As of June 2022, Amazon accounted for 37.8 percent of the U.S. e-commerce market, making it the country’s leading online retailer by a considerable margin. Second place was occupied by the e-commerce site of the retail chain Walmart, with a 6.3 percent market share, followed in third place by Apple, with 3.9 percent.

Amazon’s continued success

Amazon has long dominated the e-commerce market as the world’s favorite online marketplace. In 2022, company hit over half a trillion U.S. dollars in net sales. The United States is by far Amazon’s most profitable market, as the U.S. branch generated over 356 billion U.S. dollars in sales in 2022. Germany ranked second, with 33 billion dollars, followed closely by the United Kingdom with 30 billion dollars.

Online shopping on the rise

Online shopping has grown significantly over the past decade, with more people turning to the internet for their shopping needs. The proof is in the numbers: the U.S. e-commerce industry was worth almost a trillion dollars in 2023. By 2027, forecasts show that the online market will grow to more than 50 percent. U.S. online shoppers purchase fashion and food and beverages the most via the internet.

Alibaba was the top company worldwide in terms of gross merchandise volume (GMV) share across the web. The Chinese e-retail giant which provides consumers business-to-business (B2B), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and business-to-consmer (B2C) e-commerce accounted for a total 23 percent of the overall online GMV in 2022. Amazon ranked second, accounting for 12 percent of overall online GMV.

Between 2023 and 2024, it is forecast that Amazon's share of total e-commerce sales in the United States will increase across all five featured product categories. Health and personal care will see the greatest growth, rising from 33.2 percent to 34.7 percent. The other categories include electronics, office items, clothing and home furnishings. With a market share projected to hit almost 50 percent in 2024, Amazon dominates the electronics online retail space in the United States.

In 2020, Amazon Business' sales accounted for 1.4 percent of B2B product sales on e-commerce sites in the United States. In the upcoming years, U.S. enterprises will use the Amazon platform even more. By 2025, Amazon Business' market share is forecast to grow to 2.4 percent.

This statistic presents a ranking of the leading mass merchant e-retailers in the United States in 2016, sorted by market share in percent. In 2017, Amazon.com, Inc. was responsible for 16.22 percent of e-commerce sales in the United States. Amazon also ranks first among retail websites in the United States with 197 million unique visitors in December 2017, ahead of eBay, Walmart, and Apple. Amazon also was also the leading e-retailer in the United States in 2017 with U.S. e-commerce sales of over 54.47 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2022, the share of retail sales of Amazon.com Inc. stood at 23 percent, making it the second-leading e-commerce company in Japan. The figures represented a slight decrease compared to the previous year, when the share amounted to 23.2 percent. The American technology company operated mainly under the "Amazon" and "Amazon Marketplace" brands in the Japanese e-commerce market

In 2024, Brazil held approximately 29 percent of the e-commerce market in Latin America and the Caribbean, closely followed by Mexico with over 26 percent. Throughout the year, various economies in the region were poised to increase their market share, with Brazil and Mexico exhibiting the most substantial growth in online sales. The largest market has a foreign leader In 2023, Latin America saw its largest e-commerce economy thrive. That year, online shopping in Brazil generated nearly 186 billion Brazilian reals in revenue. Competition among online retailers for Brazilian shoppers is fierce, but Mercado Libre (Mercado Livre in Brazil), founded in Argentina, remains at the forefront. In February 2024 alone, this marketplace attracted close to 321 million shoppers to its platform, surpassing its closest rival, Amazon Brasil, by 11 percent. Mobile commerce: a game-changer Mobile devices have played a pivotal role in democratizing internet access and online purchasing in Latin America. By the end of 2024, mobile retail e-commerce sales in the region reached approximately 97 billion U.S. dollars, tripling the 2019 figures before the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil emerged as the regional leader in m-commerce revenue, with sales amounting to about 30 billion in 2022, and showed the highest mobile participation over total online retail sales.

In 2019, Amazon was the largest e-retailer in Mexico, with a 13.4 percent market share in the e-commerce segment. This percentage was almost three times higher than that recorded in 2016.

In 2023, e-commerce comprised over 15.6 percent of total retail sales in the United States. Forecasts suggest that this proportion will continue to rise steadily in the coming years, reaching approximately 20.6 percent by 2027.

Fashion fever

The digital revolution has significantly changed how retail is done, impacting a wide range of product categories. Out of all e-commerce product categories, apparel and accessories are the most purchased online in the United States. As of February 2023, roughly 18 percent of all fashion retail sales took place online. Furniture and home furnishing, as well as computer and consumer electronics, ranked second, with over 15 percent of each product category purchased via the internet. The product categories that are least purchased online are office equipment and supplies (1.4 percent) and books, music, and video (5.1 percent).

Shopping hotspots

Amazon dominates the e-commerce industry in the United States, though other competitors still have significant market share. In December 2023, amazon.com was the most-visited e-commerce and shopping site in the United States. That month, around 45 percent of all visits to e-commerce sites were made to Amazon. Other popular shopping sites include ebay.com, walmart.com, etsy.com, and target.com. The staggering proportion of online retail sales in the country attributed to Amazon is quite remarkable. In 2023, Amazon's website accounted for almost half of all online computer and consumer electronics sales. Similarly, nearly one-third of online fashion purchases in the country were made on Amazon.

In 2023, Mercado Libre was the largest e-retailer in Mexico, with a market share of 15.4 percent. Amazon ranked second, generating approximately 11.2 percent of the total e-commerce sales revenue in the North American country.

As of 2022, the e-commerce marketplace Flipkart had the highest market share of 38 percent in the online retail market in India. The second-highest market share of 35 percent was of Amazon India. The online marketplaces cover over 80 percent of online sales in the e-commerce industry.

In 2022, Hepsiburada, a Turkish e-commerce company became the leading e-commerce brand in Turkey, holding a market share of 27 percent. Trendyol followed as second on the list, with a 25 percent market share. Additionally, global companies like Amazon, Apple, and Mediamarkt reached a five percent market share in the same year in Turkey.

Amazon's global platform 'amazon.com' was the most popular e-commerce and shopping website worldwide, accounting for more than 12.92 percent of desktop visits to sites in this category in April 2024. Second place went to eBay.com with roughly three percent. Amazon leads the way There is no denying the dominance of Amazon in the e-commerce industry. By 2026, Amazon's worldwide net sales are estimated to exceed one trillion U.S. dollars. In 2022, amazon.com garnered over three billion monthly visitors, maintaining its spot as the most popular retail website worldwide. As of April 2024, the leading social media traffic referrers to amazon.com were YouTube, Facebook, and X. Online shopping Amazon’s strong position is also due to shoppers’ preference for online marketplaces. As of April 2024, nearly one-third of online consumers opted for online marketplaces over all other digital channels. This category of platforms was also ranked as the e-commerce channel delivering the best customer experience in 2024. According to shoppers worldwide, the three most important changes that could make their digital shopping experience better were faster delivery, free returns, and more convenient shipping conditions.

In 2023, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars. Projections indicate a 39 percent growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to surpass eight trillion dollars by 2027.

World players Among the key players on the world stage, the Chinese retail giant Alibaba holds the title of the largest e-commerce retailer globally, accounting for a 23 percent market share. Nevertheless, forecasts suggest that by 2027, Seattle-based e-commerce powerhouse Amazon will surpass Alibaba in estimated sales, reaching a staggering 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars in online sales.

Leading e-tailing countries The Chinese e-commerce market was the biggest worldwide in 2023, as internet sales constituted almost half of the country's retail transactions. Indonesia ranked second with the highest share of retail sales online (32 percent), closely trailed by the United Kingdom and South Korea, exceeding the 30 percent mark. That year, the up-and-coming e-commerce markets centered around Asia. The Philippines and India stood out as the swiftest-growing e-commerce markets based on online sales, anticipating a growth rate surpassing 20 percent.

Amazon and Walmart have both seen a steady increase in their share of e-commerce sales in the United States from 2019 to 2023. That being said, Amazon clearly dominates Walmart in this area as they were responsible for about 50.1 percent of e-commerce sales in the United States in the second quarter of 2023 where Walmart was responsible for a mere 6.7 percent. Where they thrive When comparing Amazon and Walmart e-commerce sales in the United States, it is important to note key differences in the categories of e-commerce that these companies thrive on. From 2019 to 2021, Amazon’s share of electronics and appliance e-commerce sales in the U.S. never dipped below 20 percent, while Walmart’s share of e-commerce sales in this category never rose above six percent. However, Walmart’s share of food and beverage e-commerce sales in the United States was much greater than Amazon’s over the same time period. Walmart’s future in e-commerce According to forecasts, Walmart’s e-commerce sales are only going to increase, and not by a little. By 2023, the corporation’s e-commerce sales are forecast to reach a value of nearly 45 billion U.S. dollars, a significant increase from the 27.1 billion U.S. dollars recorded in 2020.

In December 2023, Amazon.com was the leading online shopping website in the United States. During the measured period, the sprawling platform accounted for over 45 percent of desktop traffic in the e-commerce and shopping subcategory. In second place on the list was eBay.com, with 9.22 percent of visitors. Walmart ranked third with a bit less than six percent of web traffic. Why customers browse on Amazon The main reason behind the outstanding online traffic to Amazon is user behavior throughout the customer journey. Amazon serves as a search engine for U.S. consumers, with 73 percent browsing it for inspiration and product discovery. Another 65 percent of U.S. shoppers landed on Amazon to look for products and compare products. In turn, Google is left third in the ranking of most used platforms. Generational differences In the beauty segment, the customer journey is more likely to start on Amazon among senior consumers. In the United States, 44 percent of Baby Boomers started their search of beauty products on the marketplace, while only 35 percent of Gen Z consumers reported doing the same.

In 2022, the market share of the shopping platform Amazon.com held within Japan's e-commerce market exceeded 12 percent. With Amazon Marketplace also accounting for over 10 percent of the market, the Amazon brand generated almost a quarter of retail sales in Japan.

In 2022, the online shopping business with the largest market share in e-commerce was Coupang, with 24.5 percent. Following was NAVER Shopping with a share of around 23.3 percent in the e-commerce market.

As of September 2020, Amazon accounted for 37.9 percent of online retail sales in North America. The online retail platform's market share in Europe amounted to 9.8 percent. Figures include own sales and third-party marketplace seller sales.

As of January 2025, Shopify was the biggest name in the U.S. e-commerce software market, used by roughly 30 percent of websites that use e-commerce technologies. The market’s other major competitors include Wix Stores around 23 percent, WooCommerce Checkout, and Squarespace Add to Cart, each of which boasts a market share of around 15 percent. E-commerce E-commerce is the term used to describe the broad spectrum of products and services which are bought and sold over the internet. It can include everything from the sale of physical good on sites like Amazon, to the online provision of software offered by companies like Google. Often seen as the future of commerce, the market has grown rapidly, especially in the U.S., where it accounts for around 15 percent of overall retail sales in 2021. The retail e-commerce sales in the U.S. is projected to bring in 933 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2021. Such booming sales signals strong demand for the software support behind e-commerce platforms, and estimates suggest that the e-commerce software application market alone will be worth over 6.5 billion dollars by the end of 2021. E-commerce companies The undisputed biggest name in e-commerce internationally is Amazon.com. The company brought in more than 197 billion U.S. dollars in revenue from its online stores in 2020. Other major competitors include Chinese brands Alibaba and Jingdong. Alibaba's annual revenue amounted to more than 717 billion yuan in it's 2021 fiscal year, which translates to around 115 billion U.S. dollars. The annual sales of Jingdong (JD.com) reached a record high of 746 billion yuan in 2020, which is the equavalent of 112 billion U.S. dollars.