, it is almost natural for people to think of Amazon or eBay. Their reputation precedes them not only because they have forged the path of online retail sales for more than two decades, but for having maintained their leadership over time. As of 2023, both stand as the
. The concept of a one-stop online shopping mall where third-party vendors offer their products and services is not new. However, in recent years, the e-commerce boom spawned a plethora of digital marketplaces.
Online marketplace heavyweights
The two U.S.-based e-commerce giants may still have the upper hand, but new competitors are measuring up. This is the case of two third-party marketplaces owned by online commerce company Alibaba. Although focused exclusively on the Chinese market, TaoBao and Tmall were the world’s
leading online marketplaces based on gross merchandise volume (GMV) in 2022, totaling 701 and 663 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. Similarly, a homegrown player has taken the Latin American market by storm. With an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 38 percent between 2021 and 2023, Mercado Libre is among the
fastest-growing online marketplaces globally.
A new dawn for traditional retailers?
Looking at the growing reach of e-commerce, brick-and-mortar stores have also started to offer their e-retail platforms to third-party sellers.
Walmart, for instance, launched its own online marketplace in 2009. After several years without much novelty, the bet started to pay off. Over three-quarters of active online marketplace sellers for
America’s largest retailer joined the platform following the COVID-19 outbreak. By the first quarter of 2023, Walmart was the fourth
most visited online marketplace in the United States, surpassing its competitor Target, which received less than half the number of visits.
Etsy: standing out in a crowded field
Faced with an increasingly competitive landscape, some e-commerce companies have opted for a different business model. Instead of offering everything for everyone,
Etsy focuses on filling the niche of handmade and vintage items. This online C2C/B2C retail platform has built much of its success by providing customers with a more personalized shopping experience than mass merchandise sales. Fueled by the coronavirus pandemic,
active buyers on Etsy surged from over 46 million in 2019 to approximately 96 million in 2023.
Temu's rapid rise and challenges in the global marketplace
A new player has inserted itself into the marketplace field. Temu, a direct competitor to Alibaba and Shein, barged in with low prices and a wide range of products, gaining market share at a rapid pace. In 2023, just one year after its conception, Temu’s app was
the most downloaded app worldwide. Within the same year, Temu had achieved approximately 635 million U.S. dollars in
gross merchandise volume- impressive numbers for a relatively new company. However, the brand’s popularity is not the only thing that has been rising. In 2024, Temu was involved in several controversies, ranging from the mishandling of personal client data to allegations of forced labor in the production process.
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