Zalando, H&M, Inditex, and Adidas among the top cross-border e-commerce platforms in Europe

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Roberta HERRERA

Published
Apr 13, 2023

According to Cross-Border Commerce Europe, Ikea and Lidl dominated the European ranking of the biggest cross-border retailers, brands, and groups in 2022. However, the fashion and beauty sector remains a prominent category in the top 10 of the 500 websites included in the ranking. 

The fifth edition of the ranking once again focuses specifically on the European cross-border e-commerce market, which, excluding travel, generated 179.4 billion euros in 2022, a 5% increase from the previous year. Of this total, 105.5 billion euros were generated by European websites.

In this ranking, German retailer Zalando takes third place, followed directly by Swedish brand H&M. Spanish brand Zara (Inditex) is ranked sixth, just behind Danish company Lego. This top three mirrors the recent ranking of the top European cross-border fashion e-commerce sites.

Next in the ranking are the home furnishings specialists Jysk from Denmark and Bauhaus from Germany. Notino, a Czech company specialising in perfumes and cosmetics, takes the ninth spot, placing it ahead of German sports equipment company Adidas.

Richemont, LVMH, Kering and a "direct approach"

"In this Top 500, there has been a decrease in the number of multi-channel retailers and an 8.3% increase in the number of brands seeking to develop their direct-to-consumer channels, such as Lego, Nespresso, Adidas and Philips," pointed out Cross-Border Commerce Europe.

The authors of the report also noted that "major parent companies such as Richemont, LVMH, and Kering are investing in a more effective direct-to-consumer strategy to reduce their reliance on large online marketplaces."

Pure-players, including marketplaces, represent about 42% of the portals that make up the 500 largest European cross-border sellers. The number of marketplaces included in the ranking has increased from 42 to 49, with a combined turnover of 24.7 billion euros, reflecting a 22% increase driven by marketplaces such as Zalando, Decathlon, and About You.

By sector, fashion, jewellery and baby items remain the leading category in the ranking with 39% of the websites in the top 500. Following closely behind is the home, garden and DIY sector, which has seen a 4% increase over the past year.