By Dan Frommer. From the 
archives.
Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 11:40 am.
Side-By-Side: The Apple Store, Best Buy, And Amazon
Amazon will finally pass Best Buy in revenue this year, and my latest post at ReadWriteWeb charts the companies’ growth in sales and profits dating back to 1995.
What happens when you toss in the Apple Store?
As this chart shows, Apple’s retail revenue is still much smaller than Best Buy’s — approaching one-third, or so, this past year.
It’s also smaller than Amazon’s. But a better comparison to Amazon might also include Apple’s $7 billion iTunes business, and then you’re getting close to half of Amazon’s sales. (In 2011, some 60% of Amazon’s sales were “electronics and other general merchandise” and 37% were “media”.)
Anyway, these are obviously different companies with different businesses, but it’s particularly interesting to see how big Apple’s own retail business has grown relative to Best Buy. (See also: This Asymco chart highlighting Apple’s dramatically higher retail efficiency vs. the competition, especially Best Buy.)
Check out my new site: The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their time and money.