Thanks to its perk-heavy Prime membership, Amazon has long enjoyed an edge over legacy retailers because those customers get free two-day shipping. But rivals, which already have something of an advantage during the season because they have so many stores, have managed to yank that away this year by offering their own free, swift shipping options.
Physical stores still rake in more than 80% of holiday spending, even though their share is decreasing, and they’ve blunted that too, by boosting their own e-commerce, according to a report from e-commerce analytics firm Cardlytics. Brick-and-mortar retailers’ share of spend fell nearly 2% between 2016 and 2017, but their online and mobile share is rising, according to the report, which was emailed to Retail Dive.
