I have chosen www.amazon.com as my choice website. (Amazon) Amazon’s products and services are structured to reach a broad based audience comprised of wholesale and retail sellers and consumers. Their appeal is cross cultural and covers the demographic spectrum. As such they carry everything from baby toys to books, from consumer electronics to senior convenience items, and even some nonperishable food products.  To increase their volume share they also have a secondary market within the website consisting of businesses and private sellers; they offer a very reasonable fee based system, allowing outside sellers to piggyback on Amazon’s name and online traffic.

Let me give you an example of how wide they cast their sales net. I’m a student, homemaker, animal owner and parent with eclectic music tastes. Without real effort I located goods ranging from pots and pans to notebooks and from children’s clothes too hard to find CD’s quickly and efficiently. Listings are even broken down to new, used and collectible items, all listed conveniently (and with product reviews), all just a click away. The sheer breadth of their inventory allows a user to shop for difficult to locate items from the convenience of home.

Amazon’s site is not only easy to use, but is easy on the eyes. When entering the site you are directed to advertised specials, and one day deals; this is a way to both maximize traffic and pique your interest in extra products. It’s akin to what supermarkets and convenience stores do: bright advertised specials, with impulse items available at the counter as you check out.

An additional tool Amazon uses to ease transitions and locate products is the simplicity of their color scheme. Because they are muted, they don’t distract from the site’s core function; combined with ease of navigation they make the Amazon experience pleasant for young and old.

The competitor for Amazon would be www.ebay.com (ebay). Ebay is another website, but primarily an auction website. You make a big and if you win it you get the item. Some rare and hard to find items can definitely be found here. Primarily this website is used by individual sellers. An example would be: If I wanted Nickelback’s cd titled Hesher which cannot be found anywhere else I would go to ebay and find it there. Looking it up, it is worth 700.00 as a buy it now price. (archiebunker2006)

It is very hard to find certain items on Amazon, such as the cd listed above which is super rare with only 2000 copies made and can’t be found in the stores. Chances are…finding it in amazon’s website would be a 0.0001% chance it would be there.  Ebay does have a splash of color in the name, but is just as easy to navigate as amazon. The two websites are similar, but yet different at the same time.

      Brainstorm Ideas

• A web banner that explains the weekly sale (interchangeable based on the weekly sale or holiday promotion)
• Book services offered
• Amazon Prime promo ad included
• The new amazon rip offer they started with recently (Cd rip I think is the name of it)
• Credit card offer
• Picture a couple going thru boxes, looking exasperated. Have a banner run above saying: Tired of searching? Lost faith in the yellow pages? Amazon has you covered from clothes to CD’s, from book to swimwear!–Let your computer do the work!!
• Shipping boxes everywhere with Amazon on the labels
• People at the department store, obviously irritated in a long line, with mention of “shopping at home online at Amazon can help prevent this”
• People happily browsing online at the computer with Amazon up on the computer
• flash pictures of a couple exiting a clothing store, a sporting goods store, a camera store, an electronics store, and a book store. Then flash a picture of them soaking their feet. Next frame show the Amazon site with the tagline: Shopping wearing you out? tired of dim bulb sales clerks? One Stop shop at Amazon–!!