Amazon Ahead of Rivals in Most Major Product Categories

Does Amazon squarely lead the field when it comes to e-commerce in the United States or are there areas in which other companies outperform the online shopping giant in terms of sales? Data from ecommmerceDB shows that for the biggest product groups in online retail, Amazon leads three out of four. Only in the area of online fashion sales, domestic rival Walmart is slightly ahead, while Chinese-founded Shein is following behind. Amazon leads in the areas of furniture and household goods, electronics as well as hobby and leisure, being particularly far ahead of the competition in the latter two categories.

In two smaller categories, DIY and grocery, Walmart is also ahead in terms of U.S. online sales, while Amazon leads care products. Most of Amazon rivals remain domestic, with Shein in fashion being the exception. In the electronics segments, customers buy online from Apple as well, while also favoring The Home Depot for furniture and homeware and shopping for pet food on Chewy.com frequently. However, more Chinese ventures into international e-commerce, for example AliExpress or more recently Temu, have made inroads.

Amazon has a strong position in U.S. online retail, selling more than twice as much in 2023 than its closest competitor Walmart. Amazon's share of U.S. online sales in 2023 stood at 26 percent, according to ECDB. (Amazon proprietary trading plus marketplace).