Who Are Amazon's Biggest Competitors?
By today’s e-commerce standards, Amazon is most definitely the biggest online retailer out there. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Amazon began by selling books, films and TV shows and has extended its services to include a wide range of items all under one roof.
Today, you can buy almost anything from Amazon, be it electronics, food, clothing, groceries, and even a mini house. Amazon also provides daily deals and offers on their products and especially has amazing offers during festive seasons. Today you can carry Amazon with you anywhere you go as they have an app that allows you to shop via your phone.
They also have a user-friendly website and interface that enables users place their orders and make payments using the various online forms of payments. Additionally, customers can track their orders until it gets to them and this also applies to after-sale services including return and refund of unsatisfactory items.
The retailer uses cloud technology which makes online shopping what it is. However, with the advance in technology, the behemoth that is Amazon has its fair share of strong contenders in the game who have managed to attract a strong following and threaten to take it down. This piece focuses on the giant’s online competitors solely with one exception. Here is a list of the major Amazon competitors;
1. Alibaba
Alibaba is a top e-commerce company that traces its roots back to China. The retail company was formed in 1999 by Jack Ma. Alibaba is a B2B platform that caters to many buyers and sellers across the globe. Alibaba has managed to gain favor with retailers because of its very unique business model.
Unlike Amazon, which runs all its business in one roof, Alibaba has managed to come up with separate entities that focus on separate business models. These entities include Aliexpress, Taobao, and Tmall. Alibaba focuses mostly on wholesale retailing while the other branches mainly place their focus on B2C.
According to Big Commerce, Alibaba registered a total of 755 million users in June 2019. About 60% of online retail in the country can be attributed to Alibaba. With its highly established presence in e-commerce niche and its impressive sales of up to $30 billion a day, it is no surprise as to why it is considered as Amazon’s biggest competitor.
2. Otto
Otto has over the years been rated as Europe’s biggest e-commerce company. Since its invention, it has been reinventing itself to provide customers with a one-stop-shop experience. Otto sells products from other brands on its platform. Customer navigation is made easy through.Users get to take full advantage of the retailer’s user-friendly interface to find these products and order them with ease.
Otto’s specialty ranges from home and living to fashion, electronics, and sports. According to Marketing 91, up to 80% of the online retailer’s revenue has been generated online. The reason why Otto is considered a major competition for Amazon is its partnership with the external brands coupled with its excellent service.
3. eBay
Another strong opponent is eBay which is a multi-national corporation based in San José California. Its business model is mainly C2C and B2C focused. It is considered as the world’s largest online shopping mall. EBay’s range of services is quite extensive as the categories include electronics, home, and living, furniture just to name a few. eBay is quite reputable due to its user-friendly website and efficienct consumer service. Sellers and buyers usually have smooth transactions via the platform.
Other notable competitors
JD
JD has undergone some few name changes throughout its years of service. Founded in the year 1998 in Beijing China, JD was called 360buy.JD.com. Today the online retailer goes by JingDong or JD for short. It initially began as a physical store having opened its online doors to the public in 2004. Joybuy.com is JD’s official website and it is among China’s popular e-commerce platforms, as it provides various Chinese products at a reasonable price. JD is technology-oriented and its excellent service delivery to customers is what makes it so popular and another competitor of Amazon.
Newegg
Newegg is popular for selling electronics like TVs, laptops, and cameras. Over $2.7 billion of Newegg’s revenue is generated by offering electronics at a feasible rate. It is for this reason that the platform threatens Amazon’s stability. As mentioned above, Amazon’s turf is mostly on electronics as over 40% of Amazon shoppers have at one time purchased an electronic product in Amazon. Newegg takes billions of revenues from electronics thus making it a threat to the online retailing giant.
Walmart
Walmart is on this list as a physical store because of its influence and popularity around the world. It is a multinational corporation that controls and runs a series of departmental stores, hypermarkets, and grocery stores. Walmart has over 11,000 stores in 28 countries and is considered the largest revenue-generating company in the world.
Walmart is popular due to its affordable prices, a wide range of choices as over 5000 products are available to the customer and top-notch quality of products. Walmart provides a wide scope of services in 3 main categories: Offices and Institutions, Resellers, Caterers and Restaurants.
Walmart’s reach throughout the world makes it one of Amazon’s biggest competitors. Other physical stores that give Amazon a run for its money according to Investopedia, include Costco which has over 100 locations across the globe and the Target Corporation which has over 1800 stores in the US, Walgreens with 8k+ locations and Home Depot with 2k+ locations worldwide.
Verdict
Amazon is a diversified company that enjoys benefits from various revenue streams. Although the online retailer has its fair share of rivals, it has proven to be dominant in its field. Despite the fierce competition, Amazon seems not be slowing down any time soon.
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Written by Bill Vix
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