Amazon remains dominant online

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 11:41 by Mike Price

Amazon is the world's largest online-only retailer, but it is necessary to review its progress and market share on a regular basis, to work out just how well it is performing.

Here in the UK it has come under fire recently as a result of its tax activities, although this is not going to stop millions of Christmas gifts being ordered from its virtual shelves this year.

Over in the US, it is leaps and bounds ahead of competitors, with a new report from Deepfield discovering that 14 per cent of all sales made via safe shopping online were made from Amazon's American site.

This puts it well ahead of second place eBay, which only managed to stake a claim to 8.8 per cent of the market during Cyber Monday, which saw total online spending hit $1.5 billion ((936 million) in a single 24 hour period.

It is worth pointing out that the figures also show that there is plenty of room in the market for much smaller retailers who offer safe shopping online, because the big brands do not account for the entire e-commerce industry.

This means that consumers not only get plenty of choice, but that the little guy is not being trampled on to the same extent as you might see in the typical high street.

Here in the UK, many have complained of so-called 'clone towns,' which basically have the same shops in their centres as anywhere else due to the dominance of chains.

Because e-commerce is an open market, it is much easier for boutique retailers to find their niche and get in touch with their target audience, even if it is quite widely dispersed across the country. So doing your Christmas shopping online will give you more choice, as well as lower prices.