Online Shopping Market Share - Amazon's #1

[MineralMan]

Check out this 4th Quarter of 2018 chart:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/270884/most-visited-websites-in-the-retail-sector-in-the-us/


Amazon is the clear leader with 56.1% of all customer visits.
eBay is second, with 19.7%
Walmart is thirds, with 10.8%
Target comes in fourth, with 4.5%
And Etsy is a surprising fifth place, with 3.5%

So, Amazon is clearly dominant, as you might expect, but there are others that are doing OK, as well. Amazon does not have monopoly status.

See the link for more companies.

[LongtimeAZDem]

1. Amazon is, in my experience, the most reliable, has the biggest inventory, and is the most expensive

If I want it right away, Amazon is the hands-down choice; I can order something at 10:00am and it's at my door when I get home from work. Nobody can touch that, and it is often worth the added cost.

If cost is an object, or time is not a factor, I have a myriad of choices, which I often use. I've used all the sites listed by MM above, and many more. And, that's on top of the fact that my first choice is almost always Brick-and-Mortar if it is an option.

Attacking Amazon will, I expect, take Warren out of serious contention rather quickly.

[manor321]

2. It is a monopoly that has used its huge power to dominate other markets

Other markets like physical e-book readers, e-book sales, online streaming video services, Amazon TV and on and on and on.

It needs to be broken up.

[LongtimeAZDem]

3. No it isn't; you cannot, by definition, be a monopoly with only 50 percent market share.

[Doremus]

13. Amazon is the mall owner, the checkout person privvy to all buyers' shopping preferences

and financial info, the manufacturer/importer, the seller, the final authority on which companies can/cannot compete against them .... for starters.

Their 56% market share is only the beginning.

[LongtimeAZDem]

16. There's nothing on Amazon you can't get elsewhere, often cheaper. Their advantage is fast service and

large product range.

Seriously, this argument is ranging into foil-hat territory. I'm out.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

15. that definition of monopoly fits the board game, only

A monopoly consists in the ownership or control of so large a part of the market- supply or output of a given commodity as to stifle competition, restrict the freedom of commerce, and give the monopolist control over prices.

https://thelawdictionary.org/monopoly/

(Case citations omitted).

I don't know if Amazon has monopoly power in online sales, but there is nothing magical about 50% market share.

See also:
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws

[Blue_true]

10. Amazon basically created e-books. Don't know why you call monopoly there.

For a while e-books weren't taken seriously by readers, but Amazon nurtured that book class along, now that it is dominant, Amazon is reaping the rewards for it's patience.

As far as movie streaming and online movies are concerned, they are nascent markets with enormous potential, why prevent Amazon from playing there? Having money does not grant creativity, online movie creation requires a lot of creativity and Amazon, like other players in that space, can misstep and get into trouble.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. You are suggesting that in such a huge economy as ours, ONE firm holding 56% of retail...

business is not a problem?

Technically, it may not be a monopoly, but that sort of market share distorts the market in too many ways.

[LongtimeAZDem]

5. They don't have 56% of retail business, they have 56% of online retail business

The next time you hear someone say, "Screw BestBuy for being open on Thanksgiving, I'll do my shopping online", you might want to bring this up.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Not even that-- 56% of website visits. However, that's not my point. It's not even relevant if...

they worked for that percentage and they do a good job.

The point is that they are just too damn big. In addition to retail deliveries, they are becoming one of the biggest cloud resources and are the tech backbone of even some competitors.

[LongtimeAZDem]

7. So your entire argument is that they are too successful, and should be stopped. Good luck with that.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Hey, we did to to Rockefeller and the railroad and steel trusts...

Bigness by itself is not a problem, but market disruption is.

[LongtimeAZDem]

9. It's not a trust, and it's not a monopoly, and there's no evidence it disrupts the market, other than

by being good at it. As many others have pointed out, it has provided a market for small retailers that could never exist otherwise.

Go ahead, run with this as a platform; it's nonsense, and massively unpopular, and it will lose.

[MineralMan]

11. Website visits. Not sales.

Words matter.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Post #6?

[Doremus]

14. I don't know when retail market share was deregulated but

back in the 1970s I worked for a national drug store chain. They aggressively pursued an expansion program that involved buying other chains. The FTC often told they had to sell off a portion of them before they could complete the acquisition because they had too many stores in overlapping cities. I somehow doubt anything like that would happen today.