Amazon dominates online retail websites

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 14-Jan-02, 16:20

LONDON - Amazon's domination of the online retail market has been confirmed as it retained its position as the top online retailer in the UK, and three of its sites were in the European top five.

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Amazon.co.uk reported a unique audience of 2.37m in December 2001, beating off competition from eBay.co.uk and Tesco's online delivery service. They came in at number two and number three respectively in the list of top UK online retailers.

Argos saw web sales grow faster than any other online retailer in the UK top 10, with sales up by 158% since September.

Amazon's bookselling rival BOL was at number eight on the list with 1.04m users. Both QXL and Infront.co.uk, which featured at numbers seven and 10 last year, dropped out of the top 10.

In Europe, the most popular retail website was eBay.de, with a unique audience of 4.37m. The next three most popular sites were all Amazon domains: Amazon.de, with 3.83m; amazon.com, with 3.68m; and amazon.co.uk, with 2.52m. Proving that the global online brands are the most popular, eBay.com came in at number five.

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