Amazon surpasses Walmart to become largest clothing and footwear retailer in the U.S.

Recently, according to foreign media reports, the latest report from Wells Fargo shows that Amazon's clothing and footwear sales have now exceeded $41 billion , including sales through third-party sellers . According to Wells Fargo's estimates, this total is 20% to 25% higher than Walmart, the second largest clothing seller in the United States. Amazon's clothing sales account for about 35% of total online clothing sales in the United States, making it the largest online clothing seller in the United States .

The report said that in the three years before the epidemic, Amazon basically maintained an annual growth rate of 20% to 30%. Wells Fargo analysts cited data provided by eMarketer showing that Amazon's gross merchandise volume (GMV) was US$36 billion in 2019, and increased to more than US$41 billion in 2020. Due to the impact of the epidemic, clothing demand plummeted, so the increase was smaller.

But analysts pointed out that although the growth rate slowed in 2020, Amazon's overall performance still outperformed the entire clothing category. In addition, although e-commerce seems to be everywhere, in fact, e-commerce sales in the United States only account for a small part of total retail sales. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the past 12 months ending June 2021, U.S. e-commerce sales were US$83.6 billion, while total U.S. retail sales were US$6.2 trillion. U.S. e-commerce sales accounted for about 14% of total retail sales, but its growth rate was faster, with a year-on-year increase of 26%.

Wells Fargo pointed out that although Amazon is the dominant force in the market, its dominance is fading as the retail economy and offline entities recover, but Amazon still has major advantages in delivery speed and logistics distribution. At the same time, Amazon is also entering the broader clothing and accessories fields, such as luxury clothing, beauty categories and other retail fields, indicating that it is vigorously developing its retail business.

An eMarketer report in August predicted that Amazon's total e-commerce sales in 2021 will reach $386.4 billion by the end of this year, with total consumer electronics transactions accounting for $94.4 billion.

It is worth mentioning that Amazon's retail initiatives are not only reflected online. On Wednesday local time, Amazon announced that its "Just Walk Out" technology will be installed in two Whole Foods supermarkets. In addition, Amazon department stores are under construction and other physical stores are already open for business.

Meanwhile, Amazon is becoming the go-to platform for many consumers to shop, even though the company reported a sales miss in its most recent earnings announcement. But a Wells Fargo survey of 1,000 U.S. Amazon shoppers showed that many still increased their engagement during the 2020 pandemic.

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Clothing Retail