Despite retailers’ endless efforts to promote holiday deals in hopes of attracting online traffic, Amazon is still winning the e-tail race.
According to a poll conducted by Reuters and global market research firm Ipsos this week, 51 percent of the 3,426 adult shoppers surveyed said they plan to do most of their online holiday shopping at Amazon.
A much lower 16 percent said they’d buy their gifts at Walmart, while 3 percent said they would shop at Target and 2 percent said the holiday season would find them at Macy’s. Roughly one quarter of those surveyed said they would shop at a retailer not named in the poll.
Both Target and Walmart are continuing to invest in their online businesses—Target said it would invest $1 billion to improve e-commerce and Walmart promised to put more than $2 billion into the channel over the next two years. But neither retailer is commanding as much share of the e-commerce market as it had hoped to.
Target missed its e-sales goal, reporting 20 percent growth in the third quarter, which was quite shy of the 30 percent aim. Walmart reported a 10 percent increase in e-commerce sales this week, though it had hoped to make it to the mid-teens.
Amazon, on the other hand, reported a 28 percent increase in sales for North America in its third quarter report released in October.
Reuters’ poll found that 8 percent of adults plan to shop online only this year, up from 6 percent last year. The portion of respondents who plan to do most of their buying online stayed steady at 17 percent.
Edging Amazon out of the top spot when it comes to e-commerce is a challenge brands won’t likely meet as the company has become synonymous with online shopping, Reuters noted, and it’s additional Prime services like free and fast shipping and access to movies, among other things, have further solidified its position as a consumer favorite.
Amazon also doesn’t have to worry about getting shoppers in stores, which means it can channel all of its efforts toward online sales.
“They drive you to that site in many, many ways,” Needham & Co. analyst Kerry Rice told Reuters. “It’s not about driving foot traffic to retail stores.”