This September, the 22nd Amazon marketplace worldwide was released with the launch in Belgium. Which marketplaces exist so far, how relevant they are in national and international comparisons, and further expansion opportunities are presented in this blog post.
Which marketplaces are there currently?
In 1995, Amazon launched the first marketplace in the USA. With trading outlets in Germany and the UK, expansion into Europe followed just three years later. After three more countries were added in the 2000s with France, Canada and China, a rapid increase in international marketplaces followed from 2010. In the last three years in particular, internationalization is taking on completely new features. Eight countries in various regions of the world have been equipped with a country-specific marketplace since 2020.
The following table shows the various marketplaces with their respective start dates:
Relevance of individual marketplaces
turnover
There are no reliable figures in detail about the exact sales volume of the individual marketplaces. In its 2021 annual report, Amazon itself disclosed total net sales (including AWS, etc.) in the USA, Germany, UK and Japan as well as bundled for the rest of the world for 2019-2021.
The figures show that the USA, with a market share of 66.8% in 2021, is by far the most relevant revenue driver. Although this share has fallen slightly since 2019 (69%), it is still well ahead of the subsequent German marketplace (7.9%). Due, among other things, to the Covid-19 pandemic, which was a boost for e-commerce in general, Amazon was able to record a significant increase in sales on all listed marketplaces in 2020 and 2021. The opening of eight new marketplaces since 2020 is also reflected in the sales figures for the rest of the world. While these stood at 31.1 billion dollars in 2019, the value has more than doubled since then to 63.5 billion dollars.
Search volume worldwide
Since no sales figures are published except for the USA, Germany, Japan and the UK, we measure the relevance of all active Amazon marketplaces based on the number of views on the respective sites. The data relates to October 2022 and is taken from the similarweb analysis tool. In addition to pure search volume, Amazon's respective ranking in national comparison with other eCommerce and shopping websites is also listed.
The basic statements from the sales figures are confirmed. As there, the USA, Japan, Germany and the UK are the TOP 4 in terms of search volume. However, Japan has more search volume than the UK and Germany with lower turnover.
According to the analysis, Amazon's dominance is that in twelve of 21 countries (no data is available for Belgium), Amazon is the most visited site in the eCommerce and shopping sector. Apart from China, Amazon is also among the top 3 e-commerce marketplaces in every country.
Search volume in Europe
Since entering the market on other continents involves more organizational and bureaucratic hurdles for European retailers, the first step towards expansion is usually starting out in other European countries. The search volume figures are therefore particularly interesting compared to other European countries. If you count Turkey as part of Europe, there are now ten different European marketplaces.
Based purely on search volume, the European market is divided into 3 main categories.
Category 1: Germany, UK
Category 2: Italy, France, Spain
Category 3: Turkey, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Belgium
Next Steps
As already described, significantly more marketplaces have been opened up in recent years than in previous periods. According to a report by BusinessInsider, four more market entries are pending in the first half of 2023. South Africa, Colombia, Nigeria and Chile should be at the top of Amazon's list of priorities. The exact schedule should be as follows:
- South Africa — February
- Columbia — February
- Nigeria — April
- Chile — April
These four countries are particularly interesting as they open up completely new regions. In addition to North Africa (Egypt), Nigeria and South Africa also connect the southern and central parts of Africa. Colombia and Chile are the first market places in South America after Brazil.
In recent years, it has been shown that Amazon is equipping more and more countries and other areas of the world with their own marketplace. This development does not seem to be over yet. On the contrary, other marketplaces are to follow in the coming year. In terms of current search and sales volumes, the USA is clearly the most important marketplace in the Amazon universe, followed by Germany, Japan and the UK. In Europe, in addition to Germany and the UK, Italy, France and Spain stand out from the rest of the countries.
