B&N Going to Battle

Barnes and Noble recently went to bat against Amazon.com and their e-book shift buy purchasing Fictionwise, a leading retailer of electronic books. The move puts B&N in a stronger position as it begins a strategy for competing against Amazon.com

B&N will also be launching a new e-bookstore in 2009 with efforts to capture some of the rising demand for the e-book market. According to B&N they are developing their e-book retail strategy with no commitment date in sight. This could begin a "new-age" of e-bookstores and technology devoted to improving the e-book market, both of which Amazon and B&N are heavily investing.

Amazon.com's Stock Price $64.77

Amazon.com Enters New Market

After discussing the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix I researched Amazon.com's efforts in increasing areas within their "question mark" region. One such area they have put financial backing towards is their entrance into the used game market.

Now Amazon accepts console game trades in exchange for credit which can be used on their site. This effort to differentiate themselves is forcing competition closer between Amazon.com and GameStop, who offers the same convenience.

Until now, GameStop and Amazon were in strategic groups that were distant in nature. Now GameStop will be going head to head with a company that appears to be a "best cost" company according to Michael Porter's theory of Low Cost and Differentiated business strategies. They are combining low cost products, high customer service, and a differentiated product and market base which is putting Amazon.com in a strong market position.

Amazon.com's SIC Code

Amazon.com does business in a vast number of areas and is a very diverse company. I looked up their standard industrial classification or (SIC) code, which placed them in the (Retail-Catalog and Mail-Order Houses) group under SIC number 5961. Since Amazon.com's main area of business is online sales and orders, this would place them in this category as opposed to another.

Amazon.com Stock Price $64.79