PESTEL Factors	Key Points	Relevance to Amason.com
Political	Government policies promote competition through telecom liberalization, e-commerce promotion and legislation [33] .	More affordable internet access and increase in internet users.
	High government investment in national ICT infrastructure	Faster, better and more reliable internet access for national users.
	Relaxed EU and North American competition policies on e-retailing as opposed to heavy industries.	Rapid expansion into new markets through acquisitions.
Economic	High interest rates slow UK customer spending. The credit squeeze and the housing slump has reduced customer spending in the USA. However, customer spending is rising in China and India due to high economic growth in both countries [34] .	Amazon.com may consider entering India and developing the Chinese market.
	Internet retailing will see tremendous growth between 2006 and 2012 with sales rising over 100%. This growth is fuelled by the number of online households in the USA [35] .	More potential customers to Amazon.com.
	By 2011, 617 million households across the world will have annual disposable income exceeding US $5000. 143 million of these will be in Asia-Pacific. Second only to western Europe with 185 million.	More potential customers to Amazon.com.
Social	Increase in online social marketing [36]	Marketing needs to take advantage of this new channel.
	Product category risk and financial risk decrease online shopping [37] .	Need to consider overcoming risks to increased users.
	Growth of internet from 200 to 2012 is 566.4%. 34.3% of world population use the internet [38] .	Opportunity to increase market share.
Technological	There is an increase in broadcasting, information and telecommunication technologies for internet access.	Increased frequency of use and sources (e.g. mobile devices, TV etc.) for internet access by online shoppers.
Technological	Rapid development of “high speed” network services (e.g. broadband) increase usability of media-rich applications.	Media-rich contents are easily made available to online shoppers.
Environmental	Global warming/pollution awareness	Less car journeys, more shopping online [39] .
Environmental	Have to become more “green” to attract customers	Changing business methods and environment to become more “green”, i.e. with postage and packaging, work environment.
Legal	No uniform regulations governing e-commerce covering all the countries e.g. Data protection act in UK and federal trade commission in USA	Be aware of both the domestic and international law [40] .
	EU electronic commerce directive	Could impact the growth of transatlantic e-commerce given its strict regulations [41] .
		Removes legal obstacles and provides a more secure and transparent legal environment. Increased use for both consumers and businesses [42] .