KUALA LUMPUR (April 8): Online marketplaces around the world enjoyed stratospheric growth in 2020, with the top three global online marketplaces accounting for nearly two-thirds of US$2.67 trillion (about RM11.05 trillion).

According to research data analysed and published by online trading portal Comprar Acciones on Tuesday, compared to the 2019 figure, it marked an increase of 29% year-on-year (y-o-y) in gross merchandise sales.

The portal said the total grew at a faster rate than that of non-marketplace sites, whose sales increased by 25% y-o-y.

It said total e-commerce sales worldwide (marketplace and non-marketplace) grew by 27.6% in 2020.

Citing a study by eMarketer, a market research company that provides insights and trends related to digital marketing, media, and commerce, it said the global sales figure of the industry was US$4.28 trillion.

On the other hand, it said worldwide retail sales, both online and offline, declined by 3% in the same period to US$23.84 trillion.

Notably, the top 100 sites accounted for a 95% share of global sales on online marketplaces.

Overall, they held a 62% share of worldwide digital sales.

The portal said the world’s largest sites in the industry, namely Taobao and Tmall (both operated by Alibaba) as well as Amazon took the lion’s share of the total gross merchandise volume (GMV).

Their combined sales accounted for close to two-thirds of the global figure.

It added that among the top 100 sites, only five had a GMV ranging between US$50 billion and US$100 billion or more.

Twelve had a GMV of US$10 billion to US$50 billion each, while 22 produced US$1 billion to US$10 billion.

The most populous category was the US$250 million to US$1 billion range, with 31 marketplaces in the category.

Meanwhile, the portal said North America had the highest number of marketplaces, with a total of 52, while Asia came in second with 22. Europe was third with 19.

Fifty of North America’s sites were based in the US and together, they posted a 41.7% increase in annual sales during the year.

Amazon was the US market leader, with a total of US$475 billion in annual GMV.

Marketplace sales accounted for a 60% share of the total.

The platform’s third-party GMV during the year grew by 40%. All in all, Amazon held a close to one-third share of e-commerce sales in the US.