After Alibaba’s surge in online profits the retail world is braced for its IPO and global expansion. But the online market worldwide is being targeted by other big players.
Rakuten
Headquarters: Japan
Revenue: £3.01bn in fiscal 2013, up 30% on the previous year.
Profile: The company’s philosophy is “Omotenashi” – the Japanese concept of providing high quality and personal service. Rakuten creates a personal shopping experience for users by allowing its marketplace vendors to customize their pages with a unique layout. The vendors can constantly update their page and communicate directly with customers. Rakuten has a global presence and owns Play.com in the UK, which it plans to close next year and direct traffic to its main website instead.
Ulmart
Headquarters: Russia
Revenue: Ulmart’s projected revenue for 2014 is $1.6bn (£0.96bn), up 60% from $1bn (£600m) in 2013.
Profile: A marketplace that began life selling electronics but has since branched out into children’s toys and furniture. The company is now Russia’s largest internet business. It operates primarily in its domestic market but is reportedly weighing up a London IPO
Flipkart
Headquarters: India
Revenue: The company reported in March that its 12-month sales had broken $1bn (£600m) for the first time.
Profile: The Amazon of India, the company was set up by two former Amazon employees, and originally specialised in sales of books. It now offers products ranging from mobile phones to clothing and accessories. The company operates exclusively in India and allows third parties to sell on its platform, helping international companies get around tough regulations that prevent them from selling in India.
Amazon
Headquarters: USA
Revenues: $74.4bn (£44.9bn)in fiscal year 2013
Profile: The undisputed king of online retail, it has always been utterly focused on the product and the customer by constantly improving distribution and choice.
It has separate websites in countries all across the globe including the US, the UK, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India and Mexico.
EBay
Headquarters: USA
Revenue: $16bn for fiscal year 2013, up by 14%
Profile: The retailer has recently celebrated its 15th birthday and has evolved a lot since its early years. It began life as an auction site but has since begun allowing brands to sell off its platform. It has a global reach and in the UK alone UK businesses selling on eBay export to an average of 39 countries.
Walmart
Headquarters: USA
Revenues: The company’s online sales topped $10 billion in the 2013 fiscal year and will reach $13 billion this year.
Profile: Although not a pure-play online retailer, Walmart’s dominance of the retail sector stretches to the ecommerce world as well. It also has a large scale global operation, including Asda in the UK. Asda’s share of the online grocery market stands at 18.4% and online sales were up 20% in the most recent quarter.
Zalando
Headquarters: Germany
Revenue: € 1.8 billion (£1.4bn) in fiscal year 2013.
Profile: In six years of existence Zalando has become an etail phenomenon. It has transformed from a German footwear etailer to a European-wide fashion giant. The company prides itself on its disruptive tech and now has over 1,500 brands on its site including UK retailers such as New Look, River Island, Hugo Boss and Topshop. It now offers its retail services in 14 European countries.
Tesco
Headquarters: UK
Revenues: The company’s online sales were £3.02bn in 2013, according to figures from Kantar Retail.
Profile: The grocer’s profits may be on the slide in the UK but it’s still a powerful etailer. Tesco has been at the forefront of ecommerce in the UK for years and its scale allows it to invest in innovation such as hackathons.
Alibaba
Headquarters: China
Revenues: $5.55 billion for fiscal 2013, (£3.35bn)
Profile: The company operates online marketplace Taobao and is a major competitor of eBay. It also runs Tmall, a platform that allows brands to sell to consumers, and group buying site Juhuasuan. It primarily operates in China but this could soon change with the impending IPO.
Lojas Americanas
Headquarters: Brazil
Revenue: $2.76bn
Profile: Brazil’s largest online retailer owns websites Blockbuster and Americanas.com, which sells a wide range of goods from books, to electricals alongside fashion and health and beauty. It prides itself on its ability to deliver to anywhere in Brazil within 48 hours.
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