What Is Amazon?

Amazon is a multinational electronic commerce corporation, but you probably know it as a giant bookstore on the Internet. Selling lots of stuff besides books, but most people know Amazon best as a book retailer.

Amazon.com is America's largest and most successful online retailer. Amazon does three times as much business as their closest competitor in terms of online retail business, Staples. Amazon (which can be found online at the URL Amazon.com) sells everything from books and music to movies, eBook readers, clothes, furniture, toys, and even food items.

History of Amazon

Businessman Jeff Bezos founded of the company in 1994--when dinosaurs roamed the Internet. When Bezos created the company it was called Cadabra--the latter half of the classic magic word "Abra-cadabra." Bezos quickly realized that people thought the business was called "cadaver" (another word for "dead body") and he soon changed it to Amazon.

Why did Bezos pick the name "Amazon?"

A few different reasons. First of all, Amazon starts with "A", placing it near the beginning of any alphabetical list. Another reason Bezos chose "Amazon" for his online retailer is because the Amazon river is the largest in the world. Lending Bezos' company a very "big" sound.

Amazon started out as a small online bookstore. Bezos eventually diversified Amazon to include music downloads, eBooks, and the entire product line you find today at Amazon.com. Amazon now operates all over the world, with companion websites dotted across Europe and Asia. Amazon is now the most popular music and book retailer in the UK, and ranks third in Asia as well.

Amazon Coupons

The best thing about buying books and stuff from Amazon is the big variety of coupons available online. Even though Amazon's regular prices are competitive with other book retailers, using any of the massive number of Amazon coupons to be found on the Web drops the price even more.

There's always a free shipping coupon or discount code available with a simple Google search. If you want to dig a little deeper, check out TechBargains.com or the classic third party coupon site RetailMeNot.com. TechBargains has over two dozen different coupons for Amazon.com at any given time, including free "super saver" shipping (on your order over $25) and large "percent off" deals on select items and brands. RetailMeNot tends to have more specialized Amazon coupons than TechBargains, so if you're in the market for a particular book or CD, check them out first.

According to their website, Amazon's vision is "to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online." As Amazon's product line swells and they corner more markets around the world, they are coming closer and closer to reaching that goal.