Amazon Still Dominates E-Commerce, But Others Have Room To Grow

E-commerce is taking a bigger share of retail sales — about 13% last year — but Amazon continues to take a larger cut of that share for itself, accounting for almost 42% of U.S. online sales last year, according to data discussed by Internet Retailer Editor-at-large Don Davis Wednesday at IRCE. Still, four “bricks-and-clicks” retailers reported stronger online sales increases than Amazon last year, with Walmart at 61.5% growth (though much of it via acquisition), Lowe’s at 34.3%, Best Buy at 27.2% and Target with 24%, according to Davis’ data. Meanwhile, among Internet Retailer’s Top 500 online retailers, sales for retailers listed No. 201 through No. 500 collectively increased about 25% last year, suggesting sales growth is well within reach for smaller e-commerce sites even as Amazon continues to dominate, Davis said. Make no mistake about who is the top dog in the e-commerce world. It’s still Amazon, and by a wide margin. The irony of this situation is that Amazon doesn’t need to win at retail in order to be successful in its own right. Globally, as Davis pointed out, its e-commerce efforts are still losing money, but it can afford to keep losing money by spending outrageously on express delivery schemes and customer acquisition, and fight brutal price wars in the market. Read more at Retail Dive.