Amazon Myth Busting

Retail Dive recently examined the 10 most widely believed myths about Amazon.com, in an effort to set the record straight about the e-comm giant.

The article addresses things like the real number of US Prime members, Marketplace sales figures, shopper demos, paid wages, assumed low prices, actual marketshare, and retail apocalypse culpability, and busts about as many myths as it confirms.

For starters, experts don’t think there are 85-100 million Prime members living in the US, as has been cited by the company. One Moody’s analyst told Retail Dive that the number doesn’t “seem even close to accurate” and another said that estimate was “seriously overstated… [and] highly improbable.” The actual number? Closer to 50 million, according to those same analysts, which is still a status quo-crushing figure, but not quite the industry-choking red algae bloom it’s made out to be.

Employee salaries, it turns out, aren’t so big either — unless you’re in the corporate office. If you happen to work at that level, the average salary is an eye-popping $153,320 per year, but if you’re not, that number dips to between $12 and $15 an hour. And because the $12 – $15 earners vastly outnumber their corporate counterparts, the company-wide median salary is a paltry $28,445 a year.

As far as marketshare goes, the environment-swallowing 44 percent estimates appear to be solid, and Amazon is now selling more products through its Marketplace than on its own — from 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses — which means that there’s actually more third-party growth than native growth on the platform.

And in regards to their role as Purveyors of the Retail Apocalypse, the story says that while “the e-commerce company does present a major competitive threat in combining low prices, high convenience, patient shareholders and a nearly infinite selection of products and, more and more, services on its site,” there are also a lot of other disruptive forces out there besides Amazon. Though, arguably, none as disruptive.

You can read more about it at Retail Dive.

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