Amazon flexes muscle to dominate electronics supply chain

Ever since Amazon opened the doors of its business-to-business (B2B) in 2015, various electronics distributors have been paying close attention to the e-commerce giant. Just recently, the company announced strong financial earnings, which could respectively underscore the success of its major strategies.

It's a little hard for the human mind to get around Amazon's identity. It sells very type of product imaginable to people and to organisations. It offers cloud hosting and development platforms. It has acquired the rights to a number of high-profile films. It sells digital music. It's making its foray into the business world as a logistics services provider. As an electronics maker, the Kindle Oasis e-reader and the Echo hands-free voice-enabled speaker both came on to the scene in the last year.

"Amazon devices are the top selling products on Amazon, and customers purchased more than twice as many Fire tablets than Q1 last year," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "Earlier this week, the $39 Fire TV Stick became the first product ever, from any manufacturer, to pass 100,000 customer reviews, including over 62,000 5 star reviews, also more than any other product ever sold on Amazon. Echo too is off to an incredible start, and we can't yet manage to keep it in stock despite all efforts. We're building premium products at non-premium prices, and we're thrilled so many customers are responding to our approach."

For the electronics industry, it's hard to know when to worry. Perhaps, Amazon will be an excellent partner for OEMs looking for logistics services. Or just as likely is the biggest competitor on the block for the newest and coolest consumer electronics offerings. Then again, it may be that Amazon will provide a great way for electronics distributors to create an online presence or extend their online efforts, or that same capability may completely change what B2B customers want from their parts dealers.

Take a look at the infographic below from Unboxing Deals that highlights moments in the company's evolution. What do you think? Will Amazon be a boon or a blight to the electronics industry? Does this e-commerce gorilla make you feel concerned?