Fairy tales are the stories that everyone grew up reading, listening to and oftentimes believing them. But in reality fairy tales are something that is often kept under the children’s book and are often considered as a story to ignite the creativity in children.
Having said that, fairy tales are a reality and believing in one such dream, a person quitting his fancy American job in 1994 decided to start his virtual bookstore. Believing in the power of the internet, and having a humble start from a rented garage in Seattle, Washington, Jeff Bezos wrote the modern-day fairytale of business.
However, the term fairy tale might sound a loosely used term for the contribution Jeff Bezoz have made with the expansion of Amazon.com, but it was a collective effort of Jeff Bezoz and team. Driven by a vision and a team of 5 members, Jeff started his journey by raising $1 million from friends and family.
But like every fairytale, the road to success wasn’t easy! For almost a year, the team learned how to source books and create a computer system that would allow people to navigate. Selling its first product in the year 1995, Amazon.com earlier called itself ‘Earth’s Biggest Bookstore’.
Soon in the short span of 2 years in 1996, the team went from 5 to 100 in employee strength and had made over $15 million in sales. With the launch of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos knew that the idea was too valuable to stick to its initial plan. With the entry of Barnes & Nobles a competition in the market was created.
However, the thought of increasing competition did not startle Jeff Bezos. Leveraging the potential of Amazon.com’s online presence and the flexibility it brought to the virtual shop, Jeff had already expanded the product line varying from Books, Music and many more.
Starting the fairytale, the magic flick of the fairy was yet to be witnessed. Relentless expansion of the product line and diversity being brought by the internet, Jeff Bezoz succeeded Amazon.com through iteration. Explaining it, Jeff Bezos says, ‘The path to success is anything but straight,’ further explaining the iteration process, he adds, ‘invent, launch, relaunch, start over, rinse, repeat, again and again,’ justifying his mantra of success.
Today, the company or the virtual bookstore Jeff Bezos has created has become one of the giants of the industry with over a $1 trillion market cap. It is one of the most valuable companies in terms of market cap. Moreover, in the year 2019 one survey suggested that Amazon.com controls over 37% of the total online retail sales.
So, to sum up, the fairytale story of Amazon.com is written by Jeff Bezos with his dedication and a futuristic vision that today anything that you want to buy is already available on Amazon.com. From what started as an online bookstore in 1994, Jeff Bezoz turned Amazon.com into one of the most customer-centric company, where the customers can find anything they want to buy online.
And that’s the fairytale story of Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com
