The Evolution of Amazon

It’s a story we’ve heard many times: Amazon started with books, and grew to become The Everything Store, as Jeff Bezos is said to describe his vision. But, what exactly is in the Everything Store? What changed over time?

Since 2013 CIRP has asked Amazon.com shoppers what departments they bought from in their most recent order. A look back ten years shows in detail how Amazon customers expanded what they buy. We ask customers about shopping across eleven departments. For our purposes here, we address the six top departments among those customers. 

Grocery, combining food and health and beauty sold from Amazon warehouses and via Amazon Fresh, has become the most popular department, with 35% of customers including one or more grocery items in their most recent order. Clothes, home goods, and electronics are next most popular, with 17-22% of customers buying from one or more of those departments (Chart 1).