With technology having advanced in leaps and bounds, online shopping has become the order of the day. Thanks to the various mobile apps and dot.com businesses, shopping for anything is literally on consumers’ finger-tips. Talking of e-Commerce, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN – Free Report) is undoubtedly the first name to pop-up on anyone’s mind.
Obviously, consumers’ rapid shift to e-marketplace and Amazon’s growing dominance has hit store traffic hard. This has shaken most retailers and compelled them to adopt omni-channel strategies, which has become the need of the hour. Before getting into how retailers are coping up with the evolving consumer preferences and mounting competition from the e-Commerce king, let’s take a glance at the U.S. Retail e-Commerce Sales data.
e-Commerce Sales Data — a Major Indicator of Consumers’ Changing Preferences
Per the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce, the estimate for second-quarter 2017 U.S. retail e-Commerce sales rose 4.8% sequentially, to $111.5 billion. On a year-over-year basis, this estimate surged 16.2%. Further, the Bureau stated that e-Commerce sales constituted about 8.9% of the total retail sales in the second quarter, marking a 40 basis points and 90 bps improvement on a sequential and year-over-year basis, respectively. Notably, these estimates included adjustments related to seasonal variations.
Amazon Trying to Gain Lion’s Share
Amazon’s popularity is attributable to its solid technological expertise, which enables it to offer consumers an unmatched level of convenience. Its user-friendly app and website, impressive product assortment, constant innovations, and seamless payment and checkout system have helped it to become consumers’ favorite shopping destination.
Further, this e-Commerce giant’s success story is highlighted by its AmazonFresh Pickup service, and its cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS). While the former allows users to order groceries online, the latter is a provider of technological infrastructure. This biggie is also known for the online and offline features added to its bookstores.
