Amazon: A ‘multi-headed beast’ dominating the economy?

Date: 14 Jul 2017 | posted in: Media Coverage, Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Fox Business – July 14, 2017

Written by Brittany De Lea

While the retail sector as a whole is struggling to keep its head above water — with U.S. sales falling for a second consecutive month Opens a New Window.in June — e-commerce behemoth Amazon (AMZN) announced Wednesday Prime Day sales surged 60% over last year’s already record breaking totals — surpassing its sales on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Amazon was responsible for 43% of all online retail sales in 2016, according to an analysis by Slice Intelligence, with e-commerce sales accounting for 8.5% Opens a New Window.of overall sales in the first quarter of 2017. But Amazon’s growing dominance in the market, driven in part by a blurring boundary between the online and offline shopping spheres, could have effects that extend far beyond the retail sector, one nonprofit research group warns.

“We are seeing a lot of negative impacts from Amazon’s dominance,” said Olivia LaVecchia, research analyst with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, in an interview with FOX Business. “Our research has found that Amazon has become so dominant, both as a platform and a retailer, that it’s been able to use that power to exclude competition and entrepreneurs … and hold down wages for workers.”

Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has also come into the cross hairs of President Donald Trump Opens a New Window.quite a few times throughout recent years. Trump accused the fellow billionaire businessman of having a “huge antitrust problem” during an interview with Fox News in May.

While U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told FOX Business Opens a New Window.last month he didn’t see any violations of anti-trust laws, some experts are assuming a slightly more skeptical posture.

“It’s interesting that a lot of people think of Amazon just as a retailer because that’s how so many people interact with the company … but really it’s increasingly this multi-headed beast,” LaVecchia said.

Amazon’s stock is up more than 33% so far this year and a whopping 357% over the past five years.

Read the full story here.

Facebooktwitterredditmail
Avatar photo
Follow Nick Stumo-Langer:
Nick Stumo-Langer

Nick Stumo-Langer was Communications Manager at ILSR working for all five initiatives. He ran ILSR's Facebook and Twitter profiles and builds relationships with reporters. He is an alumnus of St. Olaf College and animated by the concerns of monopoly power across our economy.