Amazon marketplaces in Europe and in the rest of the world have become a great opportunity for many businesses in the online world. We have all heard and even used Amazon at some point in our lives, but it not only works as an eCommerce platform, but also as a marketplace for the different continents.
The world has evolved to a great extent and the way businesses sell items and consumers shop around the world has definitely changed. In fact, internet has created opportunities for businesses struggling to get off the ground with a physical store because it has given them the opportunity to connect with customers both near and far.
Index
- What is a marketplace?
- Amazon’s global version
- Here’s a list of the countries where Amazon exists
- Amazon expansion in Europe
- Amazon vs other marketplaces in Europe
What is a marketplace?
A marketplace is a website that sells products from multiple sellers, so there is a wide variety of products that attract different types of consumers. It consists of a marketplace administrator (owner of the website), vendors (Amazon, Mercado Libre, etc.) and customers. The way marketplaces earn money is by charging a commission from sellers and customers.
There are many benefits involved in it, like vendors do not have to worry about website maintenance nor performance, and they can even linked their products to their social media accounts.
Amazon’s global version
Amazon operates sixteen online stores worldwide (2022), allowing sellers to grow their business internationally independent of where their business is physically established. Amazon global selling lets customers list and sell your products on any of their marketplaces in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Europe. Currently, Amazon has over 16 marketplaces that allow sellers to expand their business and register themselves in any of the countries that they want to start selling.In the seller’s guide on the Amazon website you can download all the information you need to know about taxes, regulations and strategic considerations when entering the marketplace.
Here’s a list of the countries where Amazon exists with a local marketplace:
- Germany: amazon.de
- Australia:amazon.com.au
- Brazil: amazon.com.br
- Canada: amazon.ca
- China: amazon.cn
- Egypt: amazon.eg
- Arab Emirates: amazon.ae
- Spain: amazon.es
- United States of America: amazon.com
- France: amazon.fr
- Holland: amazon.nl
- India: amazon.in
- Italy: amazon.it
- Japan: amazon.jp
- Mexico: amazon.com.mx
- Poland: Amazon.pl
- United Kingdom: amazon.co.uk
- Sweden: Amazon.se
- Singapore: amazon.sg
- Turkey: amazon.com.tr
All these marketplaces represent many of the world’s largest eCommerce opportunities, although currently in China and India, they do not accept sellers who do not reside in those countries. When a seller register in one of those Amazon marketplaces, they gain immediate access to customers who know and trust the Amazon buying experience; expanding their sales to one or more Amazon marketplaces meaning they can benefit from the Amazon brand without shouldering the upfront costs of building business name recognition in a new sales environment.
Amazon expansion in Europe
Germany and the UK represent some of the largest e-commerce countries in Europe. With a high demand for fast deliveries among German buyers, coupled with the UK being an English speaking country, this makes Germany and the UK a great place to start your European business. In addition, Germany’s geographic location is an important hub for delivery efficiency, helping out sellers across Europe. According to Amazon, Europe’s main marketplaces for the company are Germany, the UK, and Italy.
There are eight different Amazon Europe marketplaces serving over a population of over 500 million people; this makes Europe a prime target for US sellers looking to expand into new markets. These marketplaces are located in United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland.
With fulfillment programs such as the European Fulfillment Network or Multi-Country Inventory (MCI), products will be closer to German and UK customers if seller’s stores are in Germany and the UK, it means they will benefit from faster delivery options, as well, sellers can also expand easily across the European Union with Pan-European FBA.
According to Amazon, there are 176 millions of monthly unique visitors in its marketplaces in UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Also, there are 86K+ third party sellers over $100K Amazon European Union marketplace sales in 2020, and lastly, 2,700+ products sold per minute in Amazon European Union marketplaces in 2020.
Amazon vs. other marketplaces in Europe
Amazon’s app is among the top 20 most downloaded shopping apps on the iPhone app store in almost thirty countries in Europe, despite only launching in nine of them. However, it is the market leader in a few, as it has competition from the more recognized European markets.
Even so, it has to face big local marketplace competitors on the continent, having as competition companies such as:
- Allegro. Largest Polish marketplace and number five on the list of Europe’s most visited online marketplaces.
- Asos.One of the largest online only fashion retailers in the world with websites in UK, Europe, USA and Australia.
- Cdiscount. French marketplace with roughly 8.6 million active customers and 19 million unique visitors per month.
- El Corte Inglés. Spanish marketplace and largestdepartment store group in Europe. Its sales in 2020 reached 1.7 billion dollars.
- Emag. The largest ecommerce site in Romania with over 500,000 unique customers each day.
- Flubit. UK-owned marketplace that hosts a catalogue of over 70 million products.
- Mobile.de.German marketplace for selling vehicles to businesses and consumers.
- OnBuy. It is a B2C online marketplace where third-party business sellers can list new, used or refurbished products and buyers can browse thousands of categories, compare and securely purchase with PayPal Buyer Protection.
- OTTO.Second biggest online retail destination in Germany and claims to be the biggest online retailer there for fashion and lifestyle products.
- Real.de. Formerly known as Hitmeister, it is Germany’s third biggest online marketplace.
- Zalando. A German fashion marketplace that has expanded to multiple European markets.
In Europe, Amazon faces fierce competition from these local players. The reason is that Amazon is willing to wait years to slowly increase its market share. Even in countries where it has been officially launched, such as Poland more recently, it fails if not for Amazon brand recognition.
However, Amazon is investing heavily in fulfillment infrastructure. That will allow you to launch in more countries with two-day or faster delivery. Amazon’s physical footprint and third-party marketplace allow the company to view Europe as essentially one market.
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