We know that Apple sells its products online via its website and also at its brick and mortar retail stores. Apple also sells products via its iTunes App Store in the form of movies, music, e-books, apps, and so on, and when you combine those two, it seems that it would make Apple the second largest online retailer in the world, placing them behind Amazon.
This is according to a recent data report from e-commerce research firm, Internet Retailer. The company previously excluded Apple’s hardware sales from its online store, but now after they have included it, they saw a spike in Apple’s sales on the graph. However as you can see, Amazon is still very much ahead of Apple and also very much ahead of Staples who used to sit at number 2 until Apple recently overtook them.
The publication also notes that it appears that for the most part, there is a general upward trend over the past few years with regards to online sales. More “traditional” companies like Wal-Mart, who is probably more known for its brick and mortar outlets, saw their strongest gains back in 2013 where they jumped by 30%.
Once again this still pales in comparison to Amazon’s online sales which totals $67.8 billion in 2013. Even if you were to combine some of the competition, you’d probably need more than a few before they can even reach Amazon’s figures. Will Apple ever overtake Amazon? Well with Amazon having established a foothold in their own hardware, like the Kindle Fire tablet and with rumors of their own smartphone, we reckon it might be an uphill battle.