In recent years, Amazon has shimmied its way to the top on a silent yet rigorous road littered with success. In just one year, Amazon’s stock price of ＄817.65 in October of 2016 had a 30% increase to peak just over a thousand dollars this month. What contributes to such a level of success in the competitive e-commerce world? Two factors: Jeff Bezos and a consumer-based ecosystem.

As the current CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has dedicated Amazon to creating strong consumer portfolios and spending billions on infrastructure and technology. A brilliant entrepreneur, Bezos worked to build Amazon as one of the fastest e-commerce shippers in the United States. Small factors such as having trusted vendors or quicker shipping seemed to make a huge difference for Amazon as they bounced to the top of the market. The lucrative potential of e-commerce was fully initiated, and Amazon plans to have over 85% of products available on their online site in the near future. As a result of the booming success rates, Amazon has decided to expand their warehouse space with ridiculous efficiency. In the past week, Bezos announced that Amazon is adding one million square feet of warehouse space a week, and could see this footprint growth doubling in the next four or five years. The expansion will help Amazon reach all 382 metropolitan areas in the US and provide over ten million potential jobs for citizens.

The primary reason behind Amazon’s expansion is to compete with other retailers such as Walmart by offering faster turnaround times, such as same day or next day delivery. The extra space will also solidify the foothold of the company into the grocery delivery service business, a recent venture that Bezos was pursuing known as AmazonFresh. For avid stock enthusiasts and users out there, this e-commerce giant is definitely a no-brainer to invest in for the near future.

<David Li / Beckman HS 11th Grade>