Wells Fargo: Amazon's dominance is being eroded

Wells Fargo pointed out in its latest report that Amazon is not only an e-commerce giant, but also the largest clothing and footwear seller in the United States.

Wells Fargo estimates that Amazon 's U.S. apparel and footwear sales, including third-party sellers, exceed $41 billion , 20% to 25% higher than Walmart , the second-largest U.S. apparel seller .

In the online channel, Amazon has an even greater advantage, with its sales accounting for approximately 34% to 35% of US online clothing sales , which is seven times that of Macy's, the second largest online clothing seller in the United States .

Wells Fargo analysts cited eMarketer data : Amazon 's apparel and footwear gross merchandise volume (GMV) grew from $36 billion in 2019 to $41 billion in 2020.

Analysts note that even though its growth rate slowed in 2020, Amazon still outperformed the overall apparel market .

"Although it was only a small increase of 15%, we believe this is due to the fact that people's overall demand for clothing was curbed by the epidemic, " the report said. "In comparison, Amazon achieved a 20-30% compound annual growth rate in the GMV of clothing /footwear in the first three years . "

Wells Fargo predicts that Amazon's apparel and footwear sales in the United States will reach $45 billion by 2021. The growth rate is about 10%, and the reason for the continued slowdown is that consumers will return to offline stores.

"While Amazon remains the dominant force in the market, its dominance is fading as the retail economy and offline brick-and-mortar stores recover , " the report said .

"While e-commerce appears to be ubiquitous, we note that it actually still only accounts for a small portion of total retail sales," the analysts said. "According to the US Census Bureau, as of June 2021, the US e-commerce industry had sales of approximately $836 billion - 14% of total retail sales ($6.2 trillion) . "

Some analysts believe that Amazon is moving into the broader clothing and accessories sectors, such as luxury goods , beauty categories and other areas of retail, and these actions indicate that the company is looking for ways to expand its business.

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