The world's largest Internet retailer
Amazon.com, Inc.
(
AMZN
) recently announced that it would close its fashion website
endless.com from September 27, 2012. The company intends to
consolidate endless.com into Amazon.com/Fashion.
Amazon has increased focus on its new, upgraded apparel, shoes
and accessories section. Therefore, in addition to the launch of a
more diverse and appealing product range, Amazon will bring
endless.com's popular features to enhance the shopping
experience.
Amazon started endless.com in December 2006, mainly specializing
in women's shoes and handbags. Following the success of this site,
Amazon launched other websites such as Shopbop and Javari. It also
acquired another ecommerce startup called Zappos for $880.0 million
in 2009.
This shift will increase Amazon's product offerings from mere
women's shoes and handbags, which were sold through endless, to
apparel, handbags, jewelry, watches and shoes. The online buyers
will largely benefit, as Amazon will offer more brands under one
roof.
Amazon saw 100.4 million average monthly unique visitors in the
second quarter of fiscal 2012 in the U.S. alone, double the number
of visits to
Apple
's (
AAPL
) and
Wal-Mart
's (
WMT
) stores. Presently, it is the most visited website in America.
According to emarketer, U.S. retail ecommerce sales are poised
to grow 15.4% to $224.2 billion in 2012, jumping to $361.9 billion
by 2016. Although Amazon rival
eBay
(
EBAY
), which has been growing steadily over the last couple of years,
should also benefit from the strong growth prospects in the
segment, Amazon's superior strategy could help it maintain its
lead.
Amazon is one of the leading players in the extremely
fast-growing retail ecommerce market. While the strong growth
prospects are making the market more competitive, Amazon continues
to maintain and even increase its share on the back of its
consistent and reliable services. Amazon's scale of offerings, its
broad reach and platform approach are the keys to its success.
Amazon's second quarter results were more or less within
expectations. Reported revenue of $12.83 billion was down 2.7%
sequentially and up 29.5% from the year-ago quarter. This was
better than the guidance for the quarter of $11.9-13.3 billion
(down 4.4% sequentially, or up 27.1% year over year at the
mid-point) and in-line with consensus expectations. Year-over-year
revenue growth was 32%, excluding an unfavorable currency
impact.
Currently, Amazon has a Zacks #3 Rank, which implies a Hold
rating in the near term.
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