Amazon.com is now an online retailer of books, toys, music, DVDs, clothing, house-wares and a variety of other products. Its services are aimed primarily at the internet consumer, the person who goes online and uses Amazon.com's website to find a product. It all began in 1994 when Jeff Bezo, Amazon.com's CEO and founder, believed books had the potential to be sold on the internet. "It was clear that computers and the internet could be uniquely applied to organize, present and sell the entire stock in a way that a physical store or mail-order catalogue couldn't possibly imagine." After one year of building a support infrastructure, Amazon.com was launched in 1995. In May 1997, Amazon.com went public at a price of $18 a share raising $54 million in its public stock offering. I believe the single biggest reason why Amazon.com has been successful while other ecommerce companies have failed can be attributed directly to its continued focus on the customer's needs and satisfaction. Any business, large or small, willing to be more conscientious and treat customers like human beings can achieve profitability.
             For success on the internet, the business and customer experience is more important than the web site on which it is built. Amazon.com continually moves towards creating the electronic equivalent of a personnel-shopping assistant to distinguish itself from all possible competition. They do not wish to be viewed as just another online store. Amazon.com's leading role has also meant the company is constantly exploring uncharted territory. It also means constantly tweaking plans while trying to figure out how people want to shop online. They were able to increase the customer experience through improved operations. "We're different from other online retailers in that we have a technology base that allows customers to find, discover and glean out of hundreds of millions of products, those that ...