Threat of substitute products and services
The threat of substitutes for Amazon is high. With the exception of its patented technology (such as 1-Click Ordering), there are quite a lot of alternatives to Amazon’s products and services. In addition to physical presence, most companies have an online store as well.
Amazon.com’s products can be purchased all over the internet; they are just spread out among different web sites. A possible substitute for Amazon in UK could be Argos.
Books can be purchased at Barnes and Noble Books, Books-A-million, and Half Price Books. Books are additionally sold at newsstands, drugstores, and discount stores. Books can also be borrowed for free at a community or university library. The music selection Amazon.com offers can be purchased at music and entertainment retailers like Trans World Entertainment or Virgin Megastores as well as consumer electronics retailers like Best Buy. Music can also be purchased at discount retailers. People could also listen to and/or record local radio stations music. DVDs and videos can be bought at large consumer electronic/media retailers like For Your Entertainment or Best Buy. DVDs and videos are sold at discount retailers and there also is the option that videos and DVDs could be borrowed from the community library. The kitchen products Amazon.com offers could be obtained by going to specialty furniture stores like IKEA. There are a lot of substitutes for purchasing apparel from Amazon.com, as there are many high street retailer locations. Department stores like BHS and Debenhams offer clothing with different price ranges across the country. Toy stores such as Toys’R’Us offer a extensive line of products. Substitutes for Amazon’s web services (or use of its selling platform) are somewhat minimal. Businesses have the option of creating their own web site platform using their own computer programming employees or they have the option of hiring outside web programming/ web design firms.
Overall, there appear to be many substitutes to Amazon.com’s product offerings. Although Amazon’s products can be substituted fairly easy, the physical stores and web sites themselves may not offer the same quality of customer service and convenience to its customers as Amazon.com has done.