1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 General Information Amazon.com (Amazon) is one of the first online shopping sites launched in 1995. Since its inception, it has been consistently ranked as one of the best retail sites on the Internet and is regarded as the universal model for successful Internet retailing. In March 1998, Amazon was ranked among the top 20 internet sites in almost all the major market surveys. According to an analyst, "When you think of web shopping, you think of Amazon first. The Forrester Power Rankings in 2000, ranked Amazon as the best online shopping site. Amazon owed a large part of its popularity to its excellent customer service, which was due to its exemplary inventory management. Amazon realized that there were a lot of players in the e-tailing industry and therefore it needed to consolidate its position as one of the best online shopping sites. Accordingly, it took several measures. In order to increase its revenue, it added several new products to its site. In 1999, on an average, it added a new product on its site once in every six weeks. It entered into strategic alliances with several companies to increase the range of products available on its site. Later, it strengthened its Customer Fulfilment Network by obtaining products directly from the distributors rather than stocking all the goods in its warehouse. Amazon was popular among its customers for shipping the goods