Alibaba is not featured on Deloitte’s list, likely because the data excludes consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sales and sales from third-party sellers, both of which make up a large part of Alibaba’s business. When those are included, however, Alibaba is likely on par, if not ahead, of Amazon.
Overall ecommerce sales data for the firm is hard to come by, but Alibaba’s own figures showed that RMB120.7 billion ($18.2 billion) worth of products were sold on its platforms during Singles Day in 2016—the online shopping festival that occurs on November 11 every year. This was up from RMB91.2 billion ($13.7 billion) in 2015. That’s nearly one-fifth (17.3%) of Amazon’s total sales for its fiscal 2015, according to Deloitte.
Amazon has also been at the forefront of consumers’ shift toward digital shopping channels. According to a February 2017 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), more than one-quarter (28%) of Amazon shoppers worldwide said they shopped less often at retail stores because of Amazon; this share was even higher among US shoppers, at 37.4%. Another 10% of global respondents said they only shopped on Amazon.
Amazon’s success has also been a driving factor in the rise of other online marketplaces, including Argentina-based MercadoLibre and Japan’s Rakuten. Many of those platforms have been able to hold their own against Amazon in their home markets, and there are some places where Amazon has been unable to gain significant traction.