When you're starting a new business, it's hard to know your chances of success against the big players. It helps to know who your competitors are and what makes them so successful, allowing you to learn from their strengths.
Amazon competition comes from various companies - from eCommerce giants to web services and streaming platforms. If you're planning to start a new business with an online presence, Amazon probably isn't the only place you'll have to compete.
Read this article on the top 24 Amazon competitors for an in-depth analysis of the competitors to watch out for when starting an online business. You can then use this information to gauge how competitive it is for your type of product.
We have included detailed information about each competitor, including revenue, traffic, and more. This way, you'll see any opportunities in specific markets that current products aren’t serving.
Read on to learn more!
Types Of Amazon Competitors
As with any industry, Amazon’s competitors come in all shapes and sizes. Some are direct, others indirect, and some are similar to Amazon.
To make it easier for you to evaluate your chances against the top players, we've split Amazon’s competition into six categories: eCommerce, offline, web services, social media marketplaces, video, and music streaming, and artificial intelligence.
Amazon eCommerce Competitors
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world. It has a wide range of products in over 30 main categories. The products are from multiple sellers, but the company also sells its own branded products, such as the Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Pictured above: Amazon devices
Here are some eCommerce companies that compete with Amazon:
Pictured above: eBay Homepage
eBay is the second biggest online marketplace globally and a direct competitor to Amazon. Another name for eBay is eCommerce Central, and its net online sales were over $10 billion in 2020, with most revenue coming from marketplace transaction fees.
Image credit: Statista
With over 688 million visitors per month, eBay online marketplace has what it takes to be an Amazon competitor. However, its product offering is less merchandisable as it's mainly made up of used goods (eBay Classifieds).
eBay features both auction-style listings and fixed price listings. eBay eCommerce stores are also reasonably easy to create. You can even customize your homepage with a banner or text link. This way, buyers will know exactly where to find your items on the site.
Amazon vs. eBay
Both eBay and Amazon are famous for their vast product catalogs. Their business models differ significantly, though. eBay focuses on used and collectible items, while Amazon provides new and discounted products from multiple sellers. The user experience is also very different at each site.
eBay has a more traditional auction model, which can confuse new users unfamiliar with the bidding process.
Pictured above: Walmart Homepage
Walmart is a popular online store in the USA and is ranked second behind Amazon in net sales in 2020.
Walmart's eCommerce business generated net online retail sales of more than $39 billion in the fiscal year ending January 31, 2020. In comparison, Amazon had a little over $386 billion in net global sales during that same period.Amazon vs. Walmart
Walmart's eCommerce platform is free to join and has lower competition, but Amazon has many more tailored features for merchants. Amazon also has a considerable marketing budget which allows them to promote their products.
Pictured above: Alibaba Homepage
Alibaba is a Chinese eCommerce business equivalent to Amazon, but that doesn't mean it's not a strong competitor. Alibaba's online sales were $72.3 billion (473.68 billion yuan) for the year ending March 2021, making it one of the largest eCommerce companies.
For starters, Alibaba offers consumers eCommerce services similar to those of its American counterpart—including product listing, marketing, payment options, and shipping.
Like eBay and Walmart, it's free for merchants to join and use the platform. Like Amazon, Alibaba also allows users to create online stores within minutes.
Amazon vs. Alibaba
Alibaba is mostly business to business, unlike Amazon, which is mostly business to consumer. Alibaba is ideal for manufacturers and wholesalers who want to sell their products online. Alibaba’s focus is on the Chinese market.
Jingdong (JD)
Pictured above: JD Homepage
JD is a Chinese eCommerce business with a wide variety of products. It competes in the Chinese market with Tmall, Taobao, and Pinduoduo.
JD net revenues for 2020 were RMB745.8 billion (US$114.3 billion). As of December 2020, the company had 310,000 employees, excluding interns and part-time.
JD also owns Joybuy.com, which operates in English and offers worldwide delivery to over 200 countries.
Both JD and Joybuy have wholesale goods for sale.
Pictured above: Otto Homepage
Otto is a Berlin-based online retail market. The company has a variety of products, from baby toys to kitchen appliances to men's and women's fashion. Otto is a trading company, meaning its core business is to sell products from other brands.
In 2018, Otto generated around US$3.8 billion in online sales. This revenue and a growth rate of 13.7% made Otto second place in the German eCommerce ranking. Over 72% of the sales came from fashion, furniture, and appliances.
Pictured above: Flipkart Homepage
Flipkart is an online retail giant in India. It went live in 2007, and it operates like Amazon's business model - business to consumer.
At first, Flipkart sold only books but expanded its range over time to include consumer electronics, such as smartphones and appliances. This online retailer now has over 80 million products in over 80 categories.
By 2016, Flipkart had 100 million users and 100,000 sellers. In 2018, Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart for a US$16 billion investment. This investment made Flipkart the most valued start-up in Asia.
Pictured above: Rakuten About Us Page
Rakuten is a Japanese eCommerce company founded in 1997 and specializes in eCommerce, finance, internet services, travel, and fintech. The Japanese translation of 'Rakuten' is optimism.
Rakuten's primary services available globally include Rakuten TV, Viki, and Kobo. These services are accessible across the globe in 30 countries.
Over the years, Rakuten has acquired several significant companies, including Kobo, Viki, and Ebates. These subsidiaries have enabled Rakuten to expand its business model from a mere eCommerce platform to include various services such as travel and finance. As a result, the company has been able to reach out to more customers across the world.
Niche eCommerce Stores
Niche stores focus on specific products and services. They target consumers passionate about certain subjects and aim to provide them with everything related to that topic.
Small online stores cannot compete with Amazon on shipping and price, but they can outpace Amazon in product diversity and personalized user experience.
The most successful niche online stores focus on specific products. This enables them to develop a reputation for providing top-quality products in a specialized range. Such specific niches are not only easier to target, but they attract loyal customers.
Amazon Offline Competitors
Amazon offline competitors are businesses with a physical store or retail location where customers can buy their products. The main competitors include Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.
Walmart
Walmart is the global retail giant, generating over US$500 billion in revenue each year. Sam Walton founded it in 1962, and its headquarter is in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company currently has 11,000 physical stores across 27 countries worldwide.
The majority of Walmart's income comes from retail sales, but it also has a variety of other business segments, including wholesale trade, grocery & foodservice, and international sales. Walmart is the largest retail seller of groceries in the USA as well as a major online retailer.
Target
Target is a large retailer that offers a lot of general merchandise with around 1,915 physical stores in all US states. Although they are known more for their general merchandise, Target does sell books, music, movies, and games.
Target's online store is popular in the US eCommerce market. The online marketplace offers most of the same items that you will find in the stores; there may be fewer options when compared to Amazon, but they do carry some fantastic deals on higher-end products like electronics.
Pictured above: Target Online Marketplace
Target also has a price matching policy. If you buy an item at their store or on their website, they will match the price of the same item with select online competitors. This is a great feature, especially if you are not necessarily looking for something specific but browsing the web for sales.
Best Buy
Best Buy is an American multinational consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota, Canada, and Mexico.
Best Buy has over 100,000 employees and operates over 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores in the US and Canada. It has an online store to buy various electronics, including computers, tablets, and mobile phones.
Pictured above: Best Buy Online Marketplace
Best Buy offers a range of items from low prices for refurbished products to high-end electronics that may be more costly than if you were to find the same product online. The only thing that can hold you back from online shopping on their website is that some items are only available in-store.
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American membership-only warehouse club that provides a wide selection of merchandise. It is currently the largest membership-only warehouse club in the United States, with 795 locations as of 2020.
Costco primarily earns revenue through membership fees and sales. In 2020, Costco had 105 million members around the world who paid for the yearly membership.Image credit: Statista
Costco aims to describe its products in the product listing accurately. The store avoids using ambiguous terms like "fancy," "deluxe," or "premium" when referring to the level of quality for an item.
Kroger, founded in 1883 by Bernard H. Kroger, is an American retail supermarket chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio. As of November 2020, Kroger had 2,750 grocery stores and 170 jewelry stores in 35 states.
Pictured above: Kroger Online Marketplace
It is one of the largest supermarket chains by revenue in the US, with $132.5 billion in sales for 2020. Kroger stores served 9 million customers daily and employed nearly 500,000 associates in 2020.
Home Depot
Home Depot is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. The company was founded in 1978 and has its headquarters at the Atlanta Store Support Center in Cobb County, Georgia.
Home Depot's online marketplace has more than 1 million products. In 2020, Home Depot reported $132.1 billion in sales. The stores currently employ around 500,000 associates.
Home Depot comprises 2,300 retail stores across various types of business such as gardening, lawn & patio, kitchen & bath, hardware, and computers. The physical department stores are in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.Amazon Web Services Competitors
Pictured above: AWS Homepage
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers cloud computing services to individuals, companies, and government agencies. It provides 200 featured services, including storage, analytics, and enterprise applications.
In the second quarter of 2021, AWS had a market share of 31% in the public cloud. Several competitors offer similar services, such as Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure.
Pictured above: Azure Homepage
Microsoft Azure is a close competitor of Amazon Web Service with a market share of 22%. It offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) to companies.
It uses Microsoft-based data centers and allows both Windows and Linux distributions for its cloud computing services.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Pictured above: Google Cloud Homepage
Google Cloud Platform is another competitor of AWS with a market share of 8%. It competes with AWS to provide companies with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) options. GCP's services include computing, data storage, data analytics, and content delivery.
Amazon's streaming services competitors
Pictured above: Amazon Prime Video
Amazon streaming services are for music and video. Amazon Prime video streaming top competitors are Netflix and Disney+, while Amazon Prime music streaming main competitors are Apple Music and Spotify.
Pictured above: Netflix Homepage
Netflix is the biggest competitor of Amazon prime video. With an extensive library of video content, it has been the best streaming service for a long time. As of September 2020, Netflix had around 201 million subscribers compared to Amazon's 117 million subscribers.
Netflix offers three plans for its customers:
Disney Plus is a video streaming service owned by Walt Disney Company who launched the platform in November 2019. As of the last quarter of 2020, it had 73.7 million subscribers.
Image credit: Statista
Disney+ costs $7.99 per month, and they also have an annual plan for $79.99. The content available is vast, including movies, TV shows, and some exclusive content.
Disney+ also has some great parental controls that give parents the option to implement restrictions for their children.
Apple Music had 44.5 million users monthly as of September 2019. It has a massive library of 75 million songs. The price of Apple Music is $9.99 per month with a three months free trial.
Apple Music also has student packages at $4.99 per month and Family packages at $14.99 per month.
Image credit: Statista
Spotify is the leader in on-demand streaming media, with more than 70 million tracks. Spotify had 155 million users as of the last quarter of 2020.
Image credit: Statista
You can get Spotify's standard service for free with advertisements or pay affordable prices for an ad-free experience.
The premium packages are four:
Amazon's Competitors In Artificial Intelligence
Amazon Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant created by Amazon. Alexa can perform tasks such as setting alarms, streaming music, playing audiobooks, checking sports scores or weather, ordering a pizza, etc.
Amazon Alexa has two main competitors in the market; Apple Siri and Google Assistant.
Apple Siri
Apple Siri is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Apple. Siri is a voice-operated assistant with 21 supported languages. With Siri, you can quickly send texts, control smart appliances, or set reminders and timers.
Apple Siri works with Apple music, so you can use Siri to find new songs, learn more about your favorite music, or suggest a playlist when driving home.
Google Assistant
Google Assistant is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Google. It allows users to use voice commands to make calls, search the internet, launch apps, set reminders, etc. With Google Assistant, you can control smart home devices or ask for your favorite music or videos to play on nearby TVs.
Google has added the ability for its assistant to automatically detect which song is being played on the radio and then provide the user with a link to that song on Google Play Music.
It is easier than ever to use Google Assistant for your shopping needs and listen to your favorite music and podcasts!
Amazon vs. Social Media Marketplaces
A social media marketplace combines eCommerce and social media in a single platform. Major social media platforms have introduced the shopping option in recent years, directly affecting the eCommerce market.
Let us look at the two biggest competitors - Facebook and Pinterest.
Facebook Shops And Facebook Marketplace
In 2020, Facebook launched Facebook Shops that made it a direct competitor of Amazon and eBay. The shops allow businesses to create digital stores. Facebook users can browse products and purchase them directly on the platform.
Sellers who have Facebook shops can create Facebook Ads to promote their products to a targeted audience. We have a guide on four steps to creating a profitable advertisement that you can read to learn more about Facebook shopping Ads.
Going further back to 2016, Facebook introduced the Facebook marketplace to connect buyers and sellers. The marketplace is different from shops because sellers can only list products on this platform.Pinterest Buyable Pins allows users to buy products directly from Pins without leaving Pinterest or going to the merchants' websites.
Buyable Pins are available only for a selected number of eligible pins. Still, brands can pin any product they sell on their website and pay Pinterest to promote the products as Buyable Pins.
Tips On Competing With Amazon
If you have an online store or plan to start, follow these five tips to compete with Amazon and Amazon's top eCommerce competitors.
Branding
Small businesses often overlook branding, but it is vital in keeping current customers and acquiring new ones.
Creating a brand can help your customers easily identify you when they see your products on search results pages. A great example of this is Apple which has created a prominent brand that people can quickly identify.
When you have a great brand, customers will know exactly what your product is when they see it on other websites or social media. This means that people are more likely to purchase from you since all the information they need is at their fingertips.
Here is our detailed post on how to build a brand that will help you get started on building a recognized brand.Offer A Great User Experience
Another way to increase interest in your products is by creating an online store with a great user experience.
This means your website should load quickly, the images should be clear, and any content on your page should relate to your product. It's also essential to include social proof such as reviews and customer ratings from those who have already purchased from you.
eCommerce SEO
eCommerce SEO entails keyword research, product description, category description, link building, etc. Focusing on SEO means you will rank high on search engines which means more organic search traffic to your site.
Putting keywords in the right places can help you get found by people looking for your products online. If you have a store that sells custom jewelry, you could put "custom jewelry" in your product description, name of the product, and even in categories names.
When it comes to link building, you can create partnerships with other online stores that sell similar products to yours.
To learn more about eCommerce SEO, read our articles on eBay SEO and on ranking on the first page of Amazon.Build An Email List
Build an email list so that you can increase your following and reach more customers. Email lists are great because they allow you to market directly to your audience without spending money on social media ads or converting ad clicks into sales.
Since email is not dependent on third-party platforms, you can have more control of your landing page, conversion, etc., which means better results for your business.
Focus On Returning Customers
Returning customers are more likely to purchase than first-time customers. Therefore, you should focus on keeping your existing customers happy so that they’d want to shop with you again.
One way of doing this is by providing excellent customer service and great shipping times. If the process of purchasing from you is hassle-free, people are more likely to return since buying online can sometimes be stressful.
You can also create a loyalty program where you reward your existing customers for purchasing more from you. This works well for businesses that sell physical products.
A loyalty program doesn't mean you should neglect new customers because they can also help grow your business. New customers are sometimes referred by returning customers, so this is something you shouldn't ignore.
Amazon Competitors FAQs
Back in the 1990s, Amazon's first competitor was Barnes & Noble. However, both companies focused on different demographics: Amazon targeted a younger demographic while Barnes & Noble focused on an older population of book buyers.
As we have seen above, Amazon competitors exist, and they compete with Amazon offline and online. Some notable top eCommerce competitors include eBay, Walmart, Alibaba, Rakuten, Otto, Flipkart, and JD.
There are also offline competitors with physical retail space like Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy. Amazon also faces competition from streaming services, social media marketplaces, artificial intelligence, and cloud services such as Google cloud.
Bottom Line
eBay, Otto, Flipkart, Rakuten, and Walmart are just some of Amazon's major eCommerce competitors. Every one of these eCommerce platforms has its strengths as well as weaknesses that make it unique.
The strategies each competitor adapts to stay ahead of the competition are constantly evolving, ensuring that companies are always innovating and improving their business models.
This evolution is necessary for eCommerce platforms to remain competitive in an ever-changing market. Amazon's main competitors are all investing heavily in eCommerce to achieve dominance over the industry.
Finally, if you are a beginner, here is a guide on how you can start an eCommerce business, showing you the steps to take to be on your way.