My piece of technology that I will be analyzing is Amazon. Amazon is a website where you can go to order anything and everything directly to your house, with cheap and speedy shipping. It is a huge company and I think it will be interesting to dive into it in comparison to the Diffusion of Innovations theory. Personally, I don'y know a single person who doesn't use Amazon and I personally don't think it will be going anywhere for a very long time. While this is my personal opinion I still believe, like all sources of technology, eventually it will crumble down the diffusion of innovations chart and I will now discover why by using this chart. Here you can find some sources for what I am talking about.
https://crm.org/articles/diffusion-of-innovations
https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/mph-modules/sb/behavioralchangetheories/behavioralchangetheories4.html
Before we dive into where Amazon lands on this model I will fist talk about why and how this chart works. To begin we need to understand that all pieces of technology takes a ride on this chart, if it's a successful and beneficial piece of tech that has a large following. For example the creation of the computer. The computer started as a piece of tech that was only used by the innovators who had the access to the early models of the device. Then we have the early adopters who could afford it and thought that it was worth the price tag of the tech. Currently I would say we are in the Late Majority because everyone I know has a computer, most people actually have more than one computer. It's vital for academics along with working in business and there isn't a rivaling piece of tech that is competing against it, therefore I feel as if it's safely still placed in it's prime. Even people who are older and started out being against the idea have adopted the necessary piece of tech to stay up to date with everything, especially after the recent pandemic lockdowns where you needed to stay in the home. Here are some sources to back up my findings.
https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/29913/Diffusion_Innovation.pdf
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/diffusion-innovation-strategy-adoption-computer-vision-khandekar
That's just a basic rundown of how the Diffusion of Innovations theory works so now I will talk about how it fits in with Amazon. Amazon hit one of its highest peaks during the corona virus, it was one of the only companies that actually was able to still make a profit because everyone was stuck at home, and since many small businesses were closed, Amazon was people main way to get the home items they needed, such as food, toiletries, etc. So does this mean Amazon has shot by the innovators, early adopters, and early majority? The answer to this is yes. Amazon is currently sitting in the chart at the late majority. I know this because of a study done by big commerce which said that in 2018 Amazon's. share of the US e-commerce market hit 49%. This means that Amazon alone was responsible for 5% of all retail spent across all of America. Some are nervous because it doesn't seem like it's possible for Amazon to keep being able to grow since it now has most of the majority involved, putting it into the late majority. I personally feel that it's biggest competition is eBay but an article by fool.com has said that within doing research they found that in 2021 amazon's revenue was 469 billion dollars which was 67% higher than two years prior in 2019, so the company will continuously continue to grow. Below are some sources to credit my information.
https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/amazon-statistics/
https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/06/3-charts-that-show-why-amazon-is-an-unstoppable-gr/
Amazon was able to catch on and spread because of how convenient it made it to acquire things without even leaving the house. There are so many options for everyday options on amazon, and with its reliability and low prices it wasn't hard for Amazon to build traction. The people that are late adopters were the people who liked the old way of doing things, like going to the store and being able to actually hold and see what they were buying. The negatives in Amazon is that it has seriously hurt small businesses because of its easily accessible 2 day shipping with the unbeatable prices they are able to offer because they buy their supplies in bulk. The positives do outweigh the negatives though because of the easy and affordable options they can offer for all the items that you need.
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