More Top Companies Call Europe Their Home Than the U.S.

eCommerce companies exist all over the world, in all shapes and sizes, with some succeeding better than others. The ECDB has identified the top 250 eCommerce companies, revealing that the location of their headquarters certainly plays an important role in their success. The location of a company lays the foundation for the company, as infrastructure and availability of resources have an impact on the success of a company. 

The United States as the Place to Be for Top eCommerce Companies 

The largest portion, 80 to be precise, of the world's top 250 eCommerce companies are based in the United States. The country is home to big, well-known players such as Walmart, Inc., Nike, Inc., and eBay, Inc. At the very top stands Amazon.com, Inc., the world's second-largest company in terms of eCommerce activity revenue in 2024 of US$802 billion.  

When it comes to headquartered Top 250 eCommerce companies, no one can match the United States – not even its perennial rival China, with 17 of the Top 250 companies headquartered in the ‘Middle Kingdom’.  

In the early stages of eCommerce, U.S. companies established themselves and for a long time seemed to be the dominant force in eCommerce, having played a major role in the development of the World Wide Web in the 1990s – think Silicon Valley. Early investments in the Internet sector have contributed to the high online share of 26.7% (2024) today. Additionally, the market shines with its large population of 341.8 million in 2024 – the third largest in the world – who were early adopters of online shopping. 

Most of the Top 250 eCommerce Companies Are Based in Europe 

Only together do the European countries manage to surpass the United States, with 95 companies headquartered on the continent. The next closest country to the U.S. is Germany with 22 companies, followed by France, the United Kingdom, and China with 17 companies' seats each. Among them, we find companies from the Fashion category such as Zalando SE or LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, as well as from the Grocery category like J Sainsbury Plc, and Carrefour S.A. 

However, this view of eCommerce players reveals hot spots for the headquarters, while ignoring the actual size of eCommerce companies. In the case of China, for example, there are fewer companies, but all the bigger ones, whether it's Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. or PDD Holdings, Inc. They are the main drivers of China's US$1.8 trillion revenue share in 2023, while the U.S. barely managed to reach the halfway mark with US$964 billion.  

Meanwhile, no eCommerce companies from the African continent made it into the top 250. Although the continent is expected to grow by 53% between 2024 and 2028, from US$19 billion to US$29 billion, the competition from other continents is too great. But just as the African eCommerce market is changing, so too is the Top 250 ranking.