Which marketplace grew the most in Q1 2021?

After Amazon reported strong Q1 results, we compared them with the growth of other online marketplaces whose figures of the first quarter of 2021 are now available as well. Find out out more in Hannes Detjen’s comment below.

We are also proud to announce that Remazing has been awarded the “E-Commerce Germany Award 2021” this week! You can read more about it under “Remazing Update”.

General Updates

Amazon discontinues Prime Now

Amazon has announced it will discontinue its Prime Now fast delivery service by the end of the year. Through Prime Now, customers could order select products for extra fast delivery within one to two hours. For the delivery of groceries from now on, Amazon has made reference to Amazon Fresh instead, for all other products to Amazon’s e-commerce platform itself. When ordering items, a delivery option “within two hours” shall become available.

Amazon acquires MGM Film Studios

Amazon announced yesterday that it has purchased MGM Studios for $8.45 billion. The acquisition will add 17,000 series and 4,000 movies, such as the “James Bond” series, to Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. The MGM purchase is Amazon’s second-largest investment after its purchase of supermarket chain Whole Foods in 2017, showing Amazon’s intention to remain competitive in the “streaming wars”, going against Netflix & Co.

Walmart reports +41% e-commerce revenues in Q1

Walmart saw overall growth of 41% year-over-year in its e-commerce division in Q1 2021, reaching a total of $17 billion in sales. Internationally, Walmart grew at a faster rate than in its home market in the US. According to forecasts, Amazon will replace its competitor as the largest retailer in the US by 2025 the latest. You can find more on this topic in our comment section below.

Strong growth of Amazon’s competitor Alibaba

Alibaba, another internationally leading online marketplace, also has released its Q1 results by now. The China-based platform grew + 64% year-over-year, reaching Q1 2021 revenues of $28.6 billion. Internationally, Alibaba saw as much as + 77% growth through its AliExpress and Trendyol marketplaces. 

Sellers from 85 more countries accepted to register on Amazon

Amazon is now allowing sellers from 85 additional countries to register on its platform – the majority of which are in Central Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa. For the new sellers, Amazon could become a very relevant direct export channel, for example for producers from the cotton industry in Pakistan. Companies from sanctioned nations such as Cuba and North Korea still do not have seller access to Amazon.

Germany’s antitrust authorities establish e-commerce division

The German Cartel Office has established a department that will focus on the e-commerce industry. The department is responsible for the antitrust assessment of online marketplaces and platforms, among which Amazon is explicitly mentioned. The specialized division’s goal is to uncover distortions of competition in e-commerce and take targeted action against misconduct. An antitrust lawsuit is currently underway against Amazon in the US because the e-commerce platform allegedly prohibits sellers from offering their products at lower prices on other online marketplaces.

UK and US retailers benefit from end of lockdowns

In the UK and US, the first relaxations of COVID-19 restrictions are having a positive impact on retail. In the UK, sales rose by 9.2% month-over-month in April 2021, driven by the end of the local lockdown. However, online sales were down by 5.6% in April compared to March 2021. In the US, total sales in April 2021 stayed at the same high level as in March, being up by 51.2% year-over-year.

Remazing Update

Remazing wins E-Commerce Germany Award

We are very happy to announce that we have been awarded the “E-Commerce Germany Award 2021”! During the jury voting, Remazing was able to prevail against 10 competitors in the category “Best Agency”. After almost five years of working as a dedicated partner for brands on Amazon and other online marketplaces, winning the award is a great recognition for the entire Remazing team.

What caught our attention

As of now, also for Vendors the product description on the PDP will be replaced with A+ content if it is available. However, there is an option to continue using the description that is not displayed for keywords. We still observe differences in the actual application of the update though – so it seems that Amazon is still testing the feature.

Images that are already uploaded can now be deleted directly in Vendor Central without having to open a support case first. In our opinion, this is a small but very useful improvement for vendors.

Amazon is testing the display of important product information from the PDP on self-made infographics. Since important information can otherwise often only be found relatively far down on the page, this should improve the customer experience. Amazon is conducting the first test by the end of June 2021 with facial care products.

Comment: Marketplaces growth in Q1 2021

Amazon is the worldwide leading e-commerce platform that showed continued, strong growth in Q1 2021. However, some smaller online marketplaces managed to grow their quarterly revenues even more:

• Mercado Libre: + 158% YOY, $1,4 billion
• Etsy: + 142%, $551 million
• Alibaba Group: + 64%, $29 billion
• Zalando SE: + 47%, $2 billion
• Amazon: + 44%, $108 billion
• eBay: + 42%, $3 billion
• Walmart: + 41%, $17 billion  (e-commerce revenue only)
• JD.com: + 39%, $31 billion

Mercado libre, the South-American marketplace with its own micropayment platform, has almost a monopoly position in its home region. It is growing faster than all other marketplaces that we looked at.

With Etsy’sniche focus on handcrafted and vintage goods, the marketplace has managed to get into an excellent position during the corona pandemic. The personal care, homeware and craft supplies categories strongly grew last quarter.

Due to Walmart’s offline activities being restricted by the pandemic, the retail giant had an overall growth of only + 2.7% in Q12021 – its slowest quarterly growth since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The development of only its e-commerce division looks much better though: + 49% internationally and + 37% in the US.

Remdash: Traffic & Conversion Rate

With Remdash, you can analyze your Traffic & Conversion Rate data from both Seller and Vendor Central. Our tool allows you to:

• Compare product groups or single ASINs with each other
• Compare global data and marketplaces data
• Group data daily, weekly, or monthly
• Combine data from Vendor Central and Seller Central

Interested in Remdash? Schedule your personal product demo here!

Top 5 Amazon Keywords

Judging by the search terms, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be almost over. Only in the UK, face masks are still being searched for in the top 5 – and in Germany, the number of COVID-19 vaccinations appears to be advancing as consumers are looking for protective covers for their vaccination cards. Meanwhile, Amazon customers in the US and Spain are seemingly already preparing for the summer.