Bezos To Testify That Amazon Competes In ‘Strikingly Large’ Worldwide Retail Market

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will testify before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Wednesday (July 29) that his eCommerce company comprises just a small portion of the retail market domestically and worldwide, where there is plenty of room for competition.

“The global retail market we compete in is strikingly large and extraordinarily competitive. Amazon accounts for less than 1% of the $25 trillion global retail market and less than 4% of retail in the U.S. Unlike industries that are winner-take-all, there’s room in retail for many winners,” Bezos will say to the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, according to testimony released by the House.

Bezos will say that over 80 merchants domestically bring in more than $1 billion in annual sales. He will note that Amazon has “large, established players” as rivals, such as Costco, Target and Kroger. Another competitor, Walmart, he will say is over two times the size of Amazon. Bezos will also point to some new rivals in the competitive retail landscape.

“We also face new competition from the likes of Shopify and Instacart — companies that enable traditionally physical stores to put up a full online store almost instantaneously and to deliver products directly to customers in new and innovative ways — and a growing list of omnichannel business models,” Bezos will say.

In his testimony, Bezos will say that the retailer took the “unprecedented step” of letting third-party merchants into its stores in 1999. He noted that third-party sales now comprise roughly 60 percent of tangible item sales on Amazon, and the sales are expanding quicker than the eCommerce retailer’s own sales.

“We didn’t have to invite third-party sellers into the store. We could have kept this valuable real estate for ourselves. But we committed to the idea that over the long term it would increase selection for customers, and that more satisfied customers would be great for both third-party sellers and for Amazon,” Bezos will say.

As previously reported, Bezos, along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook are set to appear before the congressional subcommittee looking into competitive practices among Big Tech on Wednesday (July 29).