Amazon

Amazon is an e-commerce retailer formed originally to provide consumers with products in two segments. It offers users with merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers.

What began as an online bookshop operating out of a garage in 1994 has since grown to become one of the globe's largest and most recognised brands. Now based in Seattle, Washington, Amazon serves North American and International markets, offering its services online via such sites as amazon.com and amazon.ca.

Perhaps its most popular service, with roughly 150 million subscribers as of January 2020, Amazon Prime is an annual membership program that entitles customers to free shipping, streaming, and access to books to borrow and read on a Kindle.

Other services include co-branded credit card agreements, advertising and publishing services, electronics manufacture and Amazon Web Services, which gives anyone from start-ups to government agencies access to compute, storage, database, and other AWS offerings to augment their business processes.

It has also developed smart hardware, such as the Amazon Alexa and Echo Dot, Echo Buds, and acquired smart doorbell company Ring back in 2018 for over $1bn.

In recent years, Amazon has made moves into the healthcare industry with its medical data lab, 1492, dating back to at least 2017, as well as the acquisitions of PillPack (now 'PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy') and Health Navigator, and the creation of Amazon Care, its pilot employee healthcare program which leverages telemedicine. In January 2020 it filed a series of international trademarks for 'Amazon Pharmacy' for Australia, UK, Canada and the US. It is also part of a joint initiative with JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway, called Haven, which aims to lower healthcare costs and improve care. On top of this, Amazon has created the Amazon Halo, a smart wearable that tracks health metrics, and enabled healthcare organisations to launch HIPAA-compliant Alexa tools.

Amazon launched its online pharmacy service in 45 states, promising free two-day delivery to Prime subscribers in November 2020. Shares in US pharmacies CVS and Walgreens dropped 9% and 10% at the announcement.

Amazon has additionally shown growing interest in the insurance industry. In April 2016 the company launched Amazon Protect in Britain, before quickly expanding into other European markets. In 2017 reports began circulating of Amazon entering the P&C/motor insurance sector.

In 2018 Amazon led a $12m investment round into Acko, an insurtech based in India. There were also reports that Amazon had approached industry executives about the possibility of a comparison site.

The following year, Amazon partnered with Travelers, enabling the latter's customers to purchase the retailers smart home products at a discount. It also led Acko's Series C round, and launched the aforementioned Amazon Care, an employee benefits options. Insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts integrated Amazon's PillPack into its member app in 2019, too.

In 2020, Amazon continued to show its interest in insurance. It reportedly sent out a survey to its e-commerce sellers (of which there are 900k in the US alone) in April, asking about their health insurance needs and pain-points. Additionally, in that same month, it invested in BankBazaar's Series D. BankBazaar is a neutral online marketplace for financial products, including life, health care and two-wheeler insurance.

In July 2020, Acko began to offer car and bike cover via Amazon Pay in India. Amazon Pay CEO Mahendra Nerurkar states they plan to expand into health, flight and cabs. Several months later, Amazon participated in Acko's September $60m funding round.

Amazon also has invested heavily into automated delivery methods, including electric unmanned vehicles and drones. They have successfully gained permission to trial both technologies in the US and the UK.

In August 2021 Amazon announced the launch of the Amazon Insurance Accelerator, a network of vetted insurance providers who will evaluate and, if appropriate, offer liability insurance at competitive rates to qualifying sellers. Sellers only pay for the cost of the insurance itself. Sellers are not required to use a provider within Amazon Insurance Accelerator; they can continue to obtain insurance from any qualified insurance provider of their choice. Next Insurance and Marsh were amongst those who revealed they were participating in the Amazon Insurance Accelerator.

At the same time, it also announced it was enhancing its A-to-Z Guarantee - a hassle-free returns process for products launched over two decades ago. The new process includes a protection offering up to $1k in claims pay-outs for any defective product sold through Amazon that causes damage or injury, at no cost to sellers.

In September 2021 Amazon partnered with UK business insurance startup Superscript. Superscript are now Amazon's sole insurance partner in the UK, streamlining the insurance-buying process for Business Prime members.

Amazon announced that it would expand its Care service offerings to the rest of the US in June 2022. The service includes a 24/7 access to medical team through its mobile app as well as an in-person care across 20 markets.

In July 2022 Amazon announced it was planning to acquire primary care organisation One Medical in a deal worth nearly $4B, marking the continued effort of the tech giant to tap into the healthcare industry. One Medical was launched in 2007 and is a membership-based primary care practice in the US serving 767K member patients at 200 locations around the country. The deal would be the biggest healthcare acquisition yet for Amazon.

Amazon's telehealth service Amazon Care is set to close by the end of 2022, according to an internal memo that was leaked in August. The decision will only be affecting Amazon Care as well as its Care Medical group of providers, and there is no mention of other Amazon healthcare projects being affected. Amazon Care launched in 2019 as a virtual clinic for its own employees but soon expanded to outside employees and added select in-person care options, however the memo cites that the offering was not 'complete enough for the large enterprise customers [they] have been targeting'.

In October 2022, Amazon launched the Amazon Insurance Store in the UK. The store offers consumers a way to find and compare home insurance quotes from Ageas UK, Co-op and LV=General Insurance.

In May 2023 Personal lines insurance specialist Policy Expert has joined the Amazon Insurance Store, increasing the number of providers to four, alongside Ageas, Co-op, and LV for home and contents insurance. Policy Expert has a motor book of 171,000 customers and plans to double in size within five years; it also sold 890,000 home insurance policies in the year to March 2022. Further insurers are expected to be added to the store panel later this year according to Amazon.