Amazon Finally Takes Top Spot In Consumer Electronics Sales

Amazon has a new feather in its cap: For the first time ever, the company has topped Dealerscope’s Top 101 Consumer Electronics Retailers, surpassing Best Buy for the title.

In a report, Dealerscope said that while Best Buy has been able to hold a “slight” edge over Amazon for the last several years, it wasn’t able to do that this time around, even though its consumer electronic (CE) retail sales were up 8.5 percent year over year. Amazon’s consumer electronics retail business grew more than 18.5 percent in the same timeframe — more than $5.3 billion than Best Buy. That was enough to give the eCommerce giant the No. 1 spot. However, Dealerscope noted that if Best Buy and Best Buy Canada sales were combined, the company would be higher than Amazon on the list.

“The realization that Amazon has taken this top spot is nothing surprising, given the tremendous growth the company has experienced over the past several years. In fact, we’re probably a little shocked that this hadn’t happened sooner,” wrote Dealerscope in a report highlighting the results of the latest rankings. “But the narrative that this sea change helps tell is that even as major CE retail contenders like Best Buy and Walmart find ways to continue to grow in spite of Amazon, they simply cannot catch up or keep pace with what the online retailer has been able to accomplish.”

While big-box retailers have been making inroads against Amazon, their efforts weren’t enough to prevent Amazon from taking over the top spot in the consumer electronics market. For 2017, Dealerscope said CE sales hit $264.17 billion in the U.S. and Canada, marking a 14 percent increase year over year.

“It should be noted, though, that the industry is incredibly top-heavy. $220.84 billion in consumer electronics sales was gobbled up by the top 10 companies on this year’s list. That represented 83.6 percent of all CE retail sales, leaving just under $44 billion for the other 91 companies to divvy up amongst themselves,” Dealerscope said.