Other forms of buyer’s relationship with brands and brands, and in other channels, are beginning to build a new map of global retail.
The leaders also suffer
Amazon, absolute leader in the ecommerce channel in the United States and threat, not real in terms of figures, in the rest of European and American countries, is awaiting the latest data on its market share in the total of American online retail. Analysts forecast a sharp decline, from 47% in the previous quarter to 37.7% in the second quarter of 2018.
EMarketer, source of the estimate, believes that the decline, far from altering the company of Jeff Bezos, could be good news for Amazon, which would currently seek to reduce size to face antitrust investigations in their country of origin.
That’s how things were a year ago, with a strong opponent in Walmart (fourth in the Top of 2018 shown below) that already at the present time would have made the leap to second place, after his ambitious omnichannel plan and its excellent results in ecommerce.
Leaders in the e-commerce channel in the United States
If the news could favor the leading eretailer in a timely manner, it is not to lower the guard the strong pressure exerted by its closest competitors, mainly Walmart and eBay. And others such as technology companies like Google, with great interests in online channels, whether they are pure direct sales, or through other forms of virtual commerce that arrive.
In the medium term, it is the other virtual sales channels, which could lead directly to changes in positions even in the most powerful ones. According to a survey conducted in February 2019 by Salesforce, 81% of professionals in the consumer goods sector around the world believe that new forms of communication are transforming the way consumers connect with products.
Other channels, other forms of relationship
Further, another survey of the same date, conducted by the electronic commerce platform Salsify. While 78% of digital buyers in the United States consider Amazon as their favorite place to shop, other forms and modes of relationship and purchase come into play.
The following table shows how digital buyers are predisposed to increase their purchases in one or other channels, including voice services such as Alexa. To highlight, the decline in that willingness to purchase Amazon, from 78% to 56%. Descent also for the physical store (from 47% to 42%), Walmart (a point in decline) or for search portals such as Google Shopping and others (from 26% to 18%).
In front of them, different online retailers or new forms of ecommerce, such as websites with direct sales of brands, social channels or the incipient voice services, could be scraping market share in the still without building new retail map in an upcoming future.
See and take good note. The advance of other channels should not only serve as a wake-up call for Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, JD.com, Walmart or for physical stores.
Also published on Medium.