While there is not much evidence that Amazon is truly slipping, there are at least some early signs that consumers are starting to value other channels more. New data from Insider Intelligence outline shows that Amazon’s share of starting their online shopping search is slipping.
In particular, Amazon is losing share to Walmart, YouTube and Tiktok. Now you can imagine that Walmart is a sign of our economic times, but the YouTube and Tiktok numbers are what Amazon should be concerned about.
Amazon declined from 63% of consumers starting their search there to 56%, whereas Tiktok moved from 14% to 19%.
Generationally, respondents in a survey of Gen Z are finding that half of them have learned about and then purchased a product from an influencer on social media. This is the trend that I would be worried about. Peeling the onion by generational data is 100% the best way to think about this problem – over the next 10 years while Amazon isn’t going anywhere, there is some worry that it could face major headwinds going forward.
There are kind of two paths forward here.
One is, well this trend doesn’t necessarily hurt Amazon. Google is one of the top entry points into Amazon today. If Google searches switch to social media, Amazon could still be the backend.
Two is, well the social media platforms plus Shopify could use this to put a dent into Amazon.
I would love to see these numbers broken down by category.
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