We mined Amazon's acquisitions, investments, and partnerships to discern the company's strategic priorities in retail.
Amazon is the leader in e-commerce globally. In the US alone, sales via Amazon made up nearly 40% of all e-commerce sales in 2022.
However, even with quarterly revenue growth in the double digits, the company is facing increasing profitability challenges. And the number of Amazon Prime members in the US reportedly fell to 168M last year from 170M in 2021 — the first drop since the program’s launch.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s forays into physical retail are in question. Physical stores made up just 3.7% of Amazon’s net sales in Q3’22, nearly unchanged from the previous year.
In response, the e-commerce giant is doubling down on its strengths in digital retail and supply chain. For example, in addition to its Amazon Web Services offering, Amazon is selling more retail tech and tools, from its huge retail advertising business to its unattended checkout tech for stores. It also formed the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, which focuses exclusively on supply chain and logistics advances, in 2021.
Using CB Insights data, we uncovered the 5 most important strategic retail priorities highlighted by Amazon’s recent acquisitions, investments, and partnerships. We then categorized companies by their business relationships with Amazon across these priorities.
- Metaverse and Web3 shopping
- Omnichannel enablement
- Online grocery
- Supply chain, fulfillment, & logistics
- Zero-emission delivery
