Although Amazon.com built its reputation as an online bookstore, the Seattle-based company has pursued a strategy of offering a wide assortment of products, which it promotes as "Earth's Biggest Selection." An early 2001 version of the company's home page offered links to several categories, among them books, electronics, toys, video, music, health and beauty, wireless phones, camera and photo, computer and video games, software, tools and hardware, lawn and patio, cars, auctions, and gifts.
Amazon.com went online in July 1995 and quickly set the standard for other e-tailers. The company changed the way people buy books by staying open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also developed its own user-friendly ordering system and provided reviews and other information about the books it sold that no traditional bookstore could match. Amazon.com 's head start on other booksellers helped it to dominate the online book market. Barnes and Noble, the largest traditional book retailer, had a market value of $2 billion in 1998, compared to $5.8 billion for Amazon.com.
Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos. Bezos determined that books, videos, computer software and hardware, and CDs would be the easiest products to sell online. They were items that a customer did not necessarily need to see or handle before ordering, and they were easy to pack and ship. Without the physical space limitations of a bricks-and-mortar store, Bezos realized that an online store could offer a wider selection of those items.
In the beginning, Amazon.com was aided by the established wholesale network for books that already existed. The company didn't need a big inventory to start with. One reason Amazon.com chose Seattle, Washington, as its base was that it would be near the world's largest book wholesaler, which was based in Oregon. Seattle also offered a well-educated employment pool. Amazon.com added a warehouse in Delaware in 1997, but the company began in Bezos's garage and then moved its shipping operation into a 20-by-20-foot space. After nearly two years in this small space, the company finally began using a large warehouse in Seattle. In 1998 Amazon.com began selling CDs and computer games in addition to its selection of 3 million books.
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