Build November_2016

Build Magazine 46 Transport Amazon is a company that hardly needs an introduction, though it never harms to cover the basics. It is fair to say that since being founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, Amazon has experienced exciting growth year after year, and now is considered one of the world’s most forward-thinking and innovative companies. We caught up with their main European trading hub, Amazon SARL, which accounts for a fifth of the online retailer’s total worldwide sales. mazon.com is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. From its head office in Seattle, USA, Amazon built a business recognised for excellent customer service and constant innovation. From humble origins as an online bookstore to its current, ever-growing holistic digital marketplace, a customer on Amazon can easily fill their ‘basket’ with orders for DVDs, furniture, clothes, toys, jewellery, and consumer electronics as well as digital products like video, music and books. In recent years, Amazon has also expanded its reach into new frontier channels of transporting goods to customers. The take-off in downloadable ‘-books’, facilitated by the release of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, opened the possibilities of reading to more people. Successive models of the Kindle have continued to demonstrate the innovation fostered at the heart of the company. Added to this, Amazon Prime customers can now enjoy the company’s television services. Over the last few years, Amazon’s Prime Video service has amassed a number of high-profile titles that make them a highly noticeable presence in this industry, including Transparent, Ripper Street, The Man in the High Castle, based upon the novel by Philip K. Dick, and – arguably Amazon’s most high-profile catch of the last could of years – the original Top Gear trio’s new outing in The Grand Tour, which begins streaming on a weekly basis from 18th November. Amazon is also demonstrating innovation by working to introduce delivery by drone. Amazon Prime Air, as the company describes it, is a future delivery system that strives to get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less, using small unmanned aerial vehicles. “With Prime Air, we are developing a system that is Building Exciting Engineering Careers at Amazon UK A safe and environmentally sound, and which enhances the services that we already provide to millions of customers.” Today, Amazon are rapidly and experimenting and excitedly iterating on Prime Air inside their next-generation research and development labs, working to make their vision a reality. “It may sound like science fiction, but it’s real. Putting the system into service will take some time, but one day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road.” In July 2016, Amazon’s bi-annual Trends Report revealed that globally, nearly half of all units sold on Amazon are through third party sellers on Amazon Marketplace, and those businesses support more than 74,000 jobs in the UK. The number of UK sellers generating more than £1 million in revenues has increased by 20 per cent in the past year. UK export sales by third party businesses selling on Amazon Marketplace were more than £1.4bn in 2015 and surpassed 100m units. This is where the new Fulfilment service comes into play. Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) helps businesses in the UK to grow internationally by selling through Amazon and other sales channels. FBA provides access to Amazon’s world-class logistics resources, fast, free delivery options for a client company’s products, and trusted and acclaimed customer service in their local language. Moreover, FBA products are eligible for Prime so you gain access to millions of our most loyal and active customers. “As the number and complexity of the Fulfilment Centres and Customer Service Centres grow continuously, we are quickly growing our Engineering teams in Europe,” says Andrea Argentieri. “Your career can progress in Engineering or with transfer to other Departments like Operations, Capacity Planning or Program Management. As we open more Fulfilment Centres, there are opportunities to relocate to different locations and have diverse experiences in Europe. “The engineers of Amazon Fulfilment are creative thinkers that are eager to roll up their sleeves and solve problems. They have the opportunity to work with the latest and greatest technologies and are expected to continuously develop and invent ways to improve current processes. They don’t waste a lot of time stewing over making decisions. The culture is very fast paced and fast moving.” As a final feather in their cap, Amazon is gearing up to deliver its biggest Christmas ever, and is recruiting thousands of seasonal workers in the UK. This plan will build further upon the 3,500 new full-time permanent jobs announced earlier this year – spanning Head Office, R&D Centres, Customer Service Centre, Fulfilment Centres, Fashion Photography Studio and AWS. This job expansion project supports the recent growth that Amazon has experienced, driven by investments in innovation, corporate functions, and the new AWS Data Centre Region, as well as new fulfilment centres in Manchester and Leicestershire. This includes resourcing Amazon’s fastest delivery service Prime Now. The announcement coincided with the release of Amazon .co.uk ’s bi-annual shopping and entertainment trends report, which highlights popular products from its selection of more than 150 million items across more than 35 product categories. “We are creating thousands of new jobs to continue to deliver the experience that our customers know and love during the festive season and beyond,” Amazon has said. “We are hiring for all