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
Source: Racked
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
Source: UseTheBitcoin
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
Source: Pandaily
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.
