With over 1,000 new companies being established every day, we were keen to assess the market and look at some of the biggest and fastest growing online brands.
Unsurprisingly, the top of the list is dominated by the established leaders and specifically the tech giants such as Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba and JD.com. The latter three, for example, averaged growth rates over 5 times higher than the rest of the global retail market in 2017. Amazon is the natural leader of the pack, with Amazon Prime dominating market share with 40% of UK households being members. The rise of Alexa has further propelled Amazon’s growth: user numbers are expected to each 128 million by 2020 bringing in a further £10 billion for Amazon in that time.
The retail industry has also been a hot area for growth: for every story of store closures or household brands potentially disappearing from the high street, a story develops of an ecommerce company reporting strong growth and being on the verge of opening physical stores. UK brands have been at the forefront of success making up more than half of the global top 20 fastest growing retailers under £2.5 billion. A whole range of UK brands have seen strong growth, everything from luxury online retailers such as Farfetch, Harrods and Jimmy Choo to more value-based retailers such as Asos.com (click here to read our insight report assessing the success of ASOS in more detail) and B&M.
Farfetch has been claiming the headlines in recent years, due to it having the highest growth rate for any online retailer in both 2016 and 2017. Differentiating itself from the conventional retailers and tech giants, Farfetch uses its inventory tracking technology to track what is being sold in nearly 900 boutiques worldwide. This allows Farfetch to eradicate the dreaded “sold-out” messages that consumers often receive. The boutiques aligned with Farfetch enjoy the benefits of high exposure, low shipping costs and superior logistics with Farfetch offering same day delivery in 10 cities including Berlin, London, New York and Dubai. Farfetch has benefitted from a unique vision of the future of fashion; one which is centred in the physical store but uses digital heft to support the day-to-day operations and remove the challenges that brick-and-mortar retailers experience.
PrettyLittleThing is another brand with a similar approach to Farfetch and has been successful in growing its brand presence quite dramatically over the course of 2017, going as far as doubling its average search interest score by the end of the year. PrettyLittleThing’s success can largely be attributed to its influencer marketing strategies. By partnering with global celebrities including Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora, Nicki Minaj and Kylie Jenner, PrettyLittleThing has been able to attract huge amounts of publicity and attention towards their brand. Similar influencer strategies have also boosted the growth of more luxurious and expensive brands such as Jimmy Choo, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, all of whom have seen a recent uplift in interest from younger audiences.
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