Etsy has recently implemented Etsy Payments, an improved and rebranded Direct Checkout, requiring all sellers to use it. This has caused a big uproar among sellers, some of which felt like they were being forced to use a lesser option. Starting June 1st any shop without Etsy Payments enabled was suspended.
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For the first time ever eBay has released US state-by-state data showcasing sales and number of sellers statistics. 6.6 million American sellers sold $27.97 billion worth of goods in 2016. On average each seller sold $4,196 worth of goods. Top 5 states California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey are leading in terms of sales. By adding the 6th state Illinois they together add up to 50 percent of the market.
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Most modern marketplaces are optimized for suggesting what customers might want to buy, but social commerce incentivizes to explore the marketplace with social features integrated inside. As eBay over time transitioned towards established sellers who sell in quantity, Alibaba's Taobao has continued to develop the true consumer-to-consumer exchange.
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Marketplaces are not created equal, and one of the biggest differences is how they treat sellers on the platform. While technically all marketplaces consist of a list of sellers, different marketplaces approach them differently.
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global estimates the global counterfeit market at $461 billion. Every year over $50 billion worth of products are sold on Amazon marketplaces by third-party sellers, yet none of those billions of products are controlled by Amazon. The problem of counterfeit is much bigger than Amazon, but the marketplace model and the number of visitors of Amazon makes it one of the most lucrative places to move products through.
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Just 10 years ago e-commerce penetration in China was less than 1 percent, but since then has taken off - it overtook US in 2013, and is expected that by the end of 2018 it will reach 18 percent market penetration.
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China's e-commerce market represents almost a half of e-commerce sales worldwide, and practically all of it is on domestic websites like Tmall.com and JD.com. Most of the largest e-commerce markets in the world have Amazon and eBay with major market share, but not in China. Many would jump to the conclusion that China is a market favoring local players and US companies have no chance. But this is not the whole picture. Both Amazon and eBay could have had much more market share in China.
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"We want to be bigger than Walmart," said Jack Ma, the founder and CEO of Alibaba Group, in September 2014, when Alibaba began trading in the New York Stock Exchange. It didn't take long. In 2017 fiscal year Walmart's sales were $485.9 billion, while Alibaba's was $547 billion.
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MercadoLibre (MercadoLivre in Portuguese) has become the de facto internet retail option for Latin America. While initially MercadoLibre was the eBay of Latin America, drawing inspiration and even design ques early on from the US auctions leader, it is now much more the Amazon of Latin America. It moved on from auctions to products at fixed price, and has focused on the infrastructure the most.
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Last week Amazon reported great 2017 Q1 results, stating that "Net sales increased 23% to $35.7 billion in the first quarter, compared with $29.1 billion in first quarter 2016". But the net sales figure hides the true size of Amazon - Amazon has far bigger reach in retail than commonly understood.
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