Stock Prices Fall for eCommerce Companies

Market capitalization, or short market cap, is the total market value of a publicly listed company’s total outstanding shares, and it is a commonly used indicator to measure a company’s worth, size or significance in the global economy and its attractiveness for potential investors. The most valuable companies in the world usually come from a wide range of industries. The top ranks in the list of the world’s leading companies by market capitalization are fought for by industry giants from fields like technology, energy and oil supply, communications, financial services, pharmaceuticals – and not least the flourishing eCommerce business. Several eCommerce players rank among the global top 100 companies by market capitalization. Within the eCommerce category, the top 10 most valuable companies feature a remarkably high number of Chinese players, while the top ranks in the overall ranking across industries are dominated by U.S. companies. Stock prices of the 10 most valuable eCommerce companies in the world developed as follows in the past year:

Stock prices fell for the world’s biggest eCommerce companies in the past year. As the overall eCommerce boom induced by the corona pandemic is slowly levelling off, revenue and sales growth of the leading eCommerce companies is slowing down or even declining, which also reflects in stock price developments. Other factors like supply chain issues or high inflation have also impacted companies’ value on the stock markets in a negative way. As a result, stock prices plummeted for most of the top 10 most valuable eCommerce companies by market cap between September 2021 and September 2022. Singaporean player Sea – mother of Shopee – experienced the greatest change in stock prices: Stock prices declined by -82% from US$325.5 per share on Sep 9, 2021, to US$63.47 on Sep 9, 2022. Sea was followed by Shopify, which also experienced a remarkable change in stock price, namely a loss of -77% from US$148.41 to US$34.81 between Sep 9, 2021 and Sep 9, 2022. In general, all top 10 players saw their stock prices decline by double-digit rates, among them Amazon and Alibaba. U.S. online automotive trader Copart – which is currently in rank 10 of the most valuable companies with an eCommerce focus – saw the weakest decline: Stock prices fell by 19% from US$143.12 to US%116.11 between Sep 9, 2021, and Sep 9, 2022.