The e-commerce site was presented as the big winner of containment, with the French forced to stay at home rushing into online shopping. This is only half true if the Kantar Institute is to be believed. The market research firm confirms information revealed by the specialist magazine LSA.
Amazon had more competition and fell victim to what is called “Amazon bashing”, brand denigration, counter-advertising. For 2020 as a whole, Amazon’s market share stands at 19%, down from 22% a year earlier. What hurt the pride of the American giant. Kantar estimates the business volume achieved by Amazon in 2020 in France at just over eight billion euros (up 7% compared to 2019) against a global market (excluding online sales of supermarkets) of 43 billion.
In addition to the smear campaigns to which Amazon was the object and which played on its sales – we remember in particular the controversy around bookstores forced to remain closed while Amazon could continue to sell books by delivery. – the site has also suffered the collateral effects of the increase in click and collect (orders placed directly with temporarily closed merchants). Not to mention some social and logistical problems with the closure of warehouses imposed by the justice during the first confinement. Amazon, the powerful Gafa, which is losing its luster in Europe: quite a symbol. Above all, it is proof that nothing is ever won in an increasingly competitive world, even for the most powerful.
