Amazon SWOT Analysis 2020

The SWOT analysis of Amazon shows that this global eCommerce player aims to fuel its growth through acquisitions and by transforming the retail experience.

Amazon was launched in 1994 by president and CEO Jeff Bezos in Seattle, Washington. It is now a global eCommerce giant with a turnover in excess of $280 billion.

Through a keen strategic vision of the future and seizing opportunities to innovate with emerging technologies, this global power brand is set to dominate where and how we buy products and services.

Despite this, there are several competitors investing heavily to compete against Amazon in its different market. The Amazon business model might be secure but many of its new initiatives might be under threat.

Amazon Quick Facts

Company name:	Amazon
Founders:	Jeff Bezos
Annual revenue:	2019: $280.522 Billion
Profit \| Net Income:	2019: $11.58 Billion
Year founded:	1994
Company CEO:	Jeff Bezos
Headquarters:	Seattle, USA
Link:	Amazon
Number of employees:	(FY 2019): 798,000
Type of business:	Public
Ticker symbol:	AMZN

Company Competitors:

Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, Dell, Amazon, Spotify, Netflix

Company Competitors:

Alibaba, Apple Music & Apple TV, Costco, ebay, Google Play, JD (Jingdong), Netflix, Otto, Flipkart, Wallmart

Analysis of Amazon

In this Amazon SWOT analysis, I’ll take a look into the external challenges Apple faces – the Opportunities and Threats, as well as its internal capabilities to realize the opportunities and deal with the threats – Strengths and Weaknesses.

As the New York Times reports,

“[Amazon] isn’t just secretive, the way Apple is, but in a deeper sense, Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce and cloud-storage giant is opaque. Amazon rarely explains either its near-term tactical aims or its long-term strategic vision. It values surprise.”
New York Times

What is the SWOT Analysis For Amazon?

The SWOT analysis of Amazon shows that this global eCommerce giant is set to rapidly expand into retail but its weakness is Asia could pose a major threat.

The SWOT Analysis of Amazon

amazon financial analysis

Amazon has continued to demonstrate growth but the retail segment (physical stores) is struggling to grow and make a profit. However, its AWS cloud services show strong and profitable growth.

amazon how does amazon make money — How Amazon makes money

amazon business anlaysis — The growth of Amazon’s profits

Apple’s Strengths

What are Amazon’s major strengths?

Amazon’s key strengths are based on its scale, brand and expertise in technology. These enable Amazon to offer quick deliveries, online services such as Prime Video and superior customer experience to competitors.

Apple’s Weaknesses

What are some of Amazon’s weaknesses?

Amazon has yet to conquer the hardware market in any meaningful way. Additionally, Amazon is struggling in Asia due to strong local competition.

Apple’s Opportunities

What are some opportunities for Amazon?

Amazon is expanding into the $3 trillion healthcare market. Strategic acquisitions could see growth in retail stores as well as help fuel growth in Asia.

Developing Markets
Developing countries have dynamic markets that are rapidly evolving as incumbent organizations and startups are battling for growth. Through strategic acquisitions and partnership Amazon could establish a much stronger presence in these developing countries.
Further Expansion of Physical Stores
Amazon has a large pot of money to acquire further physical stores. This is a far quicker way to expand than waiting for the right locations to be available for development. Acquisitions could accelerate its presence not only in the US but across different geographical regions.
Hardware Partnerships
Expanding the Alexa and AI capabilities across different categories of hardware. AI, speech recognition, virtual reality and augmented reality represent new growth opportunities for Amazon through partnerships. With its strength in technology and AWS platform, it can provide the backbone and integrations necessary to innovate.
Amazon branded products
Most large supermarkets offer a ‘white label’ or an own-brand version of products. These offer the retailer a significantly more margin that branded products. Amazon is perfectly positioned to produce its own branded label of products.
Healthcare
Amazon acquired PillPack for nearly $1B. It has announced a joint healthcare venture called Haven with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway. Amazon has huge advantages already with its large distribution network not to mention over 300M active customers, 100M Prime Members, and approximately 5M sellers on the site.

Apple’s Threats

What are the threats to Amazon?

Amazon faces stiff competition from Apple, Google, Alibaba as well as lots of new startups. With relatively low margins and a growing number of e-commerce platforms, Amazon’s online business faces threats e.g. Walmart.

Competition
Amazon faces competition from big and small players in each of its markets. As an example, Walmart is heavily pursuing new drone technologies to deliver goods and has actually filed more patents than Amazon. A further example, Prime video now has more competition with Apple TV+ and Disney+.
Asia/China
China has several homegrown eCommerce sites that could expand in key markets like the US and Europe. Alibaba and JD.com hold potential to improve their brand awareness and expand operations through strategic acquisitions and partnerships.
Cybercrime
Amazon an online retailer is considered a juicy target for any hackers. Its stores the important data of customer like credit cards and other sensitive purchased data. Data breach is a key threat to Amazon. Any mishap (data breach & DDos attack) is inevitable and can affect the amazon stock, credibility and profitability.
Merchants and Platforms
It has become easy now to create an online shop with platforms like Shopify. More and more eCommerce shops might not seem as though they impact Amazon but progressively they could nibble away at its market share. Amazon makes less money with merchants selling than branded products. However, merchants have now grown to account for 58% of its sales.
Government Regulations/Interventions
Many governments are looking into the dominant positions of many platform businesses and asking the question if they are operating fairly. As a result, Amazon could face court cases or changes to laws that affect its future.

Summary of Amazon SWOT Analysis

Amazon’s ecosystem has also given it more cash to deploy, which is why it can afford to pursue low-profit initiatives. As Amazon enters new markets and exapnds, it follows a strategic playbook:

amazon flywheel how amazon cash rich — Amazon’s flywheel

Attract and retain customers to the platform by providing a better customer experience.
Invest in operations e.g. warehouses, distribution and data centres.
Optimize operations using intelligent systems that reduce duplication, waste and improve efficiencies.
Monetize operations by allowing others to use the platform(s).