What are the top online retailers in the world?

Research highlights: Amazon is the top online retailer with $152.84 billion in global net sales and 37.6% market share in the US, nearly six times more than its closest competitor, Walmart (6.4%). Chinese social commerce platforms outperform all Western platforms combined. Douyin, WeChat, and Little Red Book, collectively generated $531.4 billion, surpassing the sum of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok ($155.1B).

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Top online retailers by market share

• Amazon is the top online retailer in the United States with 37.6% market share, nearly six times more than its closest competitor, Walmart (6.4%)

• Amazon and Walmart account for 44% of the US ecommerce market, leaving just over half the market for all other players combined

• Apple (3.6%) and eBay (3%) hold the third and fourth positions, respectively

• Target and The Home Depot are tied with 1.9% each

• The bottom five in the top nine, Target, The Home Depot, Costco, Best Buy, and Carvana, collectively hold only 7.9% of the market

• Carvana, a used car e-commerce platform, makes it to the top 10 with a 1.3% market share

Top online retailers worldwide by net sales

• Amazon leads online retailers globally with $152.84 billion in net sales, 29.8% higher than JD.com, the second-largest

• JD.com is the only online retailer outside of the US in the top three, accounting for more than 77% of Walmart’s ecommerce sales ($77.60 billion)

• Apple and Shein are neck-and-neck in net sales, with only $0.61 billion separating them ($48.86B for Apple vs. $48.25B for Shein)

• Coupang, South Korea’s e-commerce giant, pulled in $25.36 billion, beating out Target, Home Depot, and all Amazon international units individually

• Amazon’s combined international sales, Germany ($18.76B) and UK ($18.33B), total $37.09 billion, which would make it the fourth largest if considered as a single unit

• Target ($20.66B) slightly outpaces Home Depot ($19.71B) in online sales, with a difference of less than $1 billion

Top online fashion retailers

• Shein leads the fashion ecommerce sector with $19.11 billion in net sales, outperforming Walmart by $4.37 billion

• General retailers are still major players in fashion despite not being fashion-first brands, with Walmart ($14.74B) and Amazon ($9.82B) holding the second and third positions

• Shein’s fashion sales alone are nearly double Amazon’s and more than triple Macy’s ($6.29B)

• The top three, Shein, Walmart, and Amazon, together account for $43.67 billion, which is more than half (54.5%) of the total sales from the entire top 10 list

• Nike ($4.72B), Target ($4.55B), and Kohl’s ($4.02B) are closely grouped

• Lululemon ($3.15B) ranks 10th but is just $520 million behind Nordstrom

• Macy’s, GAP, Nordstrom, and Kohl’s, all long-standing department stores or apparel brands, combined account for $17.19 billion, still less than Shein’s sales alone

Top online retailers for consumer electronics

• Amazon leads the consumer electronics market with $36.94 billion in net sales

• Apple is the only brand manufacturer in the top three. $25.86B in direct e-commerce electronics sales reflects the strength of its own retail ecosystem

• Amazon and Apple together generated $62.8 billion, accounting for over 69% of the total sales from the top 10 retailers

• Walmart ($5.84B) and Best Buy ($5.10B) trail far behind Amazon and Apple, with each earning less than 16% of Amazon’s sales

• The bottom five retailers, Dell, Target, Costco, Sam’s Club, Ring, and HP, together contribute just $7.3 billion, which is only 19.7% of Amazon’s electronics sales alone

Top social commerce platforms

• Social commerce platforms blend social media with ecommerce. Chinese platforms, Douyin, WeChat, and Little Red Book, collectively generated $531.4 billion, accounting for over 71% of total revenue in the dataset

• Douyin alone earned more than all Western platforms combined, with its $237.6B surpassing the sum of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok ($155.1B)

• Little Red Book ($112.5B) outperformed all Western platforms, earning 68% more than Facebook ($67B) and 2.6 times Instagram’s revenue ($42.8B)

• Facebook and Instagram combined generated $109.8 billion

• YouTube’s social commerce revenue reached $27.7 billion, making it the top video-first platform in the West, yet still only 11.6% of Douyin’s total

Sources

• Largest online retailers in the U.S. 2023

• Global: top online stores by net sales 2024

• U.S. top fashion online stores 2024

• U.S.: top consumer electronics online stores 2024

• Global: social commerce revenue by platform 2025