According to data from Internet Retailer (via the Wall Street Journal), Apple is now the second largest online retailer, trailing only behind Amazon. Ousting Staples, Apple grew 24% last year to reach a revenue of $18.3 billion from online sales from their Apple.com website. This includes Apple"s hardware sales, the App Store and iTunes with hardware sales being added as a data point by Internet Retailer this year, giving Apple a slight boost in recorded sales.
Image via WSJ
Apple and Amazon share the big advantage of having millions of credit cards on file already, with Apple"s vast iTunes user base meaning that customers can seamlessly purchase things from Apple.com in a few simple steps.
For the first time in a decade, Wal-Mart"s online sales grew faster than Amazon"s which will likely give the Web company, who sold $67.8 billion in electronics and other media last year, pause. Wal-Mart grew by 30% to $10 billion in revenue, according to Internet Retailer"s data, while Amazon grew just 20% in the same period.
In the second fiscal quarter of 2014, Apple generated $45.6 billion in revenue, selling 43.7 million iPhones and iPads, meaning that their online sales account for a little over 40% of the company"s revenue.
Source: Wall Street Journal