Within the next half decade a full 20 per cent of all money spent via safe shopping online in the UK will be channelled through Amazon alone, according to a study from GlobalData.

Internet Retailing reports that the growing influence of the US-based site is set to see it generate almost £16 billion annually by the time that 2024 rolls around, easily allowing it to outdo its closest competitors by a massive margin.

This figure is made all the more impressive given that it does not take into account any sales which originate from the marketplace platform which Amazon operates allowing third parties to sell products to its customers.

Interestingly enough, the segment within which Amazon is expected to enjoy the most significant amount of growth is grocery deliveries: analysts project that sales will nearly double in the coming five years as it makes its services more widely available in the UK.

Study spokesperson James Yacoub explained that in spite of Amazon’s relatively recent arrival on the grocery delivery scene, it is setting out to make major investments in this area and is also planning to penetrate the British bricks-and-mortar market, with pop-up locations opening this month pointing to another niche that it is targeting.

Of course, Amazon already holds sway over an impressive 16.6 per cent of the e-commerce market in the UK at the moment, showing that it is really just building upon the solid foundations it has laid for itself in the past two decades. Even so, there will doubtlessly be concerns about the extent of its dominance and the fact that it may have a negative impact on competition.

Keeping the UK’s e-commerce market competitive is important for consumers, allowing the best prices to be achieved and the highest-quality services to be offered.