In 2016, consumers spent about $390 billion online with U.S. merchants and in just two years, this number increased to over $517 billion. The e-commerce trend isn’t about to slow down any time soon, either. According to some financial experts, global e-commerce sales are expected to reach $5.8 trillion dollars by the year 2024.
Running an online store poses plenty of challenges. Finding affordable web design services is the first step, but after that, e-commerce entrepreneurs face the daunting task of getting customers to come to their site and keep them coming back. Currently, there is an estimated 110,000 e-commerce websites on the internet, with some of them being hugely successful. Taking growth rates and revenue into consideration, here are the top e-commerce sites in the world.
Amazon
Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon has become a household name when it comes to online shopping. Starting out as an online bookstore, the e-commerce giant eventually began selling a wide range of products. Due to its unusual business model, the site didn’t make a profit for about the first 5 years. In 2015, however, Amazon made $100 billion in revenue. Currently, Amazon has a growth rate of 19% and annual revenue in 2018 of $233 billion.
A few reasons Amazon has become so successful is that the site provides an amazing user experience, plus its long product descriptions provide keyword-rich copy that helps the site to have high search engine rankings.
JD.Com
Founded by Liu Quiangdong in 1998, JD.com has its headquarters in Beijing, China. The e-commerce site gained initial success by selling mobile phones and electronics, but later added other products including home appliances and fresh food. JD.com currently has a growth rate of 40% with annual revenue of $67.20 billion.
Some experts credit the site’s personalized shopping experience along with the company’s focus on high-quality logistics that is making the e-commerce site becoming the world’s best supply chain.
Booking Holdings
Formerly known as Priceline.com, Booking Holdings was founded by JS Walker in 1997. By the time the commerce site went public in 1999, it had already generated $13 billion through IPO. While both Amazon and JD.com started small and then added a variety of products, Booking Holdings did just the opposite. They began by selling gasoline, home mortgages, and telephone services, but eventually became focused on travel business only.
The e-commerce site has a growth rate of 18%, and in 2018 it had annual revenue of $14.5 billion. The site’s success has been contributed to the fact that when the company first started, it let the customer choose the price. Now, Booking Holdings makes a top priority out of having a mobile-friendly website.