The New Retail Brand Frontier: Disruptive Innovation

Second, Amazon's Reviews feature, which allows consumers to both provide and read feedback on all types of goods, represents a form of high-quality innovation. Previously, consumers had little access to information regarding the quality of the products they saw on store shelves.

Today, consumers expect an appraisal of most items — from books to electronics to washing machines — by way of fellow consumers who have already tested these out. This feature provides consumers with a better shopping experience than what was previously offered by traditional retailers. Finally, through newer products such as the Kindle, Amazon is creating entirely new markets in the electronic books space and beyond.