What are the largest marketplaces in the world? It is difficult to know exactly, as there are thousands of them. We are going to discuss the top 20 ecommerce companies in the world by revenue and visits.
This definitive list will include a brief history of ecommerce along with the most important information that you need to know.
What is an ecommerce company anyway?
An ecommerce company is an entity running virtual shopping websites. It allows multiple companies to sell products to consumers online. On the other hand, ecommerce companies may be one entity selling their own products online. Therefore, this can go both ways.
On these platforms, consumers can buy in several stores within the portal and make a single payment. Thanks to the technology called split payment. The payment system distributes the purchase price among the parties involved in the business. Many of the ecommerce companies also offer a cash-on-delivery system.
Marketplaces are in fact great for those who already have a virtual store. They have a high Marketing capacity, which attracts more visitors to your business. In this way, marketplaces favor more sales and generate more customers for you.
Follow in this post a list of 20 of the largest ecommerce companies in the world. Find out how many monthly visits these top 20 ecommerce platforms receive along with other most important information.
A Brief History of E-commerce Companies
It seems like yesterday that ecommerce came into action, right?
The history of ecommerce business model is a little longer than we expected.
The concept of ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the internet hit the market for business purposes. Immediately after, thousands of companies started taking shelter online to sell products electronically.
Though companies and inventors started taking initiatives earlier, it got popular, not until 1994. Before 1994, the internet was not secured. Therefore, to secure the data, HTTP and DSL came into use. Integration of this technology made internet transactions more secure.
In 2000, a lot of companies from the United States and the European regions shifted their business to ecommerce. By that time, those companies understood the advantage and started adding great features to websites. Eventually, in 2001 B2B ecommerce sales hit 700 billion in transactions.
Without Amazon, eBay and Alibaba, ecommerce is unthinkable. As a matter of fact, many companies started in the same year HTTP came into action.
According to Statista, ecommerce sales surpassed 3.5 trillion dollars worldwide by 2019. Moreover, an estimated 1.92 billion people purchased products online.
Table of Content:
- Amazon
- Alibaba
- JD
- eBay
- Rakuten
- Wallmart
- Flipkart
- Taobao
- Otto
- Ali Express
- Tmall
- Target
- Zalando
- Wildberries
- Wayfair
- Macy’s
- Costco
- Etsy
- Home Depot
- Snap Deal
Top 20 Ecommerce Companies
1. Amazon: The Largest Ecommerce Company in the World
It is known to all of us that Amazon needs no introduction. The World’s richest person, Jeff Bezos founded the company as a book market in 1997. Since then, Amazon has become the largest e-commerce company and arguably the largest online conglomerate in the world.
It started with online book sales but easily moved into all other business categories. In 2017, this company generated $ 177.9 billion in net sales. Amazon is now an online store complete with a range of products, including electronics, clothing, software, pet supplies, movies, and, of course, books.
As of 2020, Amazon has 566,000 employees, far more than Google and its direct competitor, eBay or any other company in the world. This clearly reflects the size of the operations of this online store.
After getting the success it has, the company started to branch out in many sectors to further improve its business. For now, Amazon Web Services (AWS), cloud computing, and web hosting services are the second most profitable business for Amazon.
Since it has the largest customer base, it extracts crucial data and analyzes it deeply to create better and newer products and services. According to Quartz research, Amazon secretly launched 91 brands to sell in its market.
With annual revenue of billions of dollars, hundreds, and thousands of employees, Amazon is the largest e-commerce company in the world. Along with all these the revenue and traffic are the reasons it came to lead the list of top 20 ecommerce companies in the world.
2. Alibaba: The biggest B2B Ecommerce Company in the World
This is the biggest name in B2B ecommerce around the world. Alibaba owns 63% of all e-commerce in China. And currently, it offers ecommerce along with other services such as cloud computing and electronic payments.
It was founded by Jack Ma in 1999 and started selling local products to international markets. But it has risen to global leaders, dominating names like Amazon and eBay.
Alibaba comes on the second position of this list and is a very famous name for its global B2B services. It is based in China and providing extended services depending on its ecommerce platform. Like Amazon, Alibaba has also expanded its business in many ways including internet and cloud hosting services.
Because it is a B2B ecommerce website, the revenue stream is higher than its retail competitors. Currently, the company has 1,17,600 employees around the world. Besides, an estimated 110 million people visit alibaba.com every month.
3. eBay: Largest Ecommerce Based on Bidding
eBay is a California-based ecommerce company created in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. It has grown to be one of the top 20 ecommerce companies in the world.
The system allows both Business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer sales. As of 2019, it became a multi-billion-dollar company having its operations in 39 countries.
This ecommerce trading company generates its revenues based on bids for the item to be sold. The fee of this selling model is called Insertion Fee. On the other hand, they also charge a commission on the final value of the sale.
His goal was to create in the USA a place where everything (whatever was legal) could be sold. The several million users worldwide and billions of transactions already completed confirming that the goal has been achieved. According to SimilarWeb, this platform gets 947 million visits per month.
4. JingDong
Jindong Mall is the full name of its short-form JingDong. The meaning of the word is an online shopping center in China.
In 2013 it started the digital model with its website. And two years later it reached the Russian market. Currently, it has more than 100 thousand brands listing their products.
Jingdong Mall started its journey in 1998 from Beijing, China. On its initial launch, it started selling e-books, CDs, and DVDs trade through its website.
Until 2013, 360buy.com was its domain name and moved to the international arena with the current JD.com. Two years later JingDong reached the Russian market. In 2016, JD bought Walmart’s Chinese subsidiary Yihaodian.
As of now, JD.com has more than 100 thousand brands selling their products on this website. It has more than 442 million registered users.
5. Rakuten
Rakuten was founded in 1997 and opened its ecommerce market the next year. It is a Japanese company started in Tokyo with just six employees. In 2002, they were able to set up more than 6000 stores.
To make customer interaction more effective, it launched two services: Pay as You Go and Rakuten Super Points. Both these business methods enabled the company to gain the trust of its partners and grew rapidly.
Pay as you go and Super Points, ensured that stores are in contact with customers through limited-access servers. This allows customers to additional points program for products or discounts.
Rakuten remains innovative in every aspect which is the key to its success. In 2004, Rakuten entered Japanese baseball and in 2012 it bought Kobo, the e-book brand. Its business philosophy is one of the greatest innovations that allows stores to contact their customers. Stores connecting to customers create lasting relationships for further business.
The company’s points program, Rakuten Super Points, allows you to exchange points accumulated for products or discounts.
As of 2020 second quarter, Rakuten has around 120 million active users. Moreover, in January 2021, the ecommerce website got more than 600 million visitors.
6. Ali Express
Ali Express is one of the top 20 ecommerce companies in the world. It was established in 2010 by Alibaba Group as its retail substitute for the global market.
This platform is made up of small businesses in China and Singapore. And it became a very popular name among consumers all over the world. In its first phase, started as a business-to-business portal and eventually turned into a business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer model.
It is a unique ecommerce business model because it facilitates small businesses to sell products to the international market. Currently, Ali Express runs its website in 18 different languages including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Russian, Turkish, Portuguese, etc.
This Chinese ecommerce giant attracts more than 20 million visitors every day from 230 countries with a staggering 60 million active buyers.
7. Wallmart
Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton as a US retail company. To this day, the business is owned by the Walton family. The entry into ecommerce took place in 2000, with the birth of Walmart.com. Eventually it took home one of the best-known global retail brands to American consumers.
Having the headquarter in Bentonville, Arkansas it became a chain of hypermarket departmental store that also provides grocery shopping opportunities.
According to Statista, in the last fiscal year, Walmart saw a significant rise in sales hitting $35.90 billion dollars which is a 10 billion dollar up from its previous fiscal year.
8. Taobao
Taobao is another ecommerce shopping website operated by Alibaba Group. It was established in 2003 and over the course of 17 years, it has become the 8th most visited website in the Chinese-speaking region. Currently, it holds the first position in the online shopping category.
Whether Ali Express is an ecommerce website for international consumers, Taobao was built specifically for Chinese consumers. The business model is the same as Ali Express which promotes consumer-to-consumer shopping for international consumers.
According to the economist, Taobao is the country’s biggest online marketplace. With over 674 million active customers, Taobao has more than 755 million monthly users on its mobile apps.
9. Target
Established in 1962 as a discount division of the Dayton’s Company of Minneapolis. Later, the Target Corporation started its ecommerce in 2020 and currently ranks 9th on the global ecommerce map.
Target ecommerce started with a partnership with Amazon and eventually, they became an independent platform in 2011. In the US market, Amazon, and Walmart the two biggest competitors of Target’s ecommerce.
According to Statista, Target’s online version hits 258.5 million in December 2019. In September 2020, the monthly traffic dropped down to 181.5 million. But still, Target is the third largest ecommerce marketplace in the US.
10. Etsy: Dedicated Ecommerce for Hand Made and Vintage Items
Etsy is an American multinational ecommerce company offering handmade and vintage items. It has become one of the largest ecommerce companies in the world because of its unique idea. This is a place from where you can buy directly from the local or international markets.
This online handmade and vintage marketplace was established in 2005 by Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik. The headquarters is in Brooklyn, New York.
It sells various types of items and vintage items must be at least 20 years of age. Products ranging from jewelry, bags, clothing, furniture, toy, arts and craft supplies, and tools. According to Etsy itself, till 2018 it had 60 million items listed on its marketplace.
Though the company has only 1240 employees yet made a staggering $603.7 million in revenue in 2018. According to SimilarWeb, Etsy got 422 million visits in January 2021.
11. Otto
Otto offers an ecommerce marketplace for shopping sporting goods, fashion, electronics, and home appliances.
It is a German ecommerce company that launched its website in 1995. Otto generates more than 80% of revenues through the marketplace. Otto Group’s, rest of the income coming from data analysis, marketing, payment, and logistics.
Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, Otto is offering sporting goods, fashion, appliances, and electronics in the European market. The Otto Group operates in more than 50 countries and has 25 subsidiaries.
As of 2020, Otto Group has around 52,000 employees with 65 million active users around the European region.
12. Tmall
Tmall is one of the top 20 ecommerce companies in the world owned by the Chinese giant Alibaba Group. With over 500 million monthly active users Tmall remains one of the largest ecommerce websites in the world.
This Alibaba subsidiary started its operation in 2008 as Taobao Mall. The basic difference between Taobao and Tmall is its business model. While Tmall is B2C, Taobao is a C2C.
Only consumers from the Chinese region can buy products from businesses listed on this platform. But this business model allows both the Chinese local and international businesses to sell to its
consumers. Currently, Tmall has a 57% retail ecommerce market share in China, and it’s growing.
13. Flipkart
Flipkart leads the race for all e-commerce sites based in India, as it is the one with the most traffic. Much like Amazon, Flipkart started selling books, and then later expanded to other products. One of the biggest things that determine the company at the top is their ‘Cash on Delivery system’.
This Indian ecommerce giant was established by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007. Through its operating area in India and is operated from Bangalore, it was registered in Singapore.
The majority percent (84.3%) of the company share own by American giant Walmart. Only 7% of the share is own by Tiger management, Microsoft, and Accel combined.
Currently, Flipkart holds more than 40% ecommerce market share in India, and Amazon’s subsidiary Snapdeal is the largest competitor.
In January 2021, Flipkart had a staggering 174.4 million visitors. It hits 300 million in October 2020 which was the highest visitor record in its history. So, as we see, Flipkart is one of the top 20 ecommerce platforms.
14. Zalando
Based in Berlin, Zalando is one of the largest fashion portals in the world. Currently, Zalando operates in 14 countries in Europe. In 2010, Zalando Lounge opened, an area reserved for registered users, who receive discounts by email.
The most interesting thing about Zalando is the size of the discounts. It can reach 80% compared to the retail price, with online promotions only for a limited period. In addition to clothing, Zalando sells home accessories, sports equipment, and fashion accessories.
Despite not having a presence outside Europe, Zalando became a top pick in ecommerce sector. It earns loyalty from customers with 90 days return offer and options such as payment on delivery. Besides, it does not charge any additional cost on fast delivery.
15. Wayfair
Wayfair is another American ecommerce company to make the list. This company started its journey back in 2002 by Niraz Shah and Steve Conine. Now, it has become a multinational ecommerce company having its warehouses all over the USA. Canada, Germany, Ireland, and the UK are the other operating nations as well.
Being one of the largest ecommerce brands in the world, it attracts 140 million visitors per month. The ecommerce site has 14 million listed products from 11 thousand sellers from around the world. As of 2019, it has 16900+ employees.
16. Macy’s
Macy’s is the largest departmental store in the US. And soon after it opened its ecommerce, it has easily become the top 20 ecommerce company in the world.
The internet store of Macy’s offers diverse products including clothing, accessories, home textiles, bags, watches, jewelry, and shoes. You can also find utilities and decoration stuff on this ecommerce website.
Thanks to the ecommerce platform which made it easy for its millions of customers to purchase their things online. Currently, Macy’s ecommerce platform attracts more than 75 million visitors per month.
It is satisfying to know that Macy’s now ships their products to over 200 locations across the world.
17. Costco
Costco is an American multinational company established in 1976 as a chain retail store. It was founded by James Sinegal and Jeffery Brotman based in San Diego, California. Presently, Issaquah, Washington is the location of its headquarters.
It was the second-largest retail chain in the US after Walmart. Costco is the best source of premium beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken, and wine. But Costco sells all the other departmental products as well.
Costco runs its operations in 12 nations with both physical and ecommerce business models. It is running its operation in United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Spain, Iceland, France, and China.
The ecommerce website has over 85 million visitors per month and generates a significant portion of its revenue today.
18. Wildberries: Largest ecommerce company in Russian Region
Wildberries is the only Russian company to make it to the list of top 20 ecommerce companies in the world.
This Russian retail giant was founded by Tatayana Kim in 2004. The founder started this company from her Mosco flat for just $700. In 2017 it became the largest retailer in Russia and in 2019 reached $3 billion dollars revenue. Soon it marked $3 billion in revenue it became the largest ecommerce company in the Russian region.
Currently, it is running its operation in Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia. With 48,000 employees, the company process 7,50,000 orders every day.
19. Home Depot: Top ecommerce Marketplace for Home Improvement Items
Home Depot is one of the top 20 ecommerce companies in the world. Interestingly, it is a dedicated marketplace for home improvement equipment and items. It has 2,200 physical stores in three countries with 40,000 employees. This ecommerce pulls around $90 billion in annual revenue.
It was founded in Atlanta, GA but it has expanded its operations to Canada and Mexico.
Home Depot is an online marketplace based on click-and-mortar model. Customers order their home improvement products online, but they need to collect them from the physical store.
Home Depot usually sells home improvement items including, light bulbs, bathroom vanities, rugs, hardwood flooring, washers, and more.
Though stores are open for consumers, a number of film production houses also shop for props and supplies from Home Depot.
20. Best Buy: Largest ecommerce Company for Electronics Segment
Best Buy is one of the biggest ecommerce marketplaces that occupies the retail space in the consumer electronics segment.
This retail brand was founded by Richard M. Schulze in 1966 and it saw a huge rise in sales after opening its ecommerce platform.
In January 2021, it had 170.52 million visits which prove its market size. It is not only selling products in the USA but also in Canada and Mexico.
On the other hand, it also operated in other parts of the world including Europe and China until it closed operation.
The company’s online sales increased threefold COVID-19 pandemic online buying.
These are the top 20 ecommerce companies in the world ruling internet sales. From Amazon to Best Buy, all these 20 companies have revolutionized retail sales. But Amazon is so far the largest ecommerce company in the world way ahead of ecommerce game.
