The global online marketplace landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by technological innovations, shifting consumer behaviours and fierce competition. Established giants must increasingly contend with fast-growing upstart platforms, creating new opportunities for brands and sellers.
Marketplaces: The engine of global e-commerce
Online marketplaces are multifaceted platforms connecting consumers and sellers, facilitating transactions at various stages of the e-commerce journey, such as product discovery, shipping, payment and returns.
In 2024, online marketplaces achieved 62% of global retail e-commerce sales, reaching USD2.4 trillion. This dominance is driven by the growing share of third-party (3P) sales, which rose from 72% of total marketplace sales in 2014 to 81% in 2024. Leading marketplaces are focusing heavily on attracting more sellers and growing their share of 3P sales, as it allows them to offer an expanded product range, generate substantial revenue from seller fees and advertising, and scale growth rapidly without shouldering inventory ownership risk or increasing operational complexity.
Discount-focused marketplaces resonate with cost-conscious consumers
Amidst cost-of-living concerns, consumers today are increasingly cost-conscious. According to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey, fielded January-February 2025, “best price” is the top reason consumers shop online.
This has fuelled the popularity of discount-orientated marketplaces such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress. These marketplaces focus exclusively on ultra-low-priced products. They operate predominantly on a manufacturer-to-consumer model – which cuts out inefficiencies in the retail value chain – and pass on the savings to consumers.
Social commerce and AI redefining marketplaces
ByteDance-owned Douyin and TikTok first rose to global popularity as social media platforms offering highly engaging content. Since then, however, these platforms have also disrupted the retail landscape by integrating marketplace e-commerce capabilities. Through blending social media, livestreaming and e-commerce in a closed-loop ecosystem, these platforms offer product discovery, user engagement and frictionless purchases.
Rapid developments in AI and GenAI are also transforming customer engagement and service on marketplaces. In November 2024, Danone-owned mineral water brand Evian deployed GenAI-powered virtual avatars on Southeast Asia-focused marketplace Shopee’s Shopee Live livestreaming platform in Thailand, enabling 24/7 livestreaming in multiple languages. Meanwhile, China-based marketplace JD.com’s in-house large language model, Yanxi, supports sellers with tools for marketing, customer acquisition and analytics.
Logistics and fulfilment key to customer satisfaction
Order fulfilment is the last and only physical touchpoint in a consumer’s e-commerce journey, and it is critical in shaping satisfaction. Free delivery and returns help to reduce cart abandonment and build loyalty, and they top the features preferred by digital consumers globally, per Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Digital Survey, fielded March-April 2024.
Leading marketplace operators have invested heavily in logistics infrastructure to speed up delivery times, improve customer experiences and drive cost efficiencies. Such investments have allowed Amazon to enhance its Prime subscription service, which started with complimentary, unlimited, 2-day shipping on a million items but has since expanded to offer over 300 million.
Similarly, Cainiao, Alibaba’s smart logistics business, operates 1,100+ warehouses, 380 sorting centres and the world’s largest pick-up/drop-off point network. This allows Alibaba to provide speedy, cost-efficient and reliable deliveries for its marketplaces’ orders.
Diversification critical to marketplaces’ long-term success
To future-proof their businesses, marketplaces are also continuing to expand into adjacent and complementary business verticals, such as financial services, retail media and advertising, logistics and loyalty programmes.
Marketplaces are also increasingly expanding their capabilities for grocery e-commerce, which is key to driving growth into new fmcg product categories.
During 2024, marketplaces accounted for 49% of global fmcg e-commerce sales by value
Source: Euromonitor’s Passport: E-Commerce system
Amazon is now integrating its once-siloed retail ecosystems – such as Amazon.com, AmazonFresh and Whole Foods – to create a more seamless, comprehensive shopping experience and better compete against Walmart and other legacy grocery retailers.
Marketplaces must continue to evolve to meet customer expectations
In the near to medium term, online marketplaces should continue to cater to attributes important to retail consumers – such as price, quality, shopping experience and personal values.
The intelligent and effective use of customer data and AI will also be critical in transforming customer service, personalisation and seller operations on marketplaces. Marketplaces have access to a wealth of customer data and – due to their technology-orientated company culture and expertise – are well positioned to leverage these capabilities to stay ahead in the global retail landscape.
Learn more about online marketplaces in our report, Digital Disruptors: The Global Landscape of Online Marketplaces, to understand how marketplaces and sellers operating on these platforms can sharpen their capabilities and stay competitive.