfaction and expansion strategy, the company’s subsidiary in India focuses upon adapt-localise-adapt. This means that the company in America ensures that the customers when purchasing from the store leave satisfied and are able to acquire all the products and services at one destination. However, in India, the company ensures that they first understand the market and the customers and accordingly offer them the services. In America the company focuses on delivering a huge assortment of goods and services to the customers whereas in India, the company is focusing upon allowing the customers to compare the prices through Junglee.com and accordingly make an informed decision as to which is the best platform to buy the products. Moreover, from the analysis it can be observed that company in both the countries face threat from Chinese company Alibaba and need to mitigate this risk and reposition itself in the market to sustain the competition. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations This chapter concludes the entire research study and present the discussions obtained from the study. Based on this discussion the recommendations are formed for the company. 5.1 Conclusion Dot.com businesses are rising all over the world. Every organization is trying to operate through online platforms in order to gain success and increased customer base. Wherein a few brick and mortar companies are establishing their websites and online retail stores, there are a few companies that entirely operate through the e-commerce channels. One such company that has gained a lot of success in the ecommerce channel is Amazon. Amazon initially started as a book store and seeing its increasing success in this sector, it diversified into other sectors of electronics, apparel, grocery and home utilities. Amazon is present all over the world and is successfully running its operations. Though in a few countries like India, it initially faced a lot of losses; however its commitment to survive in the market led it to become the market leader in India too. This research was carried out to understand the strategies of the company in India and USA and analyse their success factors. The following are the conclusions presented from the study: Objectives 3 and 4: Strategies of Amazon in India and USA From the analysis of primary and secondary data, it is concluded that the main strategy of the company is customer satisfaction. Amazon in both the countries focus on customer satisfaction. Though all the companies focus on customer satisfaction but approach used by Amazon in America is innovation and diversification whereas in India it is to adapt according to the local market. It is concluded that Amazon in America in focusing on diversifying its product portfolio and focus on delivering a one stop destination to the customers so that they do not have to go anywhere else for shopping their needs and demands. On the other hand, the strategy of Amazon in India is to adapt according to the local market and offer products and services accordingly. The company in India is based upon price-sensitive strategy where it uses Junglee.com to allow the customers to compare the prices and accordingly make and informed decision. Both literature review and qualitative analysis corroborates that the company uses customer satisfaction as its prime strategy with the help of diversification and market policies. Objective 5: Success Factors of Amazon in India and America The objective number five was to identify the success factors of Amazon in India and in America. From the literature review and qualitative analysis, it is concluded that the factors responsible for the success of Amazon in America are innovation, diversification, execution, customer service, and fear factor. The managers of the company in America says that they use a user-friendly interface to allow the customers to easily navigate through the website and search and add the products they want to purchase. Moreover the company’s diversification into other product areas have allowed the customers to make Amazon their one stop shopping destination and but not only books but also electronics, apparel, home utilities and food products from the website. On the other hand, in India, the factor that contributes to the success of the company is their strategy to adapt to the local market. The company focuses on the local market and analyses the customers ‘behaviour and accordingly present the products and services in the market. The company understood that the customers in India are price sensitive and are willing to purchase products that are within their budget ranges. This is the reason that that the company has chosen to offers Junglee.com as a comparison tool to the customers to help them compare the price of the products not only with other online companies but also with a few known retail stores. Amazon in India focuses on offering prices that is lower than any competitors provide. Apart from these, the qualitative analysis shows that the Amazon in India and in America are facing competition from various online companies as well as the brick and mortar companies. In America their main competitors are Target, Wal-Mart, Netflix, Alibaba, etc. whereas in India, their main competitors are Flipkart, SnapDeal and Alibaba. Though in America Amazon is gaining profits to sustain the competition however in India, it was till date recovering its losses but has now started to gain profits. However, the managers of the company believe that the main threat that the company will be facing is from the Chinese companies like Alibaba. Alibaba and its strategy to offer quality products at low prices allows the customers to get attracted to wards the company and lowering the market share of Amazon in India as well as in America. Therefore, the companies will have to take up strategies that will allow the to sustain the market position. 5.2 Recommendations As observed in the conclusion, the company though not facing tough competition but the arrival of online Chinese companies will pose a threat to the company. In this case the company needs to reformulate their strategies and ensure that they are able to sustain their market position. In order to do so, the following recommendations were made. The company can diversify its market and product base. They can focus on selling increased number of products. However they need to make sure that the product mix is right for the market they are serving. An increased product mix will allow all kinds of customers to visit the website and ensure a larger customer base. Moreover, the company will be able to target all the customer segments, be it high income, middle income, young generation or old. The aim of the company can be diversification in market as well a product. Not only this, the company can also focus on integrating digital marketing strategies with its existing ones. The digital marketing strategies will allow the company to promote its operations in a vast geographical area and help attract a larger base of customers. Since everyone is using online media for various activities, the company can use digital media for positioning itself according to the market they serve. Though it is going to be an added cost for the company, however experiencing the rising competition from Chinese companies and other retail stores, the company needs to adopt the digital media platform for better marketing and positioning of the brand of the company. The company can start online campaigns wherein purchasing the products from the company’s website will help them gain added points and rewards that can be used on the next purchases. 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