Amazon.com 2001 Annual Report Download - page 13

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www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.de each launched electronics stores, www.amazon.fr launched software and
electronic games stores, and www.amazon.co.jp launched music, video, DVD, software and electronic games
stores. In addition, www.amazon.co.jp introduced a new payment method to allow customers to pay with cash
upon delivery of their order.
Amazon.com Web Sites
Our Web sites promote brand loyalty and repeat purchases by providing feature-rich content, a secure and
trusted transaction environment, and easy-to-use functionality. The key features of our Web sites include broad
selection, low prices, availability, convenience, information (including useful product information and reviews
and personalized recommendations and notifications), discovery, 1-Click technology, secure payment systems,
availability, fulfillment, browsing and searching. Other key features include Web pages tailored to individual
customers’ preferences, and, with our new “Look Inside the Book” feature, the ability to view selected interior
pages of thousands of books. Our Wish List feature allows users to create an online wish list of desired products
and services that others can reference for gift-giving purposes, and our Listmania feature allows users to publish
lists with accompanying commentary regarding their favorite products on our Web site.
Marketing and Promotion
Our marketing strategy is designed to strengthen and broaden the Amazon brand name, increase customer
traffic to our Web sites, build customer loyalty, encourage repeat purchases and develop incremental product and
service revenue opportunities. We deliver personalized pages and services and employ a variety of media,
business development activities and promotional methods to achieve these goals. We also benefit from public
relations activities as well as online and traditional advertising, including radio, television and print media, and
direct marketing.
We direct customers to our Web site through our Associates Program, which enables associated Web sites to
make products available to their audiences with fulfillment performed by us. Currently, over 700,000 Web sites
have enrolled in the Associates Program.
Customer Service
We believe that our ability to establish and maintain long-term relationships with our customers and to
encourage repeat visits and purchases depends, in part, on the strength of our customer service operations, and
we continually seek to improve the Amazon customer service experience. Users can contact customer service
representatives 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have automated certain tools used by our customer
service staff and have plans for further enhancements. We currently have customer service personnel working in
six customer service centers located in Tacoma, Washington; Slough, England; Regensburg, Germany; Grand
Forks, North Dakota; Huntington, West Virginia; and Sapporo, Japan. In addition, we have customer-service
outsourcing arrangements with vendors in India, Northern Ireland, and the U.S., respectively.
Warehousing, Inventory, Fulfillment and Distribution
We currently lease and operate U.S. fulfillment facilities in New Castle, Delaware; Coffeyville, Kansas;
Campbellsville and Lexington, Kentucky; Fernley, Nevada; and Grand Forks, North Dakota; as well as a
seasonal fulfillment center, used as necessary, in Seattle, Washington. We also lease and operate three European
fulfillment centers that are located in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In Japan, Nippon Express, a
leading courier company, provides fulfillment services for orders from www.amazon.co.jp. On an aggregate
basis, these fulfillment centers comprise approximately 4.0 million square feet of warehouse space. In addition,
we lease four off-site facilities that fluctuate from 340,000 to 710,000 square feet of space, which support the
storage and fulfillment functions of the U.S. fulfillment centers. Our fulfillment centers facilitate our ability to
deliver our merchandise, as well as third-party seller merchandise, to customers on a reliable and timely basis.
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