It’s no secret that Amazon has an enormous influence on e-commerce. Here’s another amazing statistic to drive that point home, courtesy of a new comScore study [download page]: Americans spent 22.6 billion minutes on Amazon during December 2017, more than the combined total spent on the rest of the top 10 e-commerce retailers (16.6 billion).
In fact, Americans spent almost 4 times more minutes on Amazon.com (22.6 billion) in December than on the next-largest retailer by time spent, eBay (6.2 billion minutes).
The majority of minutes spent with Amazon were spent on mobile devices rather than desktops, per the report, and 78% of those mobile minutes were in-app rather than on its mobile site.
All told, Amazon boasted 95.4 million mobile app unique visitors during the month, more than double the number visiting Walmart’s app (37.7 million).
Overall, Amazon had nearly 200 million (197 million) total digital unique visitors coming via desktop and/or mobile, with Walmart (127 million) and eBay (113 million) the next-largest retail properties.
At Least 60% of Q4 Transactions Occurred on Amazon for Key Categories
Not only is Amazon’s influence massive, but it’s also getting larger. That’s true as seen through the lens of Amazon’s share of online transactions in Q4, compared to a year earlier.
For example, Amazon accounted for 65% of Apparel & Accessories transactions during the fourth quarter, up from 51% share during the year-earlier period. That happens to be the #1 spending category for online purchases, for the report, so it’s not that Amazon is dominating in smaller categories.
Likewise, Amazon hogged 81% of online transactions in the CPG category (the #4 category in online spend), up from 76% a year earlier. Amazon’s influence in Consumer Electronics (the #2 category for spending volume) was flat, but it still managed to account for almost two-thirds (66%) of transactions in that area.
Other areas in which Amazon’s share of transactions grew included:
- Furniture, Appliances and Equipment (75%, up from 70%);
- Home and Garden (76%, up from 69%); and
- Video Games (69%, up from 62%).
It Doesn’t Have to be Amazon, Always
The study demonstrates that two-thirds of non-Amazon purchases still featured a visit to Amazon in the 7 days leading up to the transaction.
But while Amazon is the elephant in the room, purchase volume does seem to translate to greater retailer diversification.
For example, among those who made 2-5 purchases during the fourth quarter, fully 85% shopped at only 1 or 2 sites. But among those who made 6-9 purchases, a majority (53%) used at least 3 sites. And among those who made at least 10 purchases, around half used at least 4 sites.
Previous research has shown that the primary reasons why people shop on Amazon – low prices and free shipping – would also encourage them to purchase from other retailers.
