Amazon: 43 Percent Of Online Sales In 2016

It’s well known that Amazon has dominated the eCommerce market for years, but a new report shows just how much: Slice Intelligence found that Amazon accounted for 43 percent of all online sales in 2016.

According to a report, what’s more, Slice Intelligence found that Amazon accounted for greater than half of all the growth in online retail sales in the U.S. last year. Meanwhile, the report noted that Internet Retailer found Amazon accounted for 33 percent of total domestic eCommerce sales in 2015, an increase from 25.4 percent in 2012. According to the report, one company having market share of 40 percent or more was until now unheard of in the retail industry. Walmart stores, for example, has a little more than 9 percent market share in terms of total U.S. retail sales. Slice Intelligence attributed most of Amazon’s gains to sales of electronics, home and apparel categories.

“Electronics account for a significant portion of Amazon’s growth, which is not surprising given the size of the category and Amazon’s very successful Echo line of products,” said Ken Cassar, a principal analyst at Slice Intelligence, in the report. “More interesting is the contribution that smaller categories such as home and kitchen, food, and health and beauty made to Amazon’s sales growth. [The consumer packaged goods category] is proving to be a big catalyst of Amazon’s expansion.”

Amazon is gearing up to report quarterly results later this week, and if what it said about the holiday season is any indication, it’s expected to be a good quarter for the ecommerce giant. In a press release in late December, Amazon said the 2016 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Fire Tablet and Amazon Echo on the top of the bestseller lists. What’s more, sales of the Amazon Echo family of devices were up nine times compared to the holiday season last year.