Report: Amazon Smashed E-tail Competition in January

Amazon.com remained the top online retailer in January with roughly 2.3 million projected buyers -- more than three times that of nearest competitor Barnesandnoble.com -- according to a report released Wednesday by market research firm PC Data.

While Amazon also managed to double the number of shoppers it registered in January 2000, the figure was half of the company's peak activity in December. The study found, however, that the drop was symptomatic of the wider slide in online buying following the crush of the holiday shopping season.

Coming in a distant second on PC Data's list of the top 20 e-tailers was Barnesandnoble.com, with 638,000 projected buyers for the month. Like Amazon, the number was almost double from January 2000, but down from its December high.

Last week, Barnesandnoble.com posted a fourth-quarter loss of US$143.5 million, significantly greater than its loss of $38.3 million in the same period a year earlier. The company also announced plans to cut 350 jobs, or 16 percent of its workforce.

The Amazing Retailer

The strong January showing should come as a welcome dose of good news for Amazon. The Seattle, Washington-based Internet bellwether has spent the past couple of weeks trying to emerge from the shadows of its largest layoffs to date.

In addition to the layoffs, the company has slashed its sales forecasts and is facing questions about its decision to start chasing earnings instead of further expansion.

Amazon has said that it expects to reach operating profitability by the end of 2001, driven in part by increases in its customer base. The company added nearly 13 million new customers last year.

"Remove Amazon.com from the equation and you had a very tight, competitive marketplace in January among top e-tail sites," said PC Data director of research and analysis John Megahed.

Next in Line

Rounding out the top five top e-tailers were Ticketmaster.com with 636,000 projected buyers, Half.com with 567,000 projected buyers and JCPenney.com with 545,000 projected buyers.

The newcomer on PC Data's list was ShopIntuit.com, which sells popular financial management software such as Turbo Tax. ShopIntuit.com claimed the No. 9 spot with 245,000 projected buyers in January.

"The emergence of Quicken's ShopIntuit.com among the top 10 demonstrates that there is room on the Web for new e-commerce faces, especially in light of demand for a popular, seasonal product," said Megahed.

Indeed, a study released earlier this week by Forrester Research projected that 6 million U.S. households will prepare tax returns online this year, up from 2 million last year. The report attributed the forecasted increase to a combination of better online tax and financial service offerings and the growing comfort level of online users toward electronically assisted tax preparation.

Jumping Ahead

PC Data also said that a number of e-tailers made "impressive jumps" into January's Top 20 list, including Staples.com at No. 12, up from No. 30 last month with 186,000 projected buyers.

Another gainer was CyberRebate.com, which came in at No. 13, up from No. 24, with 185,000 projected buyers. Victoriasecret.com also did well, hitting the No. 17 spot, up from No. 34, with 133,000 projected buyers.

To compile its data, PC Data Online tracked unique visitors to the top 20 e-tail sites through software based on buying activity and traffic from more than 120,000 U.S. home Internet users. The research firm did not include shopping domains that provide free downloads, product reviews or purchasing incentives, or other types of e-commerce sites, such as auction, travel reservation or financial service sites.