Amazon's Competition

Amazon.com has numerous competitors in the segments of the retail industry they are involved in. The biggest online competitor to their business operations as a whole is eBay. eBay is probably their biggest online competitor because they are a huge company that sells virtually everything that Amazon sells. They also share a common strategy by allowing individuals to create their own product listings and sell their goods for a small fee or percentage of sales to the company. Amazon's core business practice of selling books also faces competition from numerous companies both online and offline. Some of the competitors online consist of companies such as Alibiris, Textbooks.com, and Textbooksrus. Although there are numerous competitors online, perhaps the biggest competitor in the book selling industry is a brick and mortar store. Barnes and Noble is the chief competitor for Amazon in terms of book sales, having a huge presence throughout the nation. Wal-Mart is another company that is considered a big competitor for Amazon due to their considerable presence throughout the country and on the internet. Although all of these companies are direct competitors to Amazon in one way or another, I believe that Amazon holds competitive advantages over these companies in numerous areas. I believe that they are a more reputable company that eBay or any of the online bookstores, and offer a wider range of products than Barnes and Noble or Wal-Mart.