Amazon still building US market share, firm says
Morning Business Outlook: For the first time, Amazon has claimed the title of world's most valuable company, ending Microsoft's weeks-long reign; the White House says the IRS will continue to send out tax refund checks even if the partial government shutdown continues.
Amazon already controls about half of the U.S. online retail marketplace, but the e-commerce giant still has room to grow, according to one Wall Street firm.
Based on a survey of 1,011 U.S. internet users, Piper Jaffray found that Amazon’s market share is “still gradually increasing.” Of the respondents, 47 percent said they used Amazon for 10 percent of their holiday shopping or less, down slightly from 50 percent last year, while usage among heavier users grew.
Overall, the firm estimated that Amazon accounted for just 5 percent of the $1.002 trillion in sales forecast by eMarketer for overall U.S. retail holiday spending in 2018 – a number low enough to suggest that the Seattle-based company can still capture a larger portion of the marketplace.
“We see this [usage] as a continued positive for Amazon based on a large addressable remaining domestic [total addressable market] of low-use consumers,” Piper Jaffray said in a research note.
A second survey of 1,505 U.S. internet users found that 46 percent said they had made a purchase on Amazon within the last six months, compared to just 12 percent for Target and about 8 percent for Walmart.
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Amazon was projected to earn 49 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales in 2018, according to statistics released by eMarketer last July.