Overview and Trends on Amazon Marketplaces

Having developed from a small online bookshop to the largest online marketplace in the world, it would be a grave understatement to say that Amazon is a major player in the e-commerce space. Since its launch some thirty years ago, it has launched numerous other marketplaces and enabled sellers to market their goods abroad and reach a global clientele.

We'll examine the background information and key characteristics of each of these Amazon marketplaces in this article. To assist you in determining where to grow your online business, we'll also examine their average monthly traffic using Similarweb data for the month of December 2023.

In this article you will know:

North America's Amazon (Unified Account)

Not many people are aware that Amazon offers a North America Unified Account, which allows sellers based in North America to switch between Amazon.com, Amazon.ca (Canada), and Amazon.com.mx (Mexico) without having to create separate accounts for each. Amazon.com is the most well-known Amazon marketplace. The option to create listings in one, two, or all three of these marketplaces is included with this.

Almost 3 billion people visit Amazon.com each month; the table below illustrates its strength in comparison to other global marketplaces. However, because of the sheer volume of transactions that occur there every day, this statistic also indicates that Amazon.com is the most crowded and competitive marketplace, making it the most vulnerable to fraud from both sellers and customers.

To reach customers within North America but outside of the US, sellers in the region opt for the simple route and utilize Amazon's NARF program.

Amazon.com

The most popular of all Amazon marketplaces, Amazon.com welcomes almost 3 billion visitors each month and offers more than 350 million products for sale, both through Amazon and its network of independent sellers.

Orders placed amazon.com can be delivered to the majority of nations where Amazon's carrier services are available, despite the fact that the site is primarily targeted towards US customers. Similarly, despite serving primarily US-based sellers, a sizable portion of all.com sellers are foreign-based; over half of the top marketplace sellers are from China.

Amazon.ca

In 2002, the Canadian version of Amazon was released. Since then, it has become a popular choice for US sellers aiming to grow their clientele as well as for newly established Canadian sellers. Almost 40% of Amazon.ca's sellers are US-based as of this writing.

Amazon.com.mx

After its launch in 2015, Amazon Mexico gained notoriety as the "biggest ecommerce marketplace no one is talking about" for an extended period of time. It topped lists of nations with the fastest growing retail e-commerce sales prior to the pandemic, surpassing even China and India. At the moment, it's one of the largest online marketplaces in Latin America, though it faces competition from Mercado Libre and other equally strong Lat-Am-specific online marketplaces.

Amazon Europe

Creating an Amazon Europe account gives you the same selling options on several European Amazon marketplaces as it does in North America:

The UK, Germany, France, and Italy have the largest Amazon marketplaces in Europe in terms of website traffic. But over time, Amazon has grown its full-service EU marketplaces; the Polish and Egyptian marketplaces are the most recent additions.

Amazon.co.uk

The UK saw the introduction of Amazon's e-commerce model three years after the original website was launched, so it is hardly surprising that well-known sellers on Amazon.com list their goods on Amazon.co.uk, which receives 400 million monthly visitors and serves more than 20 European countries.

Amazon.de

Over 500 million people visit Amazon Germany each month since it launched in 1998 concurrently with Amazon.co.uk. Similar to Amazon.co.jp (Japan), it's a massive Amazon marketplace that primarily operates in languages other than English, making it a good option for sellers whose goods are not easily misinterpreted. Lists of the Amazon marketplaces with the highest number of top sellers typically include it as well.

Amazon.fr

Amazon's France marketplace receives 200 million visits per month, despite not being as busy as its counterparts in the UK and Germany. This makes it a great place for sellers from North America to expand into an uncrowded EU marketplace.

Amazon.it

Comparable to France, Amazon's Italy website is a mediocre marketplace with slightly more than 200 million monthly visitors. Interestingly, EU regulators—especially Italian ones—enforce antitrust laws with greater rigor than US authorities. Amazon has already been the target of investigations and fines for engaging in anti-competitive marketplace practices.

Amazon.es

Since its launch in 2011, Amazon Spain, which receives little under 200 million monthly visits, has given sellers over $500 million in sales. Spain is typically the first European country that sellers who also participate in Latin American marketplaces consider entering.

Amazon.nl

Following its 2020 expansion beyond ebooks to become a full-service marketplace, Amazon Netherlands is currently one of the newest Amazon marketplaces.

Amazon.pl

Given that it only debuted in 2021, Amazon's Poland marketplace has a similar reach to other recent launches, such as those in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Amazon.se

Like the Netherlands, Sweden only recently received a full-service Amazon marketplace, but even so, it already receives over 16 million visits annually.

Amazon.com.tr

December 2017 saw the launch of Amazon Turkey, the company's first European marketplace outside of the EU. With the opening of its first fulfillment center in Istanbul in 2022, Amazon created over 1000 jobs and gave sellers access to nearly identical services as Amazon FBA in the US.

Amazon.eg

Like the two Middle Eastern e-commerce sites mentioned above, Amazon Egypt was formally rebranded as Amazon.eg in 2021 after being Souq since 2017. It is Africa's first Amazon marketplace.

Independent Amazon Marketplaces

There are also fully operational Amazon marketplaces in countries like Australia, Japan, and India that receive hundreds of millions of views each month. The potential market for each of these distinct Amazon marketplaces is displayed in the table below.

Amazon.in

Amazon India is a marketplace unto itself, and even US-based sellers find it appealing with its over 350 million monthly visitors, particularly those who already work with factories in China and India. India has a thriving e-commerce scene as well, with major players like Flipkart, a subsidiary of Walmart, accounting for a sizable portion of the market.

Amazon.co.jp

With over 600 million visitors, Amazon Japan is the most popular standalone Amazon marketplace and a good option for business expansion. Its primary advantage is its in-house domestic Amazon FBA services, which enable you to conveniently operate an online store just like you would on Amazon.com. The toy, electronics, and OTAKU product categories are the most popular ones on this marketplace.

Amazon.com.br

Established in 2012, Amazon Brazil boasts a respectable 160 million monthly visitors, making it an obvious choice for vendors wishing to reach the Latin American market. In fact, a 2020 survey found that Latin America is the region with the fastest-growing e-commerce market worldwide, surpassing both North America and Europe.

Amazon.ae

In 2005, Amazon United Arab Emirates opened for business in Dubai, following the e-commerce behemoth's half-billion dollar acquisition of Souq.com. Subsequently, Souq was rebranded as Amazon.ae for the UAE market in 2019 and Amazon.sa for Saudi Arabia in 2020.

Amazon.sa

Amazon.se's (UAE) Saudi Arabian counterpart debuted only in 2020, but since then, it has operated with at least 12 Amazon sites, and new launches are scheduled for 2022–2024.

Amazon.com.au

Launched in 2017, Amazon Australia is also a relatively new marketplace. However, its less competitive seller ecosystem and monthly visitor count of over 60 million have drawn US-based Amazon sellers seeking to reach southern e-commerce consumers.

Amazon.sg

Amazon faces significant challenges when trying to penetrate the Southeast Asian market due to the presence of well-established marketplaces like Lazada and Shopee. Nevertheless, the company did quietly introduce Amazon Singapore in 2017 and has continuously demonstrated a desire to increase its market share in the region.

How to List Your Products on Foreign Amazon Marketplaces

As of 2023, selling internationally on Amazon is very simple. Simply go to the Amazon Global Selling page, select the marketplace you wish to enter, and proceed with your listings and logistics just like you would on Amazon.com. You can fulfill orders internationally with the help of Amazon, as it has a fairly strong international logistics network.

CONCLUSIONS

There are multiple Amazon marketplaces besides the largest one, which is Amazon.com. Gaining international exposure and understanding what makes these marketplaces unique will help you build a stronger e-commerce brand.

How about you, where do you hope to grow your Amazon company?

- End -