Will Amazon Continue to Be Successful Against Click and Mortar Competitors Such as Barnes & Nobles

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. The company also produces consumer electronics--notably the Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Fire Tablet computer --and is a major provider of cloud computing services. The company was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. The company began as an online bookstore. While the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could sell far more.

Q1. How would you contrast Amazon's business design with that of Barnes & Nobles?

Amazon is an electronic retailer which sells books online. Customer visits the portal, places the order and Amazon ships the books to the customer's house.

Barnes & Nobles is brick and mortar model. The company has physical book stores, where customer would walk into the store, place the order, pay the cash and return with book.

From customer's perspective, advantages of Amazon design with

1. Online catalogs are easy to browse

2. Convenience - No travelling costs.

3. Ability to ship gifts directly without going to either store or post-office.

4. Shopping without any time constraints. Online stores are always open.

5. Book reviews are available and forums help customers interact with other customers.

6. Online collections are usually more as books are sourced from multiple publishers and also as the company doesn't store items physical anywhere.

Disadvantages of Amazon design with Barnes & Nobles, before it went online:

1. Online retailers, if the bill amount is below specified minimum amount bar, shipping costs are added to the customer

2. Shipping time: Takes a day or two to get the item delivered. Delivery time is longer.

3. Inspecting and testing products is not possible.

4. Financial information is transmitted.