Amazon’s Dominance in UK E-Commerce Market Demonstrated

Monday, March 11, 2019 - 14:06 by Graham Miller

A study from Global Data has revealed that the majority of Brits buy something from Amazon on a monthly basis, indicating that it remains the most powerful presence in the world of safe shopping online.

This perhaps explains why the retailer managed to enjoy revenue growth of 23.3 per cent last year, with its UK operations allowing it to snatch a total stake of 4.9 per cent in a market that is still expanding.

Analysts believe that within half a decade Amazon will make up 8 per cent of the nation’s total retail expenditure, and there is almost nothing that will stand in the way of it achieving this even more dominant position.

Shoppers were broken down between different groups in terms of the regularity with which they make purchases via Amazon. Just 15.7 per cent of people said that they had not bought anything from the site in the last year, while 0.6 per cent admitted to snapping up products on a daily basis.

Almost 5 per cent said that they took to the site to buy products several times each week, while monthly purchasing habits were the most common in the survey.

From the point of view of retail competition, this could be seen as problematic news. Since Amazon is essentially unchallenged in its market segment, it might seem to have a monopoly over e-commerce that could be problematic for consumers when it comes to pricing.

Thankfully, the retail market in the UK is big enough to mean that Amazon is constantly pressured to keep prices low in order to remain an attractive proposition to web-savvy shoppers. Consumer loyalties are also hard to win and maintain over time, with modern bargain hunters generally happy to shop across several sites rather than stick to just one.