First, Amazon Came For Walmart’s Retail Crown — Now It’s Snatched Best Buy’s Electronics Throne As Well

• Amazon sold more electronics than Best Buy in September, emerging as the top seller for the category.
• The e-commerce giant has steadily grown despite a challenging consumer environment and could deliver a strong year given healthy holiday sales projections.
• In terms of overall sales, Amazon is expected to surpass Walmart for the first time this year.

Amazon.com, Inc. has beaten legacy electronics retail chain Best Buy to become the top seller of consumer gadgets, third-party data shows — another feather in the tech giant’s hat, underscoring the growing preference for e-commerce over big retail chains.

According to Numerator’s latest Consumer Electronics Tracker, 30% of overall electronics sales occurred on Amazon in September. That’s higher than 23.1% at Best Buy and 12.8% at Walmart, which were number two and three in that month.

Anecdotally, electronics is one of the largest consumer goods categories and a major draw for both physical retailers and e-commerce platforms. Top gadgets, such as the latest iPhone or PlayStation, or home appliances, get the biggest discounts and often fly off the shelves during sales.

Amazon’s third-quarter revenue rose 13% to $180 billion, and net profit rose 39% to $21.2 billion – a towering feat. The e-commerce and cloud giant has eked out topline growth of 10% or more in nine of the last 10 quarters.

AMZN Vs Retail Chains

What’s more, Amazon’s sales this year are expected to surpass those of Walmart, the nation’s largest retail chain, for the first time. Analysts see Amazon’s 2025 revenue at $691.3 billion, and Walmart’s at $681 billion. To be sure, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison; Amazon has a hugely profitable Amazon Web Services unit, which contributes roughly one-fifth to the company’s topline.

Amazon had a 13% market share in the apparel and footwear category, also a key segment, with sales over $67 billion in 2024, according to a recent note by Wells Fargo. That’s more than double Walmart’s $32 billion sales for the category. The e-commerce giant first overtook Walmart as the top clothing retailer in the U.S. in 2018.

Note: The 2025 figures are estimated projections.

Holiday Momentum

Amazon has been having a strong year on the retail front. Its share of electronics sales spiked to 43% in July, just after its summer Prime Day event, according to Numerator data. Bear in mind, Numerator’s electronics sales estimates are based on its tracking of a curated basket of popular electronics. 

With strong numbers coming in for the recently concluded five-day sales stretch from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, things are looking swell. Adobe Analytics projected online sales in this period to hit $43.7 billion, with 6.3% growth on Cyber Monday and a record $11.8 billion on Black Friday. The final estimates will arrive later on Tuesday.

Despite cautious projections in the last few months (consumer spending has been largely weak, retail results have shown), the momentum sets up retailers, including Amazon, for a strong holiday sales period around Christmas and the New Year.

Kantar analysts, who conduct shopper surveys and in-store visits, observed that consumers pulled back on impulse purchases this year. They also noted that signage at major retailers such as Walmart and Target featured clearer, more specific, and more detailed discount language than usual, Reuters reported.

Rachel Dalton, Kantar's head of retail insights, told the news agency that big retailers like Amazon were running more discounts than usual on higher-priced items like tech gadgets, suggesting even wealthy consumers were growing more price-conscious. 

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