During a Congressional antitrust hearing in July, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos downplayed the company’s size and power by saying it accounts for only 4% of total U.S. retail sales, a statistic company executives have cited many times before.  

But Amazon’s share of total retail may be significantly higher than that if you factor in the post-pandemic surge in online shopping and exclude big parts of retail that Amazon doesn’t participate in, such as automobiles and fuel. On that basis, Amazon was expected to account for nearly 8% of all U.S. retail sales in 2020, according to The Information’s analysis of a forecast research firm eMarketer prepared in May.