Top 55 Shocking Facts About Amazon Company

As those lucky enough to live in the digital age, we can accomplish many of our needs online. Former shopping and delivery transactions involved a human component in every facet of the operation. These days, a large chunk of the process is performed through mediums via online platforms. Now let’s learn some lesser-known, in-depth facts about Amazon company.

The most notable tech giant that offers many everyday life-affecting services is Amazon. The company has a rich history and is rife with fascinating facts. Join us as we explore many of the well-known and not-so-well-known facts about the world’s largest online marketplace. First, let’s start with a set of fascinating bullet points about Amazon company.

• Amazon.com was initially a multinational conglomerate technology firm
• Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, a former Wall Street hedge fund executive, founded the company in 1994
• Jeff Bezos was Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year in 1999
• Amazon became a pivotal example of a successfully run e-commerce business as a web service provider
• The first book sold on Amazon was Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies by Douglas Hofstadter on April 3, 1995
• On September 19th, 2019, The Amazon app had been downloaded by 150.6 million unique users
• Amazon’s Prime service has nearly 103 subscribers
• 00 1 206-922-0880 is Amazon’s customer service number
• As of April 2019, Amazon listed 119,928,851 products
• Amazon’s stock price was worth $2,376 on April 27th, 2020
• Seattle, Washington is the home of Amazon’s headquarters
• The company promises that it will deliver books to any reader, regardless of where they are
• The first year that Amazon was profitable was 2004
• When placing an order, users can redeem Amazon promo codes
• The biggest global shopping event every year at Amazon is Prime Day
• Amazon hosts a massive product library, with 44.2 million products sold, with books being by far the biggest category
• Amazon claims to account for 49% of the US’s total online sales
• Amazon.com’s data centers cater to 1% of all internet traffic in North America in 2012
• An Amazon warehouse reported quadruple the number of injuries compared to the industry average in just one year, with a stunning 422 injuries

Facts about Amazon company

1. The Real Reasons Bezos Named His Company “Amazon’

There are two primary reasons that Jeff Bezos named his company Amazon. The first was that by starting with the letter “A”, the brand would appear earlier in alphabetical listings on the website. The other, by associating the company’s namesake with the mighty South American river, the name was meant to suggest the might of “Earth’s largest bookstore.”

2. Amazon.com Had Other Options That Were Considered Earlier

MakeItSo.com and Relentless.com were both contenders for the company name before Bezos settled on Amazon. Bezos grew up as a big Star Trek fan, so MakeItSo.com was a tribute to the series and the belief that his company could deliver any product to any customer. In fact, if either of those addresses is typed into the browser bar today, they redirect the visitors to Amazon.com.

3. The 1997 Lawsuit By Barnes & Noble

Amazon claimed to be “Earth’s biggest bookstore,” a boastful statement that the U.S. book giant Barnes & Noble took issue with, suing Amazon for it. The parties were able to work the matter out ultimately outside of a courtroom, but Amazon never relented on the claim.

4. Bezos’s Research Showed Books As The Most Logical Online Product To Sell

Amazon may the biggest bookseller in the world, but it certainly wasn’t the first. That honor belongs to the Silicon Valley bookstore Computer Legacy. They were the first to kick off the online book sales fad for technically sophisticated customers way back in 1991.

5. Bezos Has Contended That Amazon Isn’t Just A Consumer Product Retailer

One of the most misunderstood aspects of Amazon may have its reputation as a book-selling company, but in reality, is it a technology firm whose business is centered around simplifying consumers’ online transactions.

6. Amazon Went Public In May 1997

Just a hair shy of its second anniversary, Amazon opened its business up to consumers. It managed to raise $54 million on the NASDAQ market, even though it had yet to make a profit. The rapidly ascending stock and cash aided Amazon to grow aggressively and helped its ambitious acquisition strategies.

7. Amazon Is The Owner Of The “1-Click” Trademark

Amazon held a patent on the “1-click” trademark since September 1999, though it expired in the United States on September 11, 2017.

8. Amazon Is The Owner Of 40 Brands And Subsidiaries

Amazon has acquired a host of companies that now operate under its corporate umbrella. These included the book review site GoodReads, the audio-book maker Audible, and most recently, in June of 2017 acquired Whole Foods which Amazon purchased for $13.7 billion.

9. Amazon Vendor Central And Amazon Seller Central Are 2 Distinct Platforms

Being available in the Amazon Vendor program is generally by invitation only. Those who are successfully generating sales can be invited to join the Amazon Seller program. Seller Central has quicker disbursement periods and offers more price control than its Vendor Central counterpart.

10. Most Third Party Vendors Choose Amazon Seller Central

With the Amazon Seller Central program, sellers can opt to ship their product on their own, or have their orders fulfilled by Amazon via the FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) program in which Amazon is responsible for processing and shipping the Amazon orders placed by customers.

11. Amazon’s Mission Statement Is To Be Known For Their Customer Service

Amazon’s mission statement (or vision statement) is to be as much of a customer-centric company as possible. In fact, Jeff Bezos has stated that this type of mentality is the core of his leadership decision-making.

12. All Amazon Employees Undergo Call-Day Center Training

The goal of Amazon putting any executive or entry-level employees through a call-day center training program is to allow them to talk to, but more importantly, listen to customers. The idea is that those who listen to customers’ concerns, understand why and how they should take appropriate actions to satisfy the needs of their consumers.

13. Amazon Has A Free Customer Support Service Called ‘Mayday’

A lot of answers to common problems that customers encounter with Amazon already have resolutions that can be found on various community forums or in the FAQ sections. However, when the answers are not present, it helps to speak to an actual person. Amazon offers a Mayday Program through which a customer can connect to a video with a tech. The customer can see the advisor, but the advisor has a view only of the customer’s screen or phone interface during the interaction.

14. Amazon Connect Customer Service Chat Feature

While the help offered by the Amazon Connect Customer Service chat program is comparable in quality to any other tech features, the key advantage for the company is that chat interactions are far less costly to conduct and get resolutions in much the same way to satisfy customers seeking assistance.

15. Amazon Connect Utilizes Just A Single UI To Link Across Chat And Voice

Contact routing, analytics, queuing, and various other system management aspects are connected by a single UI through the ‘Amazon Connect’ feature. By having all of the features included in such an omnicenter experience, customer support and call service agents do not need to be trained in a variety of different platforms.

Amazon Connect enables interactions and chatbots to be automated across the board, which means that there can be an increase in operational efficiency due to the lack of need to rebuild interaction flows. More pertinently, it means that vendor-end customers can interact with service agents by either chat or voice, each of which may be optimal for particular customers based on his or her needs, time constraints, or technological adaptability.

16. AWS (Amazon Web Services) Was Launched In 2002 And Expanded With EC2 In 2006

When it first started in 2002, AWS offered information about the popularity of websites, internet traffic, and a variety of other analytical statistics that marketers or developers need. In 2006, Amazon expanded its AWS program with EC2 (Elastic Computer Cloud) which rented out processing power in both small and large portions. Later in 2006, they also released S3 (Simple Storage Service), a solution for those looking for additional hard drive space to store data.

The EC2 and S3 solutions drove the idea that individual users were not confined to relying on purely their own individual computing resources. Rather, these services could be rented over the internet on an as-needed basis. Eventually, such digital storage would come to be known as the ‘cloud.’ Ironically, even brands that compete with Amazon such as the case with Netflix for small-screen entertainment, utilize both EC2 and S3 services from AWS for competitive video streaming service options.

17. The Only Stock Amazon Is Yet To Surpass Is Microsoft, Its Rival

Amazon shares skyrocketed by a whopping 30% in 2020, finishing at a high point of $2,410.22 on April 24th, leading to the company’s net worth of a stunning $1.2 trillion, nearly the worth of Apple. These rankings and numbers, however, are only applicable to US companies battling for the top spot of most valuable publicly traded companies.

18. Amazon Is Raising Expectations Of What It Takes To Be A Winner And Leader In The Retail Realm

Every year the number of Americans who order things online increases. That is because nearly everything they need can be found on the internet. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, some feared it would threaten Amazon’s sales numbers, but it didn’t phase them. If anything, the company saw a massive boost in demand for online purchases as citizens were confined to their homes.

19. Amazon Smile Helps Charities

Anyone who purchases smile.amazon.com is actually helping charities. 0.5% of every eligible purchase gets donated to the buyer’s previously selected charity of choice. The options provided by Amazon Smile, the benefits of membership, and the prices do not differ from Amazon proper at all. All that a user needs to reach the smile.amazon.com site is just an existing Amazon account. They are prompted to select a charity of their choice to contribute to, and Amazon Smile retains that information for future purposes.

20. Amazon Helps Students With Amazon Prime Student

Students can enroll in Amazon Prime for a 50% discount, only costing them $49 yearly as long as they are still attending school. Beyond that, Amazon also offers students great perks including great deals on textbooks.

21. Amazon Affiliate Is One Of The Most Successful Affiliate Programs Around

Amazon Affiliate Program is a free affiliate program offered to any website or blog owner. This program, also known as Amazon Associates allows users to advertise Amazon products on their websites through links that customers can click to make purchases. The special link carries the affiliate’s digital footprint, so if a buyer purchases through that particular link, the affiliate earns a referral commission.

The program started as far back as 1999, with the number of participants rising to 350,000, offering Amazon links through their websites. They need to pass some qualifying benchmarks, but they do not need to pay fees to be able to earn money through the program.

The program is now so prolific, that an estimated 0.8% of all websites use it. When evaluating the total market share of affiliate-monetizing and advertising websites, Amazon Affiliate accounts for 2.6%. That means of the 1.5 billion existing websites, around 200 million are operating through this popular affiliate program.

In terms of referrals, Amazon Affiliate pays out a stunning $2.6 billion every month. That is nearly 8% of the traffic that Amazon.com pulls in monthly. More stunningly, all of these astronomical numbers are solely for Amazon’s U.S. domain. It does not account for the many variants used globally.

22. Amazon Owns A Robotics Company

In 2012, Amazon purchased Kiva Systems, a young robotics company, for $775 million. The company produced robots that could be programmed to transport product shelves between workers and scan barcodes for directions. At present time, more than 200,000 such mobile robots are working at Amazon’s warehouses. This number pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of other workers working in Amazon’s warehouses around the country. But while robots are working alongside them, they are not substitutes. That growing robot army is, however, in large part responsible for delivering on Amazon’s promise of satisfactory order fulfillment and speedy delivery granted to Prime customers.

23. Amazon Sites Have Two Primary Sections

One section of Amazon employees works for the FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), such as on-site employees that work in warehouses. There is also a sector of remote jobs where people work by performing tasks. Many of those jobs are worked from home. Such jobs are available across multiple US states, with positions ranging from email and phone-based customer service. In fact, Amazon’s call centers are largely virtual so those who are looking to work for Amazon can find positions with which they can work from home while assisting the company’s customer service mission.

24. Amazon’s 2014 “Pay To Quit” Program

Not everyone who is in a particular job is motivated to perform their best. Amazon sought to curtail members of the workforce who were not motivated to work for them but offered them anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 based on how long the employee had been with the company before that point. If the employee took this money, they would be eligible to quit, but it was contingent on the understanding that they could never again work for Amazon in the future.

25. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, or mTurk for short, is a site that offers workers to earn small portions of revenue by performing microtasks. The tasks are generally simple and take only a few minutes, but in the grand scheme of things, these save other busy Amazon employees a ton of time. Amazon pays users for performing these small tasks, outsourcing the simple though time-consuming efforts.

26. Amazon Flex Is The Opposite Of Amazon Work-From-Home Program

To get orders to customers’ homes and places of business, Amazon needs drivers. Amazon does have some formal drivers on staff, but many of the jobs responsible for delivering Amazon products, packages, grocery, and at times even restaurant orders, are performed by part-time employees working with the Amazon Flex program, which started in 2015. They share Amazon-provided vehicles, taking their turns doing the driving.

These workers help by performing “last-mile” deliveries, which essentially means that they bring the products from regional centers to the customers. More than 50 cities around the US are utilizing Amazon Flex, but the service is continuing to grow and expand every year.

The employees for Amazon Flex are independent contractors, which means that they are responsible for individual tax withholdings. They are also responsible for toll fees, gas and parking expenses, as well as vehicle wear & tear maintenance. The one thing that Amazon demands is that the packages by Amazon Flex employees be delivered within a 1 to 2-hour window, regardless if the products are coming from Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, or Amazon Restaurants.

27. The Massive Success Of Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime has been a resounding success for the company. This was especially true in 2017 when Jeff Bezos disclosed that Amazon shipped more than 5 billion items to nearly 100 Prime members around the world. 10 million of those were Echo devices. In 2019, Amazon debuted “Prime Day” which was actually a two-day super-sale on many of the marketplace’s items. Held on July 15th and 16th, Prime Day became a massive shipping day, only coming in second to Cyber Monday. Since then the two have run neck-in-neck.

The ironically named event, last longer every year as Amazon expands the sales potential for its platform. They also focused on Black Friday which is the day immediately after Thanksgiving when many companies have massive sales. Black Friday and Cyber Monday were the 2 biggest shopping days in the US every year, at least until Amazon Prime Day of 2019 came along.

But Black Friday remains a massive sales day. In 2018, 26% of UK shoppers made their purchases from Amazon, according to Hitwise UK, also dominating in Japan that same year according to Rakuten, racking up 24.2% of the country’s online sales. The next closest was Best Buy, accounting for just 7%.

Jeff Bezos belies that the Black Friday event should last for an entire week, garnering even more sales. Soon enough, it is believed that Black Friday will become Black Fortnight, kicking off on Thanksgiving, going through Black Friday, and into Cyber Monday.

28. Amazon Book Rentals

Amazon Book Rentals is the ranking textbook rental service in the world. Textbooks can be very costly but are generally needed just for a time period while a student is taking a course. Therefore it is a cost-effective, intelligent approach recommended by experienced users. It balances an efficient service, notable products, and low costs.

Customers can purchase the rented item if they wish. If they opt to do so, the charge will not exceed the book’s original price. Renting is still the way to go, but often the rental periods lapse and may do so before the book is no longer needed for the course. That means that additional fees for extensions might be incurred. In some cases, purchasing it at this point might be worth it.

29. More About Amazon Prime

Most are familiar with the many offerings of the Prime service by Amazon. It provides members with expedited shipping and free return perks, but there is far more that comes along with this service than just that. Originally introduced in 2005, the program was available only in the US but has grown internationally.

The most popular category for Amazon prime shippers has been electronics, followed closely by kitchen and home goods, as well as apparel. Prime members are perpetually more engaged with the platform than those who are not members, however.

Another amazing perk from Amazon Prime is Amazon Prime Video, the company’s answer to the mighty streamer Netflix. Not only does Amazon support many popular shows from television’s past, but they also host a ton of movies and many originals. Better yet, they can be streamed on many different devices. Members can take advantage of these perks on the web via Echo Spot and Amazon Echo Shows.

The Prime service, which now costs $119 per year (or $14.99) per month includes free 2-day shipping, as well as next-day shipping for selected items. Besides video streaming, it includes particular music selections, free Prime books, magazines, and audiobooks available through Kindle and Audible, respectively.

30. Amazon Instant Video

Amazon’s Instant Video is the platform’s personal online video store. Customers can rent movies not available elsewhere, or purchase them if they wish here. This also applies to various television content. This feature is supported by a host of electronics like Smart TVs, streaming media plates, Blu-Ray players, gaming consoles, and portable devices like phones and tablets. The Instant Video feature is not available to just anyone though. Users have to be members of Amazon Prime to gain access.

31. Amazon Prime Music

While only open to Prime members, Amazon also features Amazon Prime music where members can listen to a selection of 2 million songs (by comparison to other services this is a rather small number). However, if customers want to purchase additional music not included with Prime, they can certainly do so.

32. Government Assisted Persons Can Have Discounted Amazon Memberships

Amazon believes that opportunities exist for anyone who wants to acquire a Prime membership. They even make the service available to those with state-issued debit cards. They can have the subscription for as low as $5.99 per month.

33. Amazon Music Unlimited

Those with Amazon Echo devices can utilize Amazon Music Unlimited, which is a platform that competes with Spotify or Apple Music, allowing for an intriguing alternative to the two major music streaming platforms.

34. Amazon Photos

Amazon photos provide a repository for photos for Prime members, but they also get the added benefit of inviting friends and family members (up to 5 of them), and all receive unlimited photo storage space. These photos are then shared among the group and can be accessed through a variety of mediums through which they are supported, including tablets, desktops, and smartphones.

35. Amazon Fresh: Amazon’s Online Grocery Store

Customers can shop for their groceries at a standard supermarket, or they can turn to Amazon Fresh, and purchase groceries online, then have them delivered the following day. Amazon launched this business in 2007, starting near their headquarters in Seattle, WA, but growing across the US shortly after, and now being available internationally.

Part of Amazon Fresh’s reputation is the distribution of products in large green totes that carry ordered products in bulk. These totes contain dry ice or ice packs, in paper bags that hold the ordered food. These brown paper bags might replace totes when deliveries are ones that are attended.

All of the paper bags, green totes, and even cardboard dividers are recyclable. The totes can be scheduled to be picked up when the customers place their next Amazon Fresh order or have a pick-up set up through Amazon.com. The ice packs can be recycled too, but customers often choose to keep them for future uses.

36. The Amazon Alexa

Amazon Alexa, developed by Amazon Lab126 developers, was first launched through the Echo and Echo Dot devices. The intelligent personal assistant can control various smart devices in a residence, essentially automating a part of the home. It can perform many other tasks including making a to-do list, playing music, podcasts, and audiobooks, setting alarms, and interacting with a user vocally. It is also able to provide traffic, weather, and news information upon vocal query from the users.

37. The Amazon Fire Stick

Amazon has always branched out into the streaming hardware world, competing with smart TVs, Rokus, and various other hardware apps. The stick, just slightly larger than a USB drive (3.4” X 1.2”), has an HDMI ending off of a short wire, designed to be inserted into the HDMI port of most contemporary televisions.

Users can stream a variety of content through the Amazon Fire Stick on the Amazon Prime Vidoe service, but the contraption is not limited to just Amazon’s homegrown video offerings. Many applications are available in-app library including HBO Max, Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Sling TV, and DirecTV. In addition, any content such as movies, tv shows, and music purchased by Amazon can be utilized from the Fire Stick which is linked up to the user’s account.

The Fire Stick even comes with a small complementary remote armed with Alexa capability. By using Alexa’s capabilities, users can navigate the Fire Stick’s interface by simply speaking commands to Alexa to maneuver around.

38. Amazon Kindle

In 2007, Amazon introduced its portable e-reader, the Amazon Kindle. This blew up the e-book market exponentially, bolstering the struggling book industry. Standalone e-readers led to unprecedented growth in the ebook publishing sphere, turning Amazon into a book publishing giant which allows authors to publish and sell their own books. When they sell through Amazon exclusively, they get additional perks.

When the Kindle was first released on November 19, 2007, in the US, it sold out within 5 and a half hours, despite the relatively hefty $399 price tag. Originally, the Kindle was intended to be Fiona, named after the name of the project that it was worked on (Project Fiona), which was the e-reader’s codename during its development stage.

39. The Amazon Kindle Fire

With the popularity of the Kindle e-reader, consumers showed a desire to have it do more than simply allow book reading. With the rise of the popularity of tablets, Amazon ventured into the territory of producing low-cost tablets, named Amazon Fire, based on Google’s Android OS. It quickly amounted to 50% of tablets sold.

40. Amazon Encore

Many aspiring authors were looking to publish their work but were unable to do so via traditional methods. Amazon filled the much-desired gap with the Amazon Encore program, producing one of the most popular self-publishing programs for personally published and out-of-print works. Between the time the first-ever publishing line started in 2009 and 2011, the platforms grew into a place where authors could develop and professionally publish their titles without having the struggles of going through a traditional publisher.

When Encore started, in 2009 the pace at which e-books were selling had already overtaken traditional books. Many book publishers sell through Amazon, seeing major revenue increases. But that does not mean that they regard Amazon as a helpful partner. They very much see the platform as a competitor who threatens their style of business.

41. Amazon Pay

Amazon recognized that customers should not be pigeonholed into using only the platform’s preferred payment type, so they set up the Amazon Pay system in 2007 to allow both sellers and consumers to exchange funds in their preferred way. They made the registration fee to their consumers. They even set it up as a side entity, though their headquarters are also located in Seattle.

Amazon Pay is a risk-free and simple mechanism for Amazon’s patrons, allowing the equivalent of paying through the parent company’s own subsidiary channel. Whether users prefer to use credit cards, debit cards, Amazon Visa Payments, or any other number of payment channels, Amazon Pay allows them the flexibility to use their preferred method. The platform even has an expedited payment version, aptly named Amazon Pay Express.

A nice attribute of the system, however, is it does not require full integration with e-commerce, perfect for sellers who sell products infrequently. In a sense, the platform exists as a standalone entity. Those who do not have an Amazon account don’t even need to be associated with Amazon to use the third-party software that is Amazon Pay.

42. Amazon’s Credit Card

Much like many retailers, Amazon offers its own credit card which has deferred interest, a system where a late or missed payment results in interest charges for the full starting balance for the entire length of the payment term, which is received on the balance immediately.

Any Prime members are eligible to get an Amazon credit card, and all purchases made by cardholders incur a 5% cashback stipend, with one notable exception, and that is when a credit card user chooses a particular financing plan. But the rewards are essentially earned only by those who have Prime memberships, though others are eligible to use it.

The Amazon Store Card, a basic version of the Amazon Credit Card, has no annual fee, which is an appealing attribute to many cardholders, but the tradeoff is that it isn’t like any other credit card that can be used anywhere. It can only be used to make Amazon purchases. The company’s website lists different cards which users can leverage for rewards These other cards can be used anywhere, not just at Amazon.

Members of Prime can upgrade to the Amazon Prime Store Card, with the understanding that the 5% cashback earnings are only available on offers they do not choose a special financing plan with.

43. Amazon Gift Cards

One of the most popular gift items is Amazon gift cards. Their main perk is not just that they allow receivers to purchase Amazon products of their choice, but also that they don’t need to hurry to do so. That’s because there are no experi dates on the Amazon gift cards. If a product is returned that was purchased on a gift card, the balance is restored. A cash receipt can only be returned when making cash payments on products in physical Amazon stores.

44. Amazon Baby Registry

Those who register with Amazon’s baby registry receive a box with a $35 value as a welcome present, full of essential baby products. A customer using the registry can make it as public or as filtered to a group of potential participants as they want. The baby registries can also be made private, and visible only to customers. This option is great for those not looking for gifts, but rather a listing of products they need for baby-related matters.

45. The Diaper Fund

Every parent knows that one cannot have enough diapers on hand. But diapers are expensive and a baby often uses them up at an alarming rate, which makes repurchases challenging. Often, people like to receive diaper fund assistance from loved ones, so Amazon set up a Diaper fund that allows family and friends to pitch in up to a total of $550 to go toward diaper purchases. The customer then receives the funds in the form of an Amazon gift card that can be used only to purchase diapers and other baby-centric products.

46. Amazon’s Wedding Registry

Since Amazon carries nearly every type of product in the known world, a newly engaged couple planning their wedding often creates their wedding registry through Amazon. This allows the newlyweds to purchase selections from a massive library of products, and any registered gifts that remained unpurchased are available to them with a discount, along with a generous period for product returns. The drawbacks are that Amazon limits some of those perks based on certain attributes for a particular customer, and while they are expanding, the amount of physical locations where products can be returned is still relatively minor.

47. Amazon Trade-In Program

Many users have products that they don’t need or can’t use, but they don’t simply want to throw them away as they could provide value for someone else. Amazon set up its Trade-In program where eligible items, such as books, video games, Amazon devices, electronics, and other entities with repeat value, can be exchanged for Amazon Gift Cards. Qualified products will prompt Amazon to send a quoted offer for the product, including complimentary shipping.

48. Amazon Order Shipments Are Handled By Amazon Logistics

Amazon Logistics is Amazon’s homegrown delivery service that supplies the tracking capability to products shipped by Amazon to its customers with AMZL_US tracking numbers. Those tracking numbers with a TBA status, reflect those already delivered to Amazon.

49. Amazon Warehouses In The US And Canada Can Be Visited

While this does not apply to every warehouse, there are at least 23 warehouses run by Amazon across Canada and the United States, that can be visited. The visit is about an hour long and visitors can see the daily operations of human workers, as well as the sorting and product placement jobs performed by warehouse robotics.

50. Amazon Is Regarded As One Of The Worst Places To Work In America

Amazon set up a special program named ADAPT to track various metrics of their warehouse employees’ performances, including how many packages were scanned daily. When there are even slight pauses in the scanning process, the tracking mechanism pushes the data to an algorithm that ranks workers as poor performers, which can lead to termination. To be blunt, Amazon employees’ jobs are relying on AI evaluations.

So how many items do employees scan? There is, on average, one scan per 11 seconds, which totals about 300 items per hour. This becomes a benchmark of expectations of performance, so when an employee takes a break, even to use the bathroom, the AI logs those as ‘time off task’ and as that number grows, so do the chances of that employee being let go.

51. Amazon Is Gradually Automating Their Workforce

As Amazon integrates robots more into warehouse work, jobs for humans are becoming harder to obtain. About 1,300 warehouse employees are at risk or have now been replaced by machines that perform many of the packing duties.

52. Amazon Warehouse Job Delineations

There are two primary jobs for humans in an Amazon warehouse; stowers and pickers. These jobs involve the collection of products and their delivery to conveyor belts for packing. As the warehouses are large, it involves many minutes and many miles of walking for the employees. Amazon tries to put this into a positive spin, claiming that workers walk so much they have lost 20 lbs in weight.

As such work takes a toll on the body. Amazon stocks their warehouse vending machines with painkilling medication. If someone is feeling aches from the work, they can get medication and continue working. It isn’t surprising that the rigor of jobs results in a high frequency of workplace injuries. Workers want to keep their jobs though, and that means producing results at alarmingly quick rates, so they often forego safety measures, substituting their pains or injuries with medications.

53. Amazon Books Is Amazon’s Physical Extension

Many people like visiting bookstores to acquire physical books. Knowing there is a market sector with this desire, Amazon extended its platform into the physical realm by establishing Amazon Books, filling the gap between online and in-store shopping. Since physical stores cannot carry as many choices as the Amazon e-commerce platform, the choices of what is available are based on positive reviews from Amazon.com, Goodreads, and in-house curators.

The first Amazon Books store opened in 2015 in Seattle near the campus of the University of Washington. They would soon start popping up in other areas of the country.

54. Amazon Japan

Since being established in Japan, Amazon Japan quickly became the most established e-commerce platform in the country, gaining the trust of shoppers and sellers alike around the country. The country already has a top-performing e-commerce platform named Rakuten, but while it holds the #1 market spot, Amazon scores the top seat in most frequently visited platforms by unique visitors.

There are aspects of Japan that are unique to them. Unlike the US, less than 80% of the country’s population can receive same-day deliveries, but nearly 95% are eligible for next-day deliveries, which influences their charging structure. In any case, this is great in terms of numbers for Amazon.

The call centers for Amazon Japan are located in the country itself which allows the sellers to make the most out of this asset. Many companies face problems with language barriers by having call centers in different countries than the ones where consumers are, which is a huge burden off the back of Amazon Japan by having their native speakers man the contact lines.

Japan’s culture is also rich in gift-giving, so gift wrapping is part of Amazon Japan’s exclusive fulfillment plan. This doesn’t just permit a vast convenience for customers, it helps sellers by being able to provide various packaging types for various gift types.

They even have their own mascot, though unofficial, named Danbo, a name that translates to ‘corrugated cardboard.’ Danbo is a manga character from the works of artist Kiyohiko Azuma. The popularity even triggered the appearance of Danbo toys.

55. Amazon Mexico

Amazon.mx, Mexico’s arm of Amazon, began offering Prime memberships in 2017, offering similar perks to US residents like Prime Video and free shipping. It is also one of the 3 marketplaces that require an NAUA (North American Unified Account) which enables sellers to distribute products across all countries on the North American continent (Mexico, Canada, and the US). There is, however, currently a problem with many packages going missing across international borders and numerous shipping delays.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Amazon is a company that has revolutionized the way we shop and do business. However, the facts about its early struggles, controversies, and rapid growth are shocking. It is a testament to the determination and vision of its founder, Jeff Bezos. If you’re interested in learning more about companies that started small and made it big, check out our next article, “12 Billion Dollar Companies that Started In Garages.” So, take it.

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Wolfionaire

Hello, my name is Idammah, and I am the founder of Wolfionaire.com, a personal development, and finance blog focused on motivation, success, and wealth. I am obsessed with studying the world's wealthiest individuals and learning about their path to success. I believe anyone can achieve their financial goals with the right mindset and strategies, and I hope to inspire and empower my readers to pursue their own path to success.

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