, Columnist
Amazon's Path To Profitability
The online retailer has moved on to the next war.
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Amazon has a reputation for running its retail business in two ways: offering the lowest price out there and not worrying about making a profit. Neither one of these is true any more. And the consequences loom large for competitors.
The e-commerce giant, which reports holiday earnings results on Thursday afternoon, has evolved from the early days of just hawking books and movies at profit-zapping low prices. Now it has a more calculated strategy of charging the lowest prices on the Internet for only selected items, while charging more for the rest of its products. That could mean trouble for the growing number of retailers killing themselves to meet or beat Amazon's prices.