Amazon Is the Most Valuable Retail Brand

The 2019 ranking “Top 75 Most Valuable Global Retail Brands”1 by BrandZTM features the usual suspect in first place: Amazon. An amazing 91% growth since the 2018 ranking resulted in a brand value of over US$315.5 billion. Amazon is a seemingly unstoppable rising star in the retail business, soaring high above second-placed Alibaba, which recorded not even half the brand value of frontrunner Amazon. With a brand value of US$131.3 billion and a growth of 48% compared to the 2018 figures, though, China’s Alibaba doesn’t need to hide. It has moved up a rank, leaving McDonald’s in third place this year. This means that, for the first time, two eCommerce giants are at the top of the world’s leading retail brands.

They are not the only brands among the top 10 that run successful online stores. Some of the multi-channel players in the list record impressive online sales as well. Revenue-wise, ninth-placed Walmart has one of the most successful online stores in the world. In our current ecommerceDB rankings, walmart.com is in 5th place worldwide and in 2nd in the U.S. when it comes to net sales in 2019. Homedepot.com –the number 4 most valuable retail brand according to BrandZ – ranks 10th in the ecommerceDB global  ranking and 4th in the U.S ranking2

Several other eCommerce players rank among the 75 most valuable retail brands, among them the Chinese eCommerce platform JD in 14th and the old stager Ebay in 21st place. The latter lost 11% of its brand value compared to 2018, which let it slip down four ranks.

Among the nine newcomers to the list, there are also two online eCommerce specialists: Flipkart, an online marketplace from India acquired by Walmart in 2018, and the German fashion store Zalando. The latter is the leading online fashion retailer in Germany and delivers to customers in 17 European countries. With a brand value of US$3.1 billion, it ranks 62nd in the list of the 75 most valuable retail brands in 2019. Together, the 75 most valuable retail brands are worth more than US$1.3 trillion.

1: BrandZ, Kantar Millward Brown’s brand equity platform, combines in-depth financial analyses and extensive long-term consumer insights to determine the value of brands. Globally, the research includes three million consumer interviews on more than 165,000 brands in over 50 markets.