Amazon.com (Amazon) was one of the first online shopping sites launched in 1995. Since its inception, it has been consistently ranked as one of the best retail sites on the Internet and is regarded as the universal model for successful Internet retailing. In March 1998, Amazon was ranked among the top 20 Internet sites in almost all the major market surveys.
According to an analyst, "When you think of web shopping, you think of Amazon first."3 The Forrester PowerRankings4 in 2000, ranked Amazon as the best online shopping site. Amazon owed a large part of its popularity to its excellent customer service, which was due to its exemplary inventory management.