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Five Global Marketplaces All Brands Must Knowby Zia Daniell Wigder and Lily Varon, June 9, 2014

For: EBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Key TaKeaways

Marketplaces Offer Brands access To Millions Of Online shoppersMarketplaces provide brands with instant access to millions of local customers: All of the marketplaces in this report have registered user bases of 100 million or more. These marketplaces also provide a series of localized offerings in areas such as payments and customer service that brands can take advantage of when they launch their stores.

Brands Must Be aware Of Marketplaces’ shortcomings as well as Their BenefitsMarketplaces come with challenges. Many global marketplaces are known for providing discounts on products, and creative options on some marketplaces can be quite limited. Additionally, many marketplaces don’t share as much data on online shoppers’ purchase behavior as businesses would like to see.

Five Marketplaces stand Out TodayeCommerce marketplaces exist around the globe, but five have gained particular prominence in key markets and regions around the globe: Amazon, eBay, MercadoLibre, Rakuten, and Tmall. eBusiness leaders interested in expanding their offerings in the countries served by these marketplaces should understand the brand store options provided by all five.

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For eBusiness & Channel strategy ProFessionals

why Read This RepORT

The global expansion process has changed substantially over the past five years, with eBusiness leaders no longer expanding internationally just by launching a series of direct-to-consumer websites. Many now create official storefronts on different marketplaces to extend their global reach. Five leading marketplaces provide particularly compelling options for brand owners looking to extend their global footprints. Why are brands increasingly turning to marketplaces as a supplemental online sales channel? What options exist for brand owners to build storefronts on different marketplaces? What are some of the challenges companies may face as they work together with these marketplaces? This report will help eBusiness leaders and brand owners understand the opportunities that exist with five key marketplaces across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

table of Contents

Marketplaces have Taken The world By storm

Five Global Marketplaces stand Out Today

Other Global Marketplaces also Offer Opportunities For Brands

reCommendations

don’t Be shy about providing Feedback To your Marketplace partners

supplemental Material

notes & resources

Forrester interviewed the following marketplaces: amazon, eBay, mercadolibre, rakuten, and tmall (alibaba).

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Five Global Marketplaces all Brands Must Knowthe opportunities For Brand owners on amazon, eBay, mercadolibre, rakuten, and tmallby Zia daniell Wigder and lily Varonwith Carrie Johnson and rebecca Katz

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Five global Marketplaces all Brands Must Know 2

© 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 9, 2014

MaRKeTplaces have TaKen The wORld By sTORM

Virtually all consumer brands should assess the value of a marketplace strategy in the global markets in which they operate. In some countries, the brand store options on marketplaces span so many different categories and represent such a large percentage of online sales that almost no seller should fail to evaluate the opportunity. In China, for example, it’s rare to find a global brand exploring eCommerce that hasn’t analyzed the potential benefit of launching a store on Tmall, Alibaba’s platform for official brand owners. Other brands extend their reach onto rival platforms in China such as JD.com. In other countries, brand store options are often less developed and are focused on only a few categories — in these markets, eBusiness leaders can still bide their time as they determine whether a marketplace approach makes sense for their company.

Marketplaces Offer Brands an easy point Of entry To Global Markets

Global online marketplaces are typically powered by thousands of small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) selling on their platforms, but these marketplaces are increasingly providing more sophisticated storefronts that can be designed and managed by the official brand owners themselves. Many global brands are exploring these new options. Why? Because marketplaces:

■ Offer a sizable audience upfront. Perhaps the most compelling component of selling through a marketplace is the sheer number of buyers who flock to these sites to make their purchases. Every one of the marketplaces included in this report is among the top one or two eCommerce sites in its home country; all are reported to have registered users of 100 million or more across their global offerings. For companies looking to build an online customer base outside of their home markets, marketplaces aggregate a large number of online shoppers looking to make purchases across a wide variety of different categories.

■ Streamline market entry. Another area where marketplaces play a key role is in streamlining entry into new markets. Many brands are tentative about investing sizable amounts to build and launch a new direct-to-consumer website for a specific market or region. For these budget-conscious or risk-averse companies, marketplaces provide a relatively easy, low-cost way of entering or expanding their footprint in a market. Additionally, most marketplaces already have strong relationships with third-party providers that support their sellers in areas such as customer service or fulfillment — brands can take advantage of these partnerships rather than having to identify and evaluate a list of partners on their own.

■ Provide localized offerings. Marketplaces also excel in their understanding of local markets. These companies have operated in their core markets for years and have evolved their offerings to remain competitive as new entrants arrive. Marketplaces typically offer sellers a series of localized options ranging from local payment types to customer service options. Additionally, marketplaces tend to select their third-party partners based on their ability to meet local customer expectations, ensuring brands have access to solution providers that are well versed in the demands of local online shoppers.




Marketplaces also present Brands with some Key challenges

Marketplaces offer brands a unique opportunity to tap into local audiences, yet a marketplace approach is not without its challenges. eBusiness leaders should note that:

■ Marketplaces often mean discounts for buyers. One of the biggest challenges sellers face on marketplaces is the perception that they are a destination for bargain hunters. eBay’s Fashion Galleries feature many outlet shops; Rakuten’s home page is filled with a variety of deals. Tmall, known for offering discounts on products year-round, sees a number of brands extending their discounts to 50% on Singles’ Day. While it is not inherently negative for a site to be known for its competitive prices, too much of a discount reputation can scare away brands that aim to sell products as close to retail price as possible.

■ Creativity can be curtailed. In an attempt to ensure uniformity across brand stores, some marketplaces offer fairly rigid templates that don’t give brands much creative license to develop their storefronts. Additionally, enhanced tools and features are often lacking in comparison to what brands can do on their own direct-to-consumer sites. However, marketplaces’ global brand stores are relatively new offerings: Virtually all marketplaces are building out their brand store options and working to give brands more tools and flexibility.

■ Customer behavioral data is hard to come by. Finally, eBusiness leaders often find it challenging that they don’t glean as much customer data as they would like from the marketplaces. Some data is indeed shared: Tmall, for example, provides sellers with the number of unique page views for product listings, store traffic volume, conversion rates, and average transactional prices.1 Where many marketplaces fall short is in providing brands with information on their customers’ purchase paths. Brands interested in learning more about consumer browsing behavior often have to rely on metrics from their own websites rather than on data from their marketplace partners.

Five GlOBal MaRKeTplaces sTand OuT TOday

Marketplaces have cropped up in every region of the world — however, not all marketplaces are created equal. Today, five marketplaces stand out in providing brands with the ability to create their own official stores: These marketplaces deal in billions of dollars of gross merchandise volume (GMV) and enable brands to extend their reach into multiple countries. Below, we profile five marketplaces that brands should know as they look to extend their offerings across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

amazon’s Brand stores span different Regions Of The Globe

Established 20 years ago in 1994, Amazon is the one company profiled in this report that operates global marketplaces alongside traditional online retail businesses. Amazon’s combined online retail and marketplace offerings dominate online retail in the US, as well as a handful of international




markets. Outside of North America, Amazon sees 85% of its revenues from three markets: Germany (35% of international revenues), Japan (26%), and the UK (24%).2 Brands looking to partner with Amazon should note that:

■ Amazon’s brand stores extend across multiple countries. Amazon brand stores exist in the 10 countries in which it operates marketplaces: the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, China, and India. Amazon’s global reach and uniform technologies mean it is relatively easy for brands to launch official stores across multiple markets: A number of brands such as Monsoon have Amazon brand stores in multiple countries (see Figure 1). Additionally, customers that use the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service can use Amazon’s localized customer service and logistics options to provide offerings in line with local customer expectations. Amazon’s commission rates vary, with rates for categories like electronics coming in at 8% while those for apparel and accessories are 15%.3

■ Amazon reviews brand stores and recommends areas for improvement. Amazon’s brand stores can incorporate different tools and features — interestingly, many of the more sophisticated tools are rolled out on the company’s Asian sites first and subsequently elsewhere in the world. Some of the enhanced offerings include features like online video and the ability to provide deep product information. Where Amazon differs from some of the other marketplaces is in the nature of the customer data it provides to its sellers: Brands do not get data from Amazon on their customers’ shopping behavior. Instead, Amazon provides a service where stores are automatically reviewed for performance in key areas, with the results being provided in a dashboard that indexes the seller against others in that category. For example, if a seller does not provide a zoom feature on images in a category where zoom has been shown to drive conversion, Amazon will recommend altering the types of images used to boost conversion rates.

■ Amazon’s market share varies greatly by country. While businesses that want to access and analyze their own customer data may balk at Amazon’s approach, Amazon offers brands extensive reach in a number of countries. In the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the UK, Amazon has established itself as a huge force to be reckoned with; in other countries, its market share is lower due to strong local competitors and its tenure in the market. Still, eBusiness leaders should note that in some markets, Amazon has maintained pricing integrity with many brands in a way that not all local online retailers have done: In India, for example, footwear brand Crocs recently dropped all online distributors of its products other than Amazon and Jabong due to excessive discounting of its products on other eCommerce sites.4




Figure 1 Monsoon Leverages A Similar Approach For Brand Stores In Germany And The US

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.115420

Source: Amazon.de Monsoon storefront

Navigation and layoutare almost identicalacross countries.

eBay is working with Brands To Reach Global consumers

eBay started as an online auction site in 1995 and has since grown into one of the world’s largest online marketplaces. eBay currently operates localized online consumer-to-consumer marketplaces in 22 countries across Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America; well over half of its revenues come from outside the US.5 Although the largest share of the company’s revenues today comes from its three biggest markets — the US, UK, and Germany — eBay is investing heavily in developing its offerings for Brazil, Russia, and India, among others.6 Brands looking to enter global markets with eBay should note that:

■ eBay’s brand stores are currently focused on key markets and key categories. eBay’s international marketplaces are widespread, but its enhanced offerings for brand owners are more concentrated. In 2011, eBay established a commission-based brand store offering called Fashion Gallery in the UK and Australia; both offerings tout well over 100 brands and include apparel, footwear, and accessory brands. In the US, an option called eBay Fashion Outlet plays a similar role. eBay offers brands the option to use its fulfillment options or leverage its existing logistics systems; brands can also use eBay’s resources for Fashion Gallery-related customer service inquiries. In addition to these brand store offerings, there have been rumors this year that eBay plans to launch an offering called “The Plaza,” a Tmall-style offering targeted at brand owners, but eBay hasn’t publicly commented on these rumors.7




■ Brand store offerings are localized and customizable. eBay’s Fashion Galleries have their own hub pages to set them apart from the rest of eBay’s marketplaces. Individual brand stores are highly customizable, with some sellers opting for more marketing-heavy landing pages and some embracing traditional eCommerce catalog layouts. Sellers can customize search and navigation and feature brand-store-specific promotions (see Figure 2). eBay also offers shopping experience staples like the number of people viewing an item per hour, product alerts, inventory visibility, and auction-bidding. In addition to the eBay Fashion Gallery and Outlet offerings, eBay has built a few customized storefronts for apparel brands: For example, Superdry operates a branded eBay Store in the UK. Additionally, part of eBay’s proposition is the fact that it can migrate growing businesses from marketplace sellers to standalone sites through the use of eBay Enterprise solutions: Magento and the full-service solution formerly known as GSI Commerce.

■ eBay is well established in global markets but has its cross-border work cut out. While eBay’s fashion-centric brand store options are limited to the UK, US, and Australia, the company has taken significant steps to establish itself in key emerging eCommerce markets, in particular Russia, where the company did an estimated $400 million in cross-border sales in 2012.8 Brands selling on eBay can now tap into Russian online shoppers with more localized offerings: These shoppers see machine-translated product descriptions of sellers that elect to ship to Russia. A similar option is now available to shoppers using eBay’s mobile fashion app in Brazil and its localized sites in Latin America. Part of eBay’s challenge will be getting shoppers to buy apparel cross-border when consumers may be unfamiliar with a brand’s sizing and when they may be unaccustomed to returning products purchased online. eBay’s machine translation efforts have been quite groundbreaking in the industry, however, and the company has been a clear leader when it comes to streamlining cross-border eCommerce for global sellers.




Figure 2 eBay Fashion Galleries Give Brands Flexibility To Customize Storefronts


Source: eBay Mothercare and Ed Hardy Fashion Gallery storefronts

Brands on eBay have taken different approaches to theirstores by customizing color, banners displays, buttons,search and navigation and scrolling versus static displays.

Mercadolibre has new Official stores That help Brands sell Online in latin america

MercadoLibre remains the dominant online marketplace in Latin America. Founded in 1999, the company now operates its marketplaces in 12 countries across the region. In 2013, over 40% of marketplace revenues came from Brazil (where the company is known as MercadoLivre) and almost 25% were from Argentina; in addition, Venezuela and Mexico are key markets for the company.9 Brands interested in expanding in Latin America through MercadoLibre should note that:

■ MercadoLibre brand stores are a relatively recent addition. MercadoLibre has operated a series of successful marketplaces across in the region for 15 years; its brand stores, however, are newer. The first one launched in Argentina in June 2013, followed by Brazil later in the year and Mexico in early 2014. A large number of sellers on the new brand stores focus on the rapidly growing categories of apparel, footwear, and accessories, although MercadoLibre’s marketplaces overall have traditionally seen a large percentage of sales from consumer electronics and computer




hardware (two of the largest online retail categories in the region).10 Brands selling on the new branded marketplaces typically use MercadoLibre’s existing shipping and fulfillment partners in the countries in which the brand stores operate — for example, the national postal service, Correios, in Brazil. Free shipping options are quite common among sellers. The revenue model is commission-based; rates vary by category but are consistent with many other global marketplaces.

■ The brand stores provide localized features for the Latin American market. MercadoLibre’s offerings for brand owners are highlighted as official brand stores to distinguish them from other marketplace sellers; shoppers have the option to search for products only on the official brand site (see Figure 3). Localized features include installment payments and local payment types. In addition to its own digital wallet, MercadoPago, the company also offers consumers the option to pay via other local methods such as boletos bancários in Brazil or Oxxo convenience stores in Mexico. Given the company’s reach across the region, any future brand store options can be expected to include similarly localized offerings.

■ Local online retailers dominate the brand stores today. For brands looking to enter Latin America, MercadoLibre offers deep expertise in the region and access to its over 100 million registered users.11 Mobile revenues are growing rapidly, with 14% of GMV now sold through mobile devices.12 However, the brand stores are in their first iteration, which means brand owners don’t yet have a large suite of advanced tools and features at their disposal. Many of the initial brands using the stores are local multibrand retailers rather than global monobrand ones, although as MercadoLibre enhances the customer experience across its brand stores, it will be well positioned to attract large global brands to its offering and to the region as a whole.




Figure 3 MercadoLibre’s Brand Stores Span Three Markets

Rakuten’s Marketplaces Target consumers in Japan and Beyond

Founded in 1997, Rakuten is Japan’s largest eCommerce company: With 85 million registered users in Japan, estimates have put its market share at almost 30% in the country.13 For the greater part of the last decade, the company has been establishing its global footprint by acquiring global eCommerce and fulfillment companies around the world, offering international shipping from its domestic marketplace and launching marketplaces outside of Japan. The company currently operates marketplaces in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK, and the US. Brands interested in selling through Rakuten should note that:

■ Rakuten operates different types of marketplaces. Rakuten brands its marketplaces slightly differently around the globe. In countries such as the UK, France, and Thailand, the company operates a cobranded site with the name of the marketplace it acquired. In others such as the US and Brazil, the marketplaces now carry only the Rakuten name. Brand store options are available on the flagship Japan site and, as of early 2013, the US, as well; options are also available


Source: MercadoLibre Mexico Skullcandy storefront

MercadoLibre highlights the of�cial stores andproducts with a blue “veri�ed” check-mark iconand adds an of�cial store-only �lter option inthe global search bar.




on certain other marketplaces. These brand stores are most established in Japan, where the company can provide a variety of enhanced services including fulfillment and customer service (a challenge, given that Japanese online shoppers are considered to have some of the highest customer service expectations in the world).14 In the US, Rakuten also provides customer service while fulfillment options are being built out. Commissions on the Rakuten marketplace range from 8% on electronics and computer hardware to 15% on other categories such as apparel.15

■ Brand stores available on Rakuten’s Japan site are heavily localized. Brand stores on Rakuten’s flagship Japan site, such as those by Reebok and Toys R Us, are localized for the Japanese market in terms of the site design. These brand stores are highly customizable: The company describes them as “completely blank canvases with only a thin [Rakuten Marketplace] header across the top” (see Figure 4).16 Payments on Rakuten are tailored to the Japanese consumer, with shoppers able to pay at convenience stores as well as via several other online payment methods. In other markets, payments are similarly localized, with cash-on-delivery options available in metropolitan areas of Indonesia and installment payments available in Brazil. In terms of customer data, Rakuten provides its sellers with sales reporting, customer feedback, cancellation rates, on-time fulfillment rates, and return rates.

■ Rakuten provides brands with marketplace access to underpenetrated markets in Asia. Rakuten provides a high-trafficked point of entry or additional sales channel for brands interested in the online retail market in Japan. The company also has extensive experience with mobile commerce in the country, as over 30% of sales are reported to be mobile.17 In other countries, the marketplace doesn’t have the same reach that it does in Japan, and its brand store options remain at an earlier stage. Still, Rakuten offers brands access to online consumers in parts of the world that are underpenetrated by other global eCommerce giants such as Indonesia and Thailand. Brands looking for a marketplace partner with reach into key emerging eCommerce markets will find Rakuten to be one of the few with such a wide network of sites and emerging options for brands.




Figure 4 Rakuten’s Branded Storefronts Are Well Established In Japan And Emerging Elsewhere

Tmall is a critical sales channel For Many Global Brands in china

No other global brand marketplace commands the same market position that Alibaba’s Tmall does in China. Tmall was launched as a separate site from its consumer-to-consumer (C2C) counterpart Taobao in 2008; today Tmall also serves online shoppers in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Tmall was established to provide a marketplace where consumers could be guaranteed genuine products and where brands had the opportunity to control the user experience surrounding their brand. The site dominates business-to-consumer (B2C) eCommerce in China. Estimates put the company’s market share in the range of 50% of the B2C market in the country, a percentage that is larger than any other marketplace in this report.18 Brands looking to sell on Tmall should be aware that:

■ Many global brands use Tmall to sell online in China. Tmall boasts over 100,000 brands, of which an estimated 2,000 are foreign; the site has over 500 million registered users.19 The companies selling on Tmall vary greatly: Consumer electronics brands like Apple and Samsung and apparel brands such as Levi’s, Nike, and Uniqlo are joined by brands across a


Source: Rakuten Japan Toys R Us storefront

Brands heavily customizestorefronts on RakutenJapan.




variety of other less obvious categories such as food. Haagen-Dazs, for example, sells RMB 2 million (approximately US$325,000) worth of products on Tmall every month; a recent Tmall promotion on fresh food imported from different countries generated RMB 20 million (US$3.2 million) in sales.20 Sellers on Tmall pay commissions of 1% to 5% based on the category, with many popular categories like apparel and accessories, home décor, and appliances falling into the 5% category.21

■ Tmall stores allow brands more creativity than in years past. In previous years, the rigid template offered by Tmall was a frequent complaint of brands building storefronts on the site. Today, however, the list of tools and features has grown: Brand stores can now use sound and video on the site, although more enhanced options like virtual fitting rooms aren’t yet available. Many Tmall stores are sleek, graphics-intensive sites developed by brands and their digital agencies. In addition to site design, brands are also responsible for managing their own logistics, warehousing, and customer service (Tmall provides a list of third-party providers in these areas, but does not manage them on behalf of sellers). The marketplace offers a series of localized features to sellers, including local payment methods and access to its instant messaging tool, AliWangwang, for customer service. Brands selling on Tmall must meet certain sales volume requirements in order to maintain a storefront on the site.22

■ Tmall is an essential channel for many brands, although concerns about discounts remain. For global brands, Tmall represents a relatively low-cost way to either supplement existing direct-to-consumer sales channels (e.g., Gap or Nike) or act as the primary online sales channel in the country (e.g., Levi’s). Indeed, many brands see far more revenues driven by Tmall than on their direct-to-consumer sites — some brands operating in China told us sales are in the range of three to five times higher on Tmall. The biggest challenge brands have faced with Tmall is the fact that it has been perceived as a discount channel: Brands often provide deep discounts on the site and consumers have come to expect good deals when shopping on Tmall. This discount reputation has meant it has been a challenge for Tmall to attract a large number of high-end and luxury brands, although the company recently scored a significant win in the luxury sector when Burberry opened a Tmall storefront with full-priced items (see Figure 5).




Figure 5 Tmall Scored A Win In Luxury When Burberry Opened Up A Storefront

OTheR GlOBal MaRKeTplaces alsO OFFeR OppORTuniTies FOR BRands

The five online marketplaces profiled above are the largest in the world in terms of revenue. However, they are by no means the only options for brands looking to sell in different markets around the globe. Highlighting just a few other markets, we see that:

■ India’s Snapdeal aggregates sellers of brands. In India, the fragmented nature of the retail landscape means brands selling direct don’t control a large percentage of the market; by contrast, marketplaces dominate, with players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Amazon playing leading roles in the market. Brand store options are evolving. Snapdeal, for example, plays a role in aggregating sellers of brands into one brand page on the site: A central brand page exists for sellers of brands such as Nike and Puma. Snapdeal’s experience will also be interesting for brands, given how mobile its user base is: The company now sees over 50% of orders coming from mobile, up from 5% last year.23


Source: Tmall Burberry storefront

Burberry offers full-priced items on itsTmall storefront.




■ Russia’s Ozon provides different options for brands. In Russia, domestic players such as Enter, Ulmart, and Ozon have launched marketplace options on their sites. The options for brands are growing: Ozon, for example, creates special pages that highlight key brands on its site. While Ozon controls these pages, the company offers other options that enable brands to sell on Ozon but control product assortment, pricing, storage, and delivery using Ozon (or Ozon-owned footwear website Sapato) as a “window” into the offering.

■ Others are extending brands in areas such as the Middle East and Africa. Marketplaces are extending their reach the world over: In addition to those mentioned above, marketplaces such as Gmarket in Korea (acquired by eBay in 2009) and sahibinden.com in Turkey hold leading positions in their markets. Options for brands are also evolving in areas such as the Middle East and Africa. In South Africa, for example, online marketplace bidorbuy.co.za offers brand stores: Local online retailers like BigBrandStore operate their own sites as well as a brand store on Bidorbuy. Others, like Souq.com, a marketplace that operates in the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, manage fulfillment on behalf of brands and have put in place strict policies on the sale of counterfeit products.

R e c o m m e n d at i o n s

dOn’T Be shy aBOuT pROvidinG FeedBacK TO yOuR MaRKeTplace paRTneRs

The opportunities for brands to sell through marketplaces are growing — at the same time, marketplaces are evolving to meet the demands of their growing client base. eBusiness leaders at global brands must heed these recommendations:

■ Evaluate what — and where — each marketplace can get you. Some marketplaces will enable your brand to extend into multiple markets; others will allow you a deep dive in a single one. As you evaluate partnerships, determine whether the partner you select offers marketplace options that align with your global expansion road map and whether you can realize economies of scale through your marketplace partners as your business extends into new markets.

■ Realize a marketplace approach does not preclude other local offerings. Many brands rely exclusively on marketplaces to sell their products in certain markets, but a large number also employ a multipronged strategy. Some brands offer local shoppers a broader product selection through a direct-to-consumer website, for example; others ship internationally from their home market into different countries. A branded store on a marketplace should be evaluated as both an alternative and a supplement to other offerings.




■ Provide marketplaces with feedback on the tools and features that matter to your brand. Most official brand store offerings are still being built out, and today’s offerings are evolving to meet the needs of local shoppers. Brands partnering with marketplaces should help them prioritize the tools and features necessary to convert users, as most marketplaces have a laundry list of different options they are assessing.

■ Discuss with your marketplace partner the customer insights you need to be successful. Similarly, brands should be encouraging their marketplace partners to provide them with key data to understand their customers’ purchase path while shopping on the brand store. Most marketplaces today provide some data, but brands still complain they need more in order to effectively optimize their offerings. While some marketplaces are reluctant to share more data than they currently provide, it is critical for them to understand the needs of their clients in order to remain competitive as the eCommerce landscape evolves.

suppleMenTal MaTeRial

companies interviewed For This Report

Amazon

eBay

MercadoLibre

Rakuten

Tmall (Alibaba)

endnOTes1 Source: Melanie Lee, “How Big Data Helps Virtual Stores,” Alizila, March 11, 2014 (http://www.alizila.com/

how-big-data-helps-virtual-stores)

2 Source: “Amazon.com, Inc. Form 10-K,” Amazon, January 31, 2014 (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2FwaS50ZW5rd2l6YXJkLmNvbS9maWxpbmcueG1sP2lwYWdlPTkzNTE3NDEmRFNFUT0wJlNFUT0wJlNRREVTQz1TRUNUSU9OX0VOVElSRSZzdWJzaWQ9NTc%3d).

3 Source: Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161240).

4 Source: Vaishnavi Bala and Kirtika Suneja, “Crocs logs out of 10 e-commerce sites on discount pinch,” The Financial Express, April 2, 2014 (http://www.financialexpress.com/news/crocs-logs-out-of-10-ecommerce-sites-on-discount-pinch/1237524).

5 Source: “eBay Inc. Form 10-K,” eBay, January 31, 2014 (http://investor.ebay.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1065088-14-10).




6 Source: Marcus Wohlsen, “Amazon Who? Why U.S. Success Matters Less To eBay,” Wired, April 17, 2013 (http://www.wired.com/2013/04/ebay-emerging-markets/) and Danielle Kucera, “EBay Focuses on $195 Billion Global Emerging Markets Push,” Bloomberg, May 23, 2013 (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/ebay-focuses-on-195-billion-global-emerging-markets-push.html).

7 Source: Greg Bensinger, “EBay to Introduce New Brand Mall, Analyst Says,” The Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2014 (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/01/15/ebay-to-introduce-new-brand-mall-analyst-says/).

8 Source: Katie Evans, “Mission to Moscow,” Internet Retailer, May 1, 2013 (http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/05/01/mission-moscow).

9 Source: “MercadoLibre, Inc. Form 10-K,” MercadoLibre, March 3, 2014 (http://investor.mercadolibre.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1193125-14-78151).

10 To learn more about the state of online retail in Latin America, please see the December 17, 2013, “Latin America Online Retail Forecast 2013 To 2018” report.

11 Source: Katie Evans, “Latin American e-marketplace company MercadoLibre sells 28% more in 2013,” Internet Retailer, March 4, 2014 (https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/03/04/latin-american-company-mercadolibre-sells-28-more-2013).

12 Source: “MercadoLibre, Inc. Reports Financial Results for First Quarter 2014,” MercadoLibre press release, May 8, 2014 (http://investor.mercadolibre.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=846649).

13 Japanese Credit Agency, a Japanese financial services company, indicated that Rakuten Ichiba “holds the largest share of nearly 30% in Japan’s e-commerce market.” Source: “JCR Assigned A-/Stable, Pre. A- and J-1 Rating on Rakuten,” Japan Credit Rating Agency news release, February 14, 2014 (http://www.jcr.co.jp/release/pdfen/13d0935ARTen.pdf?PHPSESSID=6793a9537be8447743bcb1369f56e29d) and “Rakuten To Acquire Global Video Streaming Service Viki,” PR Newswire, September 2, 2013 (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rakuten-to-acquire-global-video-streaming-service-viki-222033951.html).

14 In an American Express study, consumers in 11 countries were surveyed about how long they would wait on hold by phone for a customer service representative: Japan had the lowest wait times of 6 seconds. Source: “2012 Global Customer Service Barometer,” Echo Research report prepared for American Express, 2012 (http://about.americanexpress.com/news/docs/2012x/axp_2012gcsb_markets.pdf).

15 Source: Rakuten (http://www.rakuten.com/sell/membership/).

16 Source: Forrester interview with Rakuten, May 2014.

17 Source: “In Japan, Mobile Commerce Attracts New Capital,” The Business of Fashion, June 9, 2013 (http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/06/in-japan-mobile-shopping-attracts-new-capital.html).

18 Source: “China Online Shopping Maintains High Growth in Q3 2013,” iResearch, December 3, 2013 (http://www.iresearchchina.com/views/5301.html) and Peter Gothard, “Alibaba boasts of impending $140bn US IPO as e-commerce dominance dips,” Computing, March 17, 2014 (http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2334514/alibaba-boasts-of-impending-usd140bn-us-ipo-as-e-commerce-dominance-dips).






19 Source: Juro Osawa and Kathy Chu, “Why Foreign Brands Use Alibaba’s Tmall,” Wall Street Journal Digits Blog, March 26, 2014 (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/03/26/why-foreign-brands-use-alibabas-tmall/)

20 Source: “Case Study: Nike China Store,” Baozun (http://en.baozun.com/english/Success_Case/Case_Study/) and phone interview with Tmall, May 2014.

21 Source: Tmall (http://about.tmall.com/tmall/fee_schedule?spm=3.6635889.0.0.DhS6B3#place).

22 To learn more about requirements for brands selling on Tmall, please visit Tmall’s support page (http://service.tmall.com/support/tmall/knowledge-5214344.htm?spm=0.0.0.0.6gaQ0I).

23 Source: Radhika Nair, “Mobile users contribute 50 per cent of Snapdeal’s sales,” The Economic Times, April 30, 2014 (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/mobile-users-contribute-50-per-cent-of-snapdeals-sales/articleshow/34436391.cms).

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