Amazon has 'over a quarter of entertainment market'

More than £1 in every £4 in entertainment was spent at Amazon.co.uk in the run up to Christmas last year, market research suggests.

The online retailer took 26.3% of the entertainment market share according figures released by Kantar World Panel, for the fourth quarter to 22nd December 2013. This indicates a 5.9% percentage point increase on its market share in the entertainment category in 2012.

In comparison, supermarkets had an overall combined market share of 33.3% as Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda all reported increases of less than 1%. The supermarket entertainment share was up 1.2% from the same period last year. However, HMV’s overall market share during the period fell by 8.5% to 12.5%.

The Gaming sector performed particularly well in the last quarter before Christmas, the research suggested.

Fiona Keenan, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, told The Telegraph: “Game did particularly well following the launch of the new Next Gen consoles, claiming 30% of PS4 and Xbox One games sales and gaining £10m from winning shoppers from other retailers. Over £4m of this was taken from the supermarkets which didn’t perform as strongly in Next Gen games sales despite achieving a high share in the overall games market.

"This is a clear sign that consumers still require advice and support when shopping for technical products and retailers should try to make the most of this opportunity.”

The Kantar World Panel report said video was the most gifted entertainment product, with "Despicable Me 2", "Monsters University" and "Breaking Bad" being the most popular gift items.