Amazon is predicted to overtake Tesco as Britain’s biggest retailer in 2025, marking a major change of the guard
Amazon is predicted to overtake Tesco as Britain’s biggest retailer in 2025, marking a major change of the guard.
The pandemic has turbocharged online shopping and put Amazon, which started selling books in the UK in 1998, on the road to dominance.
Last month it announced it will take on an extra 10,000 staff to meet demand, taking its UK workforce to more than 55,000 by the end of the year.
Tesco, founded by Polish migrants as London market stall in 1919, employs 340,000 staff in its 3,400 UK stores.
On a sales basis Amazon, and the third-party sellers who use its site, will overtake Tesco as the largest retailer in around four years, according to data from Edge. Amazon sales will hit £77.1billion by 2025, up from £36.3billion last year, while Tesco sales will grow from £58.1billion in 2020 to £68.8bn in 2025.
The Edge report predicted a third of sales from large chains will be online by 2025, up from 26 per cent last year, as UK web sales rise from £105.2billion in 2020 to £176.2billion in 2025, with the retail market expanding to £500billion.
Amazon, by 2025, will take £1 in every £7 of UK chain sales, up from £1 in every £11 last year. Its grocery division will also grow strongly, the analysts said, allowing it to overtake the likes of McColls and Wilko to become the UK’s 15th biggest food seller. It has already made aggressive moves into grocery – online with Amazon Fresh and its tie-up with Morrisons, and in stores through Whole Foods.
In the next four years Edge says Morrisons will be overtaken as the UK’s fourth largest supermarket by Aldi, which will grow sales by 4.4 per cent per year to £11.1billion in 2025.
Sainsbury’s will stay third with sales of £42.2billion.
Asda will hit £26.7billion annual sales, reflecting a relatively lacklustre 2.4 per cent annual growth in revenues.