What are the top 100 cross-border marketplaces in Europe?

The European platform Cross-Border Commerce Europe is launching the first edition of the Cross-Border Europe Top 100 marketplaces in collaboration with FedEx Express and Worldline, which ranks the main European cross-border marketplaces according to four main parameters: cross-border online sales in Europe (28 countries including the UK), cross-border SEO performance indicators, number of countries covered, number and percentage of cross-border visits. In addition and to refine the ranking, four other criteria have been analysed. The type of business model of the marketplaces (B2B, B2C, P2P, C2C), their pan-European strategy, the IA & Big data strategy of the marketplaces, and the type and number of services offered to the clients of the marketplaces. Here are the first 25 marketplaces in the top 100:

Marketplaces with an international dimension and strong reputation logically appear in this top 25.

Thus we find Amazon (ranks 1 and 24), eBay, Alibaba (ranks 3 and 11), Etsy, Wish, Rakuten, Zalando, Vinted, Uber and Farfetch. The United States largely dominates the top 25 with 13 companies represented, including less well-known platforms in France, such as Grailed (men’s clothing), Bricklink (LEGO), Bandcamp (music), Discogs (music) and Big Cartel.

Among the findings of the top 100, we learn that 56% of the marketplaces are in the B2C segment with Amazon, eBay and AliExpress in the top 3. Another 68% are “pure” marketplaces that do not sell their own products but only those of third parties such as Discogs, Wish, Farfetch and Bandcamp. C2C marketplaces represent 36% of the top 100, with European leaders such as Depop and Bump from the UK, Hood, Mobile.de and Rebelle from Germany and Marktplaats from the Netherlands, who are little knownin the rest of EUrope.

Finally, the study reveals that the total cross-border e-commerce market in Europe represents a turnover of €143 billion in 2019 (excluding travel). Unsurprisingly, Amazon takes the lion’s share with a turnover in excess of €30 billion in 2019. According to forecasts by Cross-Border Commerce Europe, marketplaces should account for 65% of cross-border online sales in Europe in 2025.

What are the top 25 cross-border marketplaces in Europe?

The European platform Cross-Border Commerce Europe is launching the first edition of the Cross-Border Europe Top 100 marketplaces in collaboration with FedEx Express and Worldline, which ranks the main European cross-border marketplaces according to four main parameters: cross-border online sales in Europe (28 countries including the UK), cross-border SEO performance indicators, number of countries covered, number and percentage of cross-border visits. In addition and to refine the ranking, four other criteria have been analysed. The type of business model of the marketplaces (B2B, B2C, P2P, C2C), their pan-European strategy, the IA & Big data strategy of the marketplaces, and the type and number of services offered to the clients of the marketplaces. Here are the first 25 marketplaces in the top 100:

Cross-Border Commerce Europe

Marketplaces with an international dimension and strong reputation logically appear in this top 25.

Thus we find Amazon (ranks 1 and 24), eBay, Alibaba (ranks 3 and 11), Etsy, Wish, Rakuten, Zalando, Vinted, Uber and Farfetch. The United States largely dominates the top 25 with 13 companies represented, including less well-known platforms in France, such as Grailed (men’s clothing), Bricklink (LEGO), Bandcamp (music), Discogs (music) and Big Cartel.

Among the findings of the top 100, we learn that 56% of the marketplaces are in the B2C segment with Amazon, eBay and AliExpress in the top 3. Another 68% are “pure” marketplaces that do not sell their own products but only those of third parties such as Discogs, Wish, Farfetch and Bandcamp. C2C marketplaces represent 36% of the top 100, with European leaders such as Depop and Bump from the UK, Hood, Mobile.de and Rebelle from Germany and Marktplaats from the Netherlands, who are little knownin the rest of EUrope.

Finally, the study reveals that the total cross-border e-commerce market in Europe represents a turnover of €143 billion in 2019 (excluding travel). Unsurprisingly, Amazon takes the lion’s share with a turnover in excess of €30 billion in 2019. According to forecasts by Cross-Border Commerce Europe, marketplaces should account for 65% of cross-border online sales in Europe in 2025.

Faster growth for E-commerce in Spain

The value of Internet sales in Spain reached 30,000 million euros in 2017, 25.7% more than the previous year.

E-commerce is also actually accelerating its growth in Spain. The Spaniards made online purchases worth 30.406 million euros in 2017, representing a growth of 25.7% over the previous year. These figures reflect the vitality of the sector, since the previous year’s increase was 20.8%.

Amazon. Aliexpress. El Corte Inglés. Media Markt. PC components. But also Zara, Edreams, Ticketmaster, Bwin………. Online commerce in Spain has been accelerating, thanks to increased sales in almost all categories.

Fourth quarter

The acceleration in trade can be seen in the the last quarter of 2017, e-commerce sales reached 8,526 million euros, 28.1% more than the 6,656 million euros of the last three months of 2016 and 9.5% more than the 7,785 million euros of the third quarter.

By sector, the industries with the highest revenues in the fourth quarter were travel agencies and tour operators with 11.3% of total revenues, air transportation with 7.5% and clothing with 7.1%.

More transactions

The number of transactions recorded in the last three months of 2017 reached 154.5 million, up to 31.5% from 117.5 million in the same period last year.

In this regard, the industries with the highest revenues by sector in the fourth quarter were travel agencies and tour operators with 11.3% of total revenues, air transportation with 7.5% and clothing with 7.1%.

More transactions

The number of transactions recorded in the last three months of 2017 reached 154.5 million, up 31.5% from 117.5 million in the same period last year.

In this context, games and betting top the ranking with 6.8% of sales, followed by land passenger transport and sales of records, books, newspapers and stationery, with 6.6% and 5.8% respectively.
The importance of cross border ecommerce in Spain

In terms of geographical segmentation, Spanish websites represented 50.2% of sales in the fourth quarter of 2017, of which 13.8% came from abroad, while the remaining 49.8% were purchases from Spain and made on foreign websites.

Trade deficit

The net external balance, i.e. the difference between what is bought from abroad to Spanish websites and what is bought from Spain to foreign countries, showed a deficit of EUR 3 073 million in the last three months of last year.

More specifically, the turnover of transactions from Spain to foreign countries was 4.247 million euros, or 36.8% more, while sales of Spanish websites abroad reached a turnover of 1.174 million euros, or 36% more.

Similarly, CNMC data show that 93.1% of Spain’s purchases abroad are directed to the European Union, followed by the United States (2.3%), air transport (8.2%), clothing (8%) and subscription to television channels (6.2%) being the sectors most in demand.

In the case of purchases made in Spain from abroad, 70.1% come from the EU. The tourism sector (which includes travel agencies, air transport, ground transport, car rental and hotels) accounts for 65% of purchases.

On the other hand, e-commerce turnover in Spain increased by 15.5% year-on-year between October and December, reaching 3,105 million euros. The tourism sector accounts for 27.9% of turnover in Spain, followed by artistic, sports and recreational performances (7.6%) and the clothing sector (6.4%).

Your online presence on foreign markets: the importance of an integrated strategy

Every marketer knows it, a visible online presence is crucial to achieving sustainable success at an international level. While knowledge is one thing, however, it is quite another to translate this into actionable steps that can create a prominent web presence in foreign markets. This is important across all sectors, especially those that are competitive by their nature.

Traditionally, businesses in competitive markets would first create optimized and multilingual websites. These websites would include information about the brand and its product / services. Operating alongside traditional advertising campaigns, this dual-purpose marketing strategy would target potential consumers on the local market and aim to convert them into sales. However, this approach, for most of the competitive markets, is no longer viable.
Many different aspects to take into account while developing a web presence on foreign markets

While the development of a standalone website campaign may drive business growth, it is not enough to gain full access of the market potential abroad. A multilingual website may provide information about your products, and services, but it does not provide any opportunity for real dialogue or interfacing.

In fact there many aspects of an international web presence marketing that can help businesses to actively target foreign customers customers while interacting with them in real-time, when they are engaged with the brand. A good online marketing strategy should strive to engage customers across multiple channels, including websites, social networks, emailing, digital advertising…

A multilingual website should be part an integrated strategy

Today, it is no longer a question of whether to globalize one’s web site, but how to improve the online experience for every foreign prospect and customer. In the internet age, an effective global web strategy is more than ever a strategic imperative. Here is the 3 step process we recommend to establish your online presence on foreign markets, and help your company succeed internationally.

Use the latest technology

For instance, when localizing your content with a translation management system, you have the advantage of translation memories and term bases which can reduce the costs of your translations with minimal effort. It can help for terminology management.
The translation management systems are very useful because they become more robust in the long-run, decreasing the amount of content that needs to be translated, and reducing costs.
Let’s imagine we have an e-commerce company that sells lighting to the French market. We want now to target other European markets, and have made the decision to integrate a translation management system into our localization strategy.
Our web content has a lot of repeated text such as, “éclairage led,” ou, “disponible en différentes tailles.” With a TMS, we have access to a translation memory and glossary, in whicg we have included the keywords from our keyword research, and we don’t have to pay to translate these phrases over and over for every page of content. Once we have translated it the first time, these phrases will be stored in the database and will be automatically reused when they are detected, reducing significantly the cost of the translation carried out by an expert. This is a great example of how to use technology to expand abroad.
Of course, there are many aspects of our online activity that still have to be achieved with the help of native experts: adwords campaign, content marketing, social medias, but staying up to date can be of great help to expand internationaly.

International roll out of Google Product Listing Ads: an opportunity to grow your exports

Google announced on may 21 that paid Product Listing Ads would be rolled out internationally during June 2012. According to a recent post “Connect, Click and Convert Around the World with Google Shopping”, Google believes that this new model, built on Product Listing Ads, will ”help retailers of all sizes connect the right products with customers around the world, increase clicks to their sites, and convert more shoppers into buyers.”
Google Product Listing Ads have definitely changed the game of paid search. Product Listing Ads were introduced by Google in 2012 so as to deliver product specific ads containing an image.

The e-tailer has to load all its product inventory into a feed (a structured spreadsheet, with descriptive fields determined by Google, such as Price, URL, Description, Size, etc). He has to make sure that the feed is always up to date and upload it into Google Merchant Center. Once this is done, the e-tailer will have to link its Merchant Center account to AdWords. Subsequently, great product ads with images and prices included will be showed in search results.

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