As the rapid adoption of e-commerce deals a hard blow to the traditional brick-and-mortar retail industry, Seattle-based cloud computing giant and online retail leader Amazon.com is positioned to continue booming on the global trend.
Analysts at MKM Partners released a recent research note suggesting that Amazon could become the world’s largest retailer and tech company in just under seven years. With a projected market cap of $1.6 trillion, Amazon would beat out Microsoft and Oracle combined in terms of sheer size, as well as exceed the value of Wal-Mart, currently America’s largest retailer.
Amazon’s domestic and international retail segments are expected to surpass $500 million on their own by 2025. The firm is also set to benefit from its growing third-party seller business, which already generates a majority of the company’s retail merchandise sales.
Amazon’s aggressive push into all facets of retail has beaten down shares of companies such as US grocery leader Kroger, struggling department store chain Macy’s, soon-to-be obsolete book store Barnes & Noble and electronics seller Best Buy. In efforts to compete against Amazon, companies have developed their own online ordering services and platform, such as Walmart’s Jet.com. Many have attempted to differentiate themselves with niche products and services, such as premium or off-price retailers.
For example, “Anti-Amazon” e-commerce retailer Tophatter is projecting 2017 sales between $300 to $350 million for its mobile app which debuts 90-second “flash” auctions for “discovery shopping.” The startup uses algorithms for personalized recommendations to reach users in a compelling way.
The company is just one example of a business which has worked around the fact that as Amazon inevitably grows, there is less and less room for broad e-commerce sites that act as a simple middleman between buyers and sellers. Innovation is still the name of the game in the retail war, with billions of dollars waiting for those who prevail as they work-around the force of Amazon.
