Amazon dominates the online retail market in the US, but Apple’s iTunes now generates more sales than Staples and Walmart on the web, according to new data. Part of Apple’s 24% increase last year (to $18.3 billion) is due to an accounting change: For the first time, Apple threw online hardware sales into the mix […]
Amazon dominates the online retail market in the US, but Apple’s iTunes now generates more sales than Staples and Walmart on the web, according to new data.
Part of Apple’s 24% increase last year (to $18.3 billion) is due to an accounting change: For the first time, Apple threw online hardware sales into the mix alongside iTunes and App Store sales.
Horace Dediu of Asymco tweeted a graph of the difference between Apple’s iTunes account activity and Amazon customer accounts from 2010 until now. Dediu’s chart shows that Apple’s online services have grown significantly faster than Amazon’s.
The Wall Street Journal points out that Apple has a big advantage over many other online retail stores, “millions of people with credit cards on file and one click away from making a purchase.”
Global Internet sales at Wal-Mart, which remained ranked as the fourth largest online seller by Internet Retailer, rose by 30% to $10 billion last year, topping Amazon’s 20% sales growth during the same period.
Staples’ online sales grew by just 1% to $10.4 billion, representing about 45% of the company’s $23.1 billion in total revenue last year. Likewise, online sales grew by 1% at Office Depot to $4.1 billion and were flat at Office Max at $3.2 billion.
Source: WSJ
