亚马逊的核心战略：节俭

    如果确实存在企业基因这种东西，那么过去10年间全球最成功的科技公司之所以能够崛起，一定是拜企业基因所赐。谷歌（Google）执著地关注数据；而苹果（Apple）则对简约的风格有着一种参禅一般的着迷；Facebook的特点是汇聚遍布全球的社会关系；亚马逊（Amazon）的特点更为简单实际，那就是：节俭。

    这家总部位于西雅图的在线书店成功转型为电子商务巨人靠的是节俭的理念，它体现在运营、品牌定位、以及Kindle Fire平板电脑等新产品等各个方面。“降低成本是亚马逊成功的基石，”晨星公司（Morningstar）股票研究总监RJ•贺托维表示。亚马逊无需承担维护实体店所需的巨额成本，所以它能以低价向客户提供同样的商品。

    总部位于芝加哥的投资银行William Blair & Company公司的数据显示，与在线和实体竞争对手相比，亚马逊销售的产品价格最多可低上13%。目前，该公司拥有1.6亿名活跃用户，销售额占美国在线零售总额的20%。分析师们预计其销售还会进一步增长，年客户增长率将达到20%。在线零售业务目前总体而言占美国商品销售总额的10%，预计这一份额还会继续呈现增长之势，尽管有些分析师估计其年增长速度或许只有1%左右。市场研究机构弗林斯特研究公司（Forrester Research）预计，今年，美国在线零售总额将超过2,260亿美元。

    上述数据形成了亚马逊在消费者心中的品牌形象。亚马逊正在对竞争对手构成越来越强劲的挑战。比如，零售商电路城（Circuit City）和博德思（Borders）的倒闭多少与亚马逊的崛起有些关系。

    去年，该公司的市场策略更加咄咄逼人。去年12月的某个周六，亚马逊向买家提供了极为诱人的优惠价格。用户如果使用该网站提供的免费“价格查询”手机应用，将实体店物品价格与亚马逊价格进行比较，在购买该产品时即可获得5%的价格优惠。（每件商品的最大折扣为5美元。）据报道，仅仅在亚马逊公布该优惠政策的那一个周末，“价格查询”应用的使用量翻了3倍，但同时也引发了媒体连篇累牍的声讨。《纽约时报》（New York Times）就刊发社论，指责这种促销战术无异于“焦土资本主义”（scorched-earth capitalism）。亚马逊反驳说：“推出‘价格查询’应用的目的在于让用户能像在互联网上一样方便地获取产品信息、定价信息、以及客户评论等信息。”

    If such a thing as corporate DNA exists, it has animated the rise of the last decade's most successful technology companies. Google had a relentless focus on data, Apple a Zen-like obsession with simplicity, and Facebook a world of social connections to mine. Amazon has relied on an altogether more prosaic trait: thriftiness.

    The Seattle-based online book store transformed itself into an e-commerce giant by developing a gospel of saving that informs everything from its operations to its brand identity and new products like the Kindle Fire tablet. "Cost-cutting is the corner-stone of Amazon (AMZN)," says RJ Hottovy, director of equity research at Morningstar (MORN). Because the firm doesn't suffer the costs of maintaining real-world stores, it has been able to charge consumers less.

    According to the Chicago-based investment banking firm William Blair & Company, the prices of goods sold by Amazon are up to 13% lower than its online and brick and mortar competitors. With more than 160 million active users, the company currently accounts for 20% of all U.S. online retail sales. Analysts expect it to grow further, picking up new customers at a clip of 20% year-over-year. Meanwhile, overall online retail, which accounts for 10% of all U.S. sales is expected to also grow, albeit more slowly at approximately 1% a year by some estimates. Online retail is expected to be worth some $226 billion this year, according to Forrester Research (FORR).

    That has shaped the firm's brand in the minds of consumers. To competitors, Amazon has increasingly become a challenger, and in some cases like the defunct Circuit City and Borders, played a hand however small in their doom.

    In the last year, the company has become even more aggressive. One Saturday last December, it made shoppers a compelling offer. Those who used its free Price Check mobile app to compare the price of an item at a physical store with Amazon.com's price received 5% off the same product. (The maximum discount was $5 for each item.) This reportedly tripled usage of the Price Check app that particular weekend but also generated heavy criticism, with one New York Times op-ed describing the tactic as "scorched-earth capitalism." The company countered that, "the goal of the Price Check app is to make it as easy as possible for customers to access product information, pricing information and customer reviews, just as they would on the Web."