Amazon

While there is debate over whether or not Amazon is a monopoly in the retail industry, there is no doubt that it will be in the next few decades. What started out as an online bookstore has transformed into the largest online retailer in the United States. In the economic sense, Amazon might not not have a monopoly over the entire retail industry which is worth trillions of dollars (Lowry), but online, it is doing a decent job of undercutting its competition.

Like Google and Facebook, Amazon has expanded its services over the years. By offering products ranging from electronics to a cloud computing server, Amazon has been able to better understand its users and now offers a personalized shopping experience. These personalization tactics and Amazon’s ever-falling prices (Foer) will increase user base in the next few years, allowing them to reduce prices even more and cut out the online competition.

In terms of offline competition from brick-and-mortar retailers, Amazon has the potential to steal buyers as e-commerce sales increase by sizable amounts year over year (Selz). This process will be slower than Amazon’s online domination, but as everything moves online in the next few decades, retail will do the same and Amazon will already have an established monopoly.

“40 Amazing Online Shopping and Ecommerce Statistics – Selz Blog.” Selz Blog. N.p., 23 July 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Foer, Franklin. “Amazon Must Be Stopped.” New Republic. N.p., 9 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Lowry, Annie. “Amazon Is Not a Monopoly.” Daily Intelligencer. N.p., 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.