The 10 Largest E-Commerce Markets in the World by Country

Largest e-commerce markets worldwide

Global e-commerce sales are astronomical — and some countries making a significant splash in the space may surprise you. Here are the top 10 countries ranked by annual online sales. Note that if you plan to do business in one of these markets, familiarize yourself with legal challenges for e-commerce businesses in each particular location to stay on the right side of local laws. 

1. China

China is the world’s biggest e-commerce market, led by the Alibaba group’s e-commerce subsidiaries Taobao, Alibaba.com and Tmall. With other multibillion-dollar revenue brands like JD.com and VIP.com, China is also one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets, with an annual growth rate measured in CNY of 9.9 percent.

• Annual online sales: $3.01 trillion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 52.1 percent

2. United States

After long ruling the online sales world, the U.S. is currently the second-largest e-commerce market. Led by e-commerce giants Amazon and eBay, the U.S. observes healthy e-commerce growth in all sectors and has, for the most part, been the innovation house for e-commerce trends.

• Annual online sales: $1.16 trillion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 20.1 percent

3. United Kingdom

Despite its small size, the UK is a big e-commerce player and comfortably secures third place on this list. Amazon UK, eBay UK and Asos are among the country’s leading online brands. The country has one of the highest percentages of total retail sales in e-commerce. Sainsbury’s and Tesco, two of the country’s dominant supermarket chains, both exceed $7 billion each year in online sales.

• Annual online sales: $195.7 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 3.4 percent

4. Japan

Japan’s online spending per head is much lower than that of the top three countries. However, its large population of 125 million pushes it into fourth place. Rakuten is Japan’s leading e-commerce platform, with $14.77 billion in revenue and other domestic players like Yodobashi achieve high annual revenues.

• Annual online sales: $193.4 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 3.3 percent

5. South Korea

South Korea has the fifth-fastest wireless internet network in the world and is fifth on this list. The country’s biggest e-commerce names include Gmarket, SSG, Himart and Coupang.

• Annual online sales: $147.4 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 2.5 percent

6. India

Amazon India is a big player in the country. Additionally, numerous homegrown brands like Myntra, IndiaMART, Meesho and JioMart are experiencing rapid growth. The country’s internet economy may reach $1 trillion by 2030 as the Indian middle classes increase substantially.

• Annual online sales: $118.9 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 2.1 percent

7. Germany

Germany is Europe’s second-largest e-commerce market. Amazon is a major player in this market as are eBay and local online retailer Otto.

• Annual online sales: $97.3 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 1.7 percent

8. Indonesia

Indonesia’s e-commerce market has expanded significantly in the last few years, with much of that growth driven by local firms like Tokopedia, Shopee, Lazada and Blibli. Online sales in the world’s most populous Muslim country are expected to reach $160 billion by 2030.

• Annual online sales: $97.1 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 1.7 percent

9. Canada

Canada is a massive e-commerce market dominated by American brands like Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Costco. Homegrown favorites like Canadian Tire and classified ads site Kijiji also post high revenues.

• Annual online sales: $82.8 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 1.6 percent

10. France

Amazon France generates impressive annual revenues, topping $5 billion. Local favorites include online “flash sales” site Veepee, general retailer Cdiscount, entertainment and consumer electronics leader Fnac and supermarket giant Carrefour.

• Annual online sales: $79.3 billion
• E-commerce share of total retail sales: 1.4 percent

Largest online retailers in the world

The biggest online retailers have an unparalleled foothold locally and globally and have built trust with e-commerce customers. According to Oberlo, the following companies are considered the largest global online retailers: 

1. Amazon: The retail giant is, first and foremost, an e-tailer, although much of its profit comes from its Amazon Web Services division — one of the top cloud storage services for businesses. Amazon has a market cap of $1.4 trillion. Notably, Amazon is considered a mobile-friendly e-commerce website and has put much effort into creating an accessible e-commerce site.
2. Walmart: Initially slow to the e-commerce sector, Walmart’s impressive and intuitive online platform competes effectively with Amazon. Walmart’s market cap is $430.6 billion.
3. The Home Depot: Another American giant with a market cap of $333.1 billion, the company has blended online and in-store sales of its extensive range of tools and construction products successfully.
4. Alibaba: The Chinese multinational conglomerate specializes in e-commerce, retail, internet and technology and has a market cap of $257.7 billion. It has both business-to-business and business-to-consumer divisions, meaning it generates revenue from multiple parts of the supply chain.
5. Costco Wholesale Corporation: The membership-only warehouse club provides everything from groceries to general merchandise, including electronics. The firm’s market cap is $249.6 billion.
6. Prosus: This significant Dutch firm invests in various online brands, including financial technology companies PayU, Delivery Hero, classifieds site OLX and e-commerce leading PharmEasy. Its investments give it a market cap of $240 billion.
7. Reliance Industries: Primarily an energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail and telecommunications conglomerate, recent e-commerce investments have paid off, giving the company a market cap of $210 billion.
8. Pinduoduo: With a market cap of $118.7 billion, this company’s growth in its decade of existence has been stratospheric. The site offers a range of different products, including a farm-to-door delivery service.
9. Meituan Dianping: Founded in 2010 and worth $111.3 billion, Meituan sells special offer vouchers from merchants to dealers, similar to Groupon in the U.S. and Europe.
10. Booking Holdings: The online travel company owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines, including Booking.com, Priceline.com, Cheapflights and OpenTable. Its market cap is $111.3 billion.

Global e-commerce trends today

Competition and high levels of interest from the finance community are driving considerable investment and innovation in the e-commerce sector. Watch for the following trends: 

• Multiple marketplaces: In addition to selling exclusively through dedicated websites, companies are growing sales on third-party platforms like Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Pinterest.
• Streamlined checkout: Shoppers often abandon their carts after realizing the checkout process is long and complicated. Online solutions provided by many of the best credit card processors overcome this by reducing friction on your e-commerce site and decluttering the online purchasing process.
• Voice-enhanced site discovery: Voice search has been growing in recent years and many e-tailers have adapted their approaches to search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising campaigns to take advantage of this technology. 
• On-site artificial intelligence product searching: Implementing large language models onto e-tailers’ websites has the potential to help customers find what they want much faster.
• Omnichannel integration: Amazon and other popular online brands have recently expanded into real-world retail. This trend could help businesses grow both brick-and-mortar and online sales by allowing customers to redeem vouchers and participate in loyalty programs no matter where they purchase.
• Fulfillment centers: Amazon pioneered the model of building substantial distribution centers to enable quicker delivery to end users and it’s worked very well for the e-tail giant. Expect to see more brands use third-party independent fulfillment centers to hold inventory and ship directly to customers to reduce waiting times.

Max Freedman contributed to this article.