Articles

Amazon has always operated as if no other sales channel matters. And as if none will matter. But 2020 was maybe the last year it grew its market share of e-commerce. Shopify came to represent that change.

The importance and thus also the risk of managing customer expectations for Amazon were the highest ever during the 2020 holiday shopping season. It did ok - unlike in previous years, there was no noticeable increase in negative shopper sentiment.

2020 was the best year for e-commerce marketplaces in over a decade. E-commerce growth had a step change, and marketplaces captured most of it. In aggregate, it was the most successful year for sellers and brands that transact through them, too. The Year in Review looks at the state of marketplaces and describes the most important trends.

This year, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) changed from a service sellers can rely on to a service they hope Amazon will allow them to use. An opaque algorithm now decides which products at what quantities are allowed to be in FBA.

The best selling winter coat on Amazon for the last four winters has been "the Amazon Coat" by a Chinese brand Orolay. Since 2017, it enters the Women’s Clothing best-sellers Top 100 list starting early November and stays there until February.

Nearly $1 billion in fresh capital has been committed in 2020 to firms looking to acquire Amazon sellers and brands. The market had a breakout year because of three factors: the pandemic accelerating spending on Amazon, Thrasio raising hundreds of millions of dollars, and Anker, an Amazon-native brand, going public.

Over 7,500 European businesses surpassed $1 million in sales on Amazon in 2019. Out of the total, 3,300 are based in Germany, 3,200 in the U.K., 600 in Italy, 300 in Spain, and 300 in France.

Marketplace Pulse 100 ranks the most important companies in the e-commerce marketplaces ecosystem. Tens of billions of gross merchandise volume (GMV) on various marketplaces are transacted, enabled, or managed by one of them. The rank considers the company’s size, capital raised, estimated user base, and industry influence.

For the past two quarters, Walmart’s marketplace GMV has more than doubled compared to last year. The marketplace growth has been outpacing first-party sales growth for at least as long too.

Amazon has attracted 700,000 sellers - mostly local micro-enterprises - to join its India marketplace since it launched in the country in 2013. India has recently surpassed the U.K. and Germany marketplaces to became the second largest marketplace in terms of the number of sellers.