Amazon + Sprint the good and bad

Comparison between Amazon and Sprint Company
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

Comparison between Amazon and Sprint Company
Introduction
Amazon is an American company which deals with electronics and internet. It is the leading internet vendor in the world regarding revenue and the second largest after Alibaba regarding the level of transactions. The company began as a bookstore but later diversified to selling video downloads and audiobook downloads. Moreover, the company has expanded to selling electronics, software, food, furniture and video games. Furthermore, Amazon has opened several branches in United Kingdom, Netherlands, Japan, China, and Australia among other places. On the other hand, Sprint is a telecommunication company which deals with wireless services and provision of internet service. It is ranked fourth in the mobile network operators. Moreover, the company offers other services such as messaging, wireless voice and broadband services. The paper will compare and contrast the customer service reputations of the two companies while discussing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Strengths
Amazon is a prominent online retailer in America. The firm has obtained many customers as a result of increased customer satisfaction thus increasing its sales. It is projected that in 2016 43% of the online retail services in the United States went through Amazon. The corporation accounted for 53% of the total sales for that year. Its total sales increased by 20%, 20% and 27% in 2014, 2015 and 2016 consecutively (Greenspan, 2017).

 The high sales are as a result of increased customer satisfaction and provision of a wide variety of products.

Graph 1: Graph showing why Amazon gives so many perks to prime members
Due to the high quality of products, the company has been able to open markets and attract more customers in countries such as India, Brazil, and China. Furthermore, the company can utilize its lean cost structure and still make a high profit. This makes the company have a competitive advantage over its competitors and enhance customer satisfaction. Moreover, Amazon possesses a good customer relationship because of the efficient management practices. These practices involve integrating the customer’s data and using it for personalization. Additionally, the company has a reputation for providing clients with everything in one place.
Contrary, Sprint Corporation has strengths which help attract more customers. These strengths help the firm penetrate into new markets and protect its market share in the existing market. The company has a high level of customer satisfaction. The business has been able to establish good management practices that help satisfy the customers fully. These practices involve the provision of a quality brand and handling the customer well. The company has been able to establish reliable distribution networks that reach potential customers. Moreover, Sprint Company is a reliable dealer in the community (Verreault, Yang & Angel, 2004). It has encouraged dealers to train the sales team on how to promote its products to the customers. This ensures that the clients are fully aware of the maximum benefits of the products and services.

Graph 2: Graph showing complaints per million customers in Sprint Corporation
Weaknesses
The revenue and sales of Amazon are seasonal; thus customers cannot access products at certain times of the year. Therefore, the company experiences problems because it has to adjust its human resource practices regularly. Customers increase during the fourth quarter of the year, thus the need for extra workforce during that period. For instance, the company obtained “33%, 33% and 32% of its yearly customers during the fourth quarter in 2014, 2015 and 2016” (Bhasin, 2017). Furthermore, the firm has small profit margins because of the high cost of sustaining its leadership strategy. Low profit makes the company vulnerable to economic crises and external shocks. Therefore, Amazon may be unable to efficiently navigate the stage of small demand for its goods and services because of changes in the exterior environment. Additionally, despite Amazon being the leading internet provider, it lacks focus on specific products and services thus decreasing the brand identity of those products. The lack of focus in these products leads to the loss of customers due to the decreased quality of products.
On the other hand, Sprint Company has not been able to tackle the challenges prevalent as a result of new competitors. Thus, the firm has lost some of their customers to the larger firms. Additionally, it has made the firm lose part of the market share thus fewer revenues (Sprint Corporation, 2016). Therefore, Sprint Company has to establish policies that help counter the challenges. The plans should also provide the firm with a competitive advantage over its competitors. Furthermore, the company does not have an efficient financial planning system. This is evident because the current asset ratio and liquid asset ratio suggest that cash can be used in a better way than it is being used presently. Poor financial planning has led customer dissatisfaction because the firm cannot account for losses thus discouraging potential investors.
Threats
Amazon faces significant threats which cause customer dissatisfaction. These threats include cybercrime and imitation of their products. Therefore, the firm must initiate measures that prevent cybercrimes. For instance, the company must strengthen its network security strategies (Bhasin, 2017). Moreover, imitation issue may discourage potential customers. This is because imitated goods are of poor quality and quantity. Aggressive competition from large companies such as Walmart may make Amazon lie behind in terms of attracting customers. Therefore, the company needs to strengthen its marketing efforts to retain and attract more customers.
Contrary, the changing consumer buying behavior from the online channels may affect Sprint. The company may incur losses or little profit in the long run as a result of that. Moreover, imitation of counterfeit products may discourage the firm from attracting more customers and penetrating into new markets. The customer’s trust in the firm’s products and services is likely to decrease due to the emergence of counterfeit goods (Sprint Corporation, 2016). Furthermore, the new technology developed by the market disruptors may affect the firm. These technologies may require Sprint Company to increase the cost of production to produce products that satisfy customers.
Opportunities
Amazon has a wide range of available opportunities. For instance, the firm can penetrate in the emerging markets, enlarge the brick and mortar commercial and initiate actions to reduce forged sales. Penetration in the developing markets can help Amazon establish itself before other large retail companies can take root. This will give Amazon a stronger customer base competitive advantage over the large corporations (Greenspan, 2017). Moreover, opening up of brick and mortar store will improve competitiveness against other competitors. It will also increase the number of its customers in the brick stores. The issue of counterfeit sales gives the company an opportunity to enhance its technological measures and policies to prevent fake sales. These opportunities can boost customer satisfaction thus attracting potential customers.
On the other hand, Sprint Corporation new technology provides an opportunity for Sprint to practice new differentiated pricing strategies. This will enable the company to retain loyal customers and still attract new customers through a change of prices. Furthermore, the latest trends in the consumer behavior can help Sprint open up new markets. Thus, the company can be able to diversify into new products (Sprint Corporation, 2016). New taxation policies can also impact on how Sprint does its business. Lower taxation may lead to the reduction of prices thus attracting more customers.
Conclusion
It is evident that the two companies have different strengths which can enable them to attract potential customers. For example, Amazon has a good customer relationship, utilizes lean cost structure and has a strong background. On the other hand, Sprint Corporation has strong distribution networks, good customer relationship, and good dealer relationship. Furthermore, the two companies have weaknesses. Amazon has low-profit margins as a result of high cost of leadership and also has seasonal sales. Sprint Corporation does not have effective financial systems and even policies to handle the challenges of competition. Therefore, the two companies should come up with appropriate strategies that help overcome the weaknesses and threats that are prevalent. Moreover, the companies should be flexible to the changing consumer behavior and technology to take advantage of the upcoming opportunities.
References
Bhasin, H. (2017). Amazon SWOT analysis. Marketing91.com. Retrieved 31 January 2018, from https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-amazon/Graph showing annual revenue of Amazon Corporation – Google Search. (2018). Google.com. Retrieved 31 January 2018, from https://www.google.com/search?q=graph+showing+annual+revenue+of+Amazon+corporation&client=opera&sa=X&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0ahUKEwiirP-_7oLZAhWHDSwKHW4NAD0Q7AkIMg&biw=1205&bih=572Graph showing annual revenue of Sprint Corporation – Google Search. (2018). Google.com. Retrieved 31 January 2018, from https://www.google.com/search?q=graph+showing+annual+revenue+of+sprint+corporation&client=opera&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=X-kVuHoBydz4jM%253A%252COs_X-jwWSw6bLM%252C_&usg=__yiSS7REuJxE06l1Dl5KA6U-Mw2E%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdvs2S2ILZAhWJJ8AKHWv_Af8Q9QEIMTAB&biw=1205&bih=572#imgrc=X-kVuHoBydz4jMGreenspan, R. (2017). Amazon.com Inc. SWOT Analysis & Recommendations – Panmore Institute. Panmore Institute. Retrieved 31 January 2018, from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-swot-analysis-recommendationsSprint Corporation: Technology and communications – company profile, SWOT & financial analysis. (2016). (). London: Progressive Digital Media.
Verreault, D. A., Yang, S., & Angel, J. (2004). Sprint Corporation: ethical decisions and tax avoidance strategies. Issues in Accounting Education, 19(1), 119-143