Advantages of Amazon.com Being the First Mover in E-Commerce

Few lessons can be drawn from the Amazon.com case. The three critical factors to stay ahead of late movers are speed, continuous innovations and patenting. The case of Barnes & Noble, a company with deeper pockets than Amazon.com, showed that if two companies or more recognize the opportunity to create a new advantage at the same time, the company that can create the advantage faster would win. The latter could only be achieved if the company has the best human resources and the capability to use them effectively. As Amazon.com has been creating a series of temporary advantages, its ability to move quickly from one advantage to the next before competitors imitate it better is crucial. Continuous innovation to disrupt the status quo is the second critical factor. Amazon has been disrupting the status quo by developing new innovative ways to serve the customer on line. This has created temporary advantages for Amazon.com.…