Amazon rules the retail world by closing a deal better than its rivals can
What matters most to web retailers are three things: traffic, engagement and conversion
New York — Amazon.com’s dominance in online retail is clear to see: the so-called "everything store" captures 49% of retail e-commerce sales in the US, thanks in large part to its 95-million-strong army of Prime customers, who in July contributed to an estimated $4bn spent globally in just 36 hours during a promotional binge that Jeff Bezos created out of thin air. For comparison, that’s more than Church & Dwight, maker of Trojan condoms, generates in a year. So Amazon’s the biggest shopping site in the US, but is it the best? And how does one measure that, anyway? A common way is to look at how much of a retailer’s total revenue comes from its online division. By that metric — simply, who does the biggest share of their business online — Amazon is worlds ahead of most rivals. That doesn’t tell us very much, though. For one thing, that metric is declining at Amazon as the company evolves: It now owns the Whole Foods Market grocery chain and also gets almost 12% of net sales from its...
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