"The reinventors of normal."
That's the slogan presented in Amazon.com's new television spot, which first starting appearing this fall. To quote their marketing agency: "Amazon hasn’t simply changed how we shop or read, but more importantly, they have revolutionized how we live."
That might be considered a somewhat lofty claim -- at least until we take a closer look. Ordering merchandise online has, indeed, become part of the normal shopping experience: during this year's Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), Americans spent $1.5 billion on online purchases in twenty-four hours. It's hard to say how many of those purchases were made at Amazon, but for some perspective: on Cyber Monday 2011, Amazon sold 17 million individual items.
They're impressive stats for a store that's only 17 years old (although it's true that 17 years in tech-time is a decidedly long stretch). Amazon.com started life on July 16, 1995, in a two-car garage in Bellevue, Washington. In the beginning, it was something of a seat-of-the-pants operation, with founder and CEO Jeff Bezos overseeing a handful of people packing and shipping boxes off of a table made out of an old door. (Nowadays, many of the desks in the Amazon offices are still made out of doors, in tribute to the company's modest beginnings.)
It's a far cry from the company's fulfillment warehouses of today, one of which -- located in Phoenix, Arizona -- opened its doors to reporters to give them a glimpse into what goes on to make the Amazon shopping experience possible.
A Phoenix, Arizona "fulfillment center"
Filled with miles of conveyor belt, this particular fulfillment center consists of a 1.2 million square foot warehouse. The items held inside -- from books and packs of coffee to board games and computer equipment -- are organized not by type or brand, but, instead, are placed in any spot that happens to be free. If an empty slot fits, it's used, no matter what else may be in that particular aisle.
The secret to what Amazon calls "chaotic storage" is in its barcoding system, which is how the warehouses' lack of order is still kept organized. Every single shelf space in the warehouse has a unique barcode; when an item is placed onto the shelf, it's tagged with the particular barcode that matches its new storage spot. Barcodes, in fact, are the backbone of Amazon's warehouses, where codes are used to find, ship, and track each and every purchase.
After an online order is placed by an Amazon customer, the order appears on an employee's handheld scanner. The employee follows the corresponding barcode number to the right shelf, then pulls the item from the shelf (yes, by hand) and places it into a barcode-marked yellow bin. The bin is then placed on a conveyor belt, and soon arrives in the hands of another employee for its contents to be boxed up and shipped.
It's a massive operation that requires massive manpower, particularly during the holidays; Amazon hired 50,000 seasonal employees this year alone. It also requires complex computer programs to keep track of inventory, whether for items coming directly out of Amazon's warehouses or, instead, from sellers who are offering their merchandise through Amazon's website. (Business owners can sell their products through Amazon; their merchandise shows up on Amazon's website, and can even be purchased directly through Amazon, in return for Amazon receiving a share of the sales profits.)
Other computer programs have been developed to manage search terms and track buyers' habits. The company is striving not only to offer low prices, but also to customize users' shopping experience according to what each shopper wants. Complex algorithms have been developed by Amazon computer techs to track what you buy and develop personal recommendations based on what you purchase or even search for.
Amazon can be a great place to shop easily, for nearly anything, at great bargains. But remember: Amazon still can't guarantee the lowest prices. This holiday season, don't forget to shop around.
For Further Reading:
-- "Amazon's Warehouses Truly Boggle The Mind" - from the Huffington Post. Includes photos of Amazon warehouses.
-- "How Dead Is the Book Business?" - from the New York Times. Publishing giants Random House and Penguin have merged together to stay in the book-business game against Amazon's new printing imprint. But this isn't the first time industry has changed at the turn of the century. Includes theories on what the future of commerce may look like.
-- "Booksellers Resisting Amazon’s Disruption" - more from the Times about how publishers (and traditional booksellers) are keeping relevant against Amazon's competition.
-- Post by Ms. B
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