2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
TOP RANKING BEST E-COMMERCE WEBSITES
Who Are the Biggest and Best E-Commerce Sites to Shop Online?
In the last 20 years, online shopping at e-commerce websites has gone from something hardly anyone did to something everyone does all the time. Today’s youth think nothing of buying on an e-commerce website in a few clicks and having their purchase appear at their door in a couple of days.
Award Emblem: Top 6 Best E-Commerce Websites
As the Internet blossomed and people realized the convenience of e-commerce sites, shopping on the Internet has grown exponentially. According to eMarketer, worldwide retail sales on e-commerce websites were expected to reach $1.915 trillion last year, and expected to reach $4 trillion by 2020.
Buying online through the best e-commerce website with secure shopping is historically tagged to have started in 1994, with the first online sales of the Sting album Ten Summoner’s Tales.
As people became more comfortable with the idea of buying online, it fueled a burgeoning industry of e-commerce sites, which allowed the most savvy and best e-commerce websites to become multi-billion dollar businesses.
So, who are the biggest and best e-commerce website retailers in the world?
We are going to go through our ranking of the six top e-commerce sites in the world, including those that are well known in the U.S. and some that are just as popular in countries like China and India.
Although the U.S. may have been one of the first countries to embrace popular e-commerce sites, it didn’t take long for the rest of the world to catch up. According to Remarkety, China has become the biggest market for e-commerce websites, with the U.S. now at number two.
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AdvisoryHQ’s List of the Top 6 Best E-Commerce Websites
List is sorted alphabetically (click any of the site names below to go directly to the detailed review section for that site):
Top 6 E-Commerce Sites | Brief Comparison & Ranking
Best E-Commerce Websites | Estimated Website Unique Visitors per Day (HypeStat.com) | Where Best E-Commerce Website Is Based |
| Alibaba.com | 2,802,000 | China |
| Amazon | 19,530,000 | USA |
| eBay | 7,420,000 | USA |
| Flipkart | 2,247,500 | India |
| Taobao.com | 23,600,000 | China |
| Walmart.com | 1,652,000 | USA |
Table: Top 6 E-Commerce Sites | Above list is sorted alphabetically
Best E-Commerce Website FAQ | Can I Buy on Top E-Commerce Websites in Other Countries?
When you want to buy something special at a great price, the country where the best e-commerce website is located doesn’t have to be a barrier to buying there. The Internet has opened up business globally, so it’s not uncommon for items to ship from China to the US or vice versa.
Image Source: Pexels
But not all of the biggest e-commerce sites are set up to ship outside their country yet, so you’ll want to make sure they ship to your country before you start shopping.
For example, Flipkart currently only ships to addresses in India. But this is the exception, rather than the rule for the best e-commerce sites. Most of them will ship to other countries, like Taobao in China, for instance.
Tips for Shopping the Best E-Commerce Websites in Another Country:
- You may need to use a site translator, like the Chrome browser
- Use a currency converter to understand prices
- Sizes aren’t universal, you may need to order larger than usual
- Read shipping policies carefully, shiping time could be several weeks
- Ask the seller if you have to pay customs duties on the shipment
- Some sites have agents that can help international buyers, but you’ll pay a little more
Here are two helpful buyers’ guides for shopping on e-commerce websites in other countries:
- HowToTao—“How to Buy directly from Taobao—Updated for 2017”
- Big Commerce—“How to Buy from Alibaba.com”
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AdvisoryHQ’s Selection Methodology
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Detailed Review: Top Ranking Best E-Commerce Websites
Below, please find a detailed review of each site on our list of popular e-commerce sites. We have highlighted some of the factors that allowed these e-commerce websites to score so highly in our selection ranking.
Alibaba.com Review
Our list of the best e-commerce sites starts off with one that is designed for buying and selling commercially, although consumers can use it too. Alibaba.com is an e-commerce website started in 1999 as an online portal to facilitate global wholesale trade.
This best e-commerce website serves buyers and sellers in more than 190 countries and has hundreds of millions of products for sale. You can find everything from consumer electronics to wholesale food items to industrial baking ovens.
Image Source: Alibaba.com | Largest E-Commerce Sites
Alibaba.com is part of the larger Alibaba Group that is based in Hangzhou, China. The company is a global leader in the e-commerce website business, owning two that made our top e-commerce sites list, and having a total of 10 major e-commerce sites.
Best E-Commerce Website for Global Businesses Sourcing
Alibaba.com has one of the largest international supplier databases of any other e-commerce website. They also have tools to help you find the suppliers that best match your sourcing needs.
Highlights include:
- Direct chat and messaging on the site with suppliers
- Supplier search by region or product
- Ability to use data like monthly volume and export history
- Free Trade Assurance protection for orders
You Can Find Almost Anything
This is one of the best e-commerce websites for finding just about anything. If you don’t mind buying some items in bulk, you can get excellent deals on products in more than 40 categories.
And it’s not just industrial products, they also have toys, health & beauty goods, clothing, jewelry, and more. But if you do happen to want a commercial bottle washing machine, this e-commerce website has that too!
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Amazon Review
One of the most popular e-commerce sites around is Amazon. The company was founded in 1994 in Seattle, Washington, as one of the first e-commerce websites to sell books online.
Today, this is one of the top e-commerce websites where people shop for multiple items including electronics, food, and movies, and just about everything else. They’ve become the fourth largest information technology company in the world with a 2015 revenue of $107 billion.
Amazon has become more than just one of the biggest e-commerce sites, they have revolutionized the way that books are sold, enabling millions of authors to publish books electronically on their Kindle platform.
Amazon Prime
One of the things that keeps people from buying on even the best e-commerce website is that they want the item now, not in a week or two. Amazon understood this better than any of the other e-commerce websites.
They know people want shipping fast and cheap, so they started their Amazon Prime service. For just $10.99 per month members get free two-hour, same-day, or two-day delivery, plus perks like instant streaming movies and TV shows.
Search Hard-to-Find Items
Because Amazon is one of the best e-commerce sites for affiliate sellers, meaning they allow others to sell under the Amazon “umbrella,” you can often find hard-to-find products. This is one of the best e-commerce websites to use for a “Hard-to-Find Items” search.
eBay Review
Popular auction e-commerce website eBay began in 1995 as AuctionWeb. It was started at the time that personal computers and the Internet were taking off and the sky was the limit for new e-commerce sites.
As of Q1 2017, eBay has 169 million active buyers and reported $2.2 billion in revenue for that quarter, making them one of the top e-commerce sites in the world. Their business has evolved from just an auction platform into one of the largest e-commerce sites connecting buyers and sellers.
When some people shop one of the biggest e-commerce sites that doesn’t sell items themselves, they might be a little leary about buying from a stranger online. eBay addresses this with a money back guarantee to ensure that their buyers are protected.
Daily Deals
People shop the best e-commerce websites because they want to find great deals. eBay has a Daily Deals section where you can find products for 90% off, with free shipping to boot. This is one of the top e-commerce websites to find excellent buys easily.
Image Source: eBay | Great E-Commerce Sites
You Can Make Money
If you have some old stuff in your attic you’ve been meaning to get rid of, this is the best e-commerce website to easily sell it online and make some cash. Make a listing in just a few minutes, and if you want help, this e-commerce website even has a valet service that will sell it for you.
One caution about selling on eBay, you will want to filter out fake buyers. Because this is one of the most popular and best e-commerce websites, unfortunately scammers may try to get you to ship your item before they pay. Here are a few tips from thebalance.com.
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Flipkart Review
Flipkart may be one of youngest of the popular e-commerce sites, being launched in October of 2007. But in less than a decade, it has become India’s leading and best e-commerce website with 80 million products being sold in more than 80 categories.
This e-commerce website followed a similar path to Amazon’s, selling books first and then branching out into other products. They also realized early how important customer support was, making theirs available 24/7 just a year after launching.
Something that you should be aware of if you want shop Flipkart’s deals is that they are one of the e-commerce sites that does not ship outside their country yet. While they will accept purchases from anywhere in the world, they will only deliver to an address in India.
Image Source: Flipkart | E-Commerce Websites
Beautiful Fashion for Less
If you love traditional clothing from India, this is one of the top e-commerce sites to shop. You can get some amazing deals on sarees and other ethnic fashion. Once you convert the Indian rupee currency to US dollars, you may be pleasantly shocked.
One embroidered Bollywood cotton saree was listed at 424 in rupees, which is less than $7.00 USD.
They Continue to Grow
Although Flipkart hasn’t been on the scene as long as other top e-commerce websites, they’ve had a rapid growth rate and have no problem taking on the biggest e-commerce sites.
Their revenue grew nearly nine times from fiscal year 2013 to 2015. This is one of the best e-commerce sites that draws plenty of investor capital to fuel the growth. There’s no doubt they’ll expand shipping past India in the near future to continue that.
Taobao.com Review
There is one of the e-commerce sites whose daily visitor count even tops that of Amazon. HypeStat estimates it at 23,600,000 unique visitors for one of the most popular e-commerce sites, Taobao.com.
Launched in 2003, Taobao.com is another of the China-based e-commerce sites that are part of Alibaba Group, and this one is much more consumer focused than sister e-commerce website Alibaba.com.
When you first navigate to this best e-commerce website, you’ll see that the site is in Chinese. So you if you don’t read the language, you’ll need to use a translation browser, like Chrome.
It’s worth the time to make this one of your bookmarked e-commerce websites because according to the Alexa ranking of top visited sites, Taobao comes in at number 11, and that’s on a listing that includes Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia.
Incredibly Low Prices
Companies that manufacture in China usually do so to keep prices low, and this is apparent when you see the prices on Taobao. This is one of the best e-commerce websites to shop for incredible deals. One that we saw was a Dell Alienware notebook computer for just 11000 yen, which is just a little over $100 US.
English Shopping Options
Even with a translation, it can be time consuming to navigate even the best e-commerce website that’s in another language. Because Taobao.com is one of the larest e-commerce sites, there are a lot of shopping help e-commerce websites that have popped up.
Here’s a few of the best e-commerce websites that help you shop on Taobao:
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Walmart.com Review
Rounding out our list of the best and biggest e-commerce sites is U.S. icon Walmart.com. Walmart is best known for being one of the largest “brick-and-mortar” retailers in the U.S. Their first store opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas.
Not to be one to miss out on the internet revolution, in 2000 they launched their best e-commerce website, Walmart.com, continuing their mission of giving their customers what they want and making the shopping experience the most pleasant possible.
If you’re in another country and want to shop this best e-commerce website, you’ll want to know that they have limited shipping internationally. This is one of the e-commerce websites that will only ship to the following U.S. connected locations:
- The 50 U.S. states
- APO/FPO military addresses
- American Samoa
- Guam
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Puerto Rico
- U.S. Virgin Islands
Image Source: Walmart.com | Best e-commerce Websites
Ship to Store and Get a Discount
Because Walmart has so many physical retail locations, they are one of the e-commerce sites you can shop online from the convenience of your couch and pay zero shipping if you ship to a nearby store for pick up.
And now, they’ve sweetened the pot by adding a discount on certain items if you pick it up at your local store. In an example, this best e-commerce website had a $148 infant car seat for sale and gave a pick-up discount of $7.40.
The Best of Both Worlds
Because Walmart.com is one of the few e-commerce websites that has retail locations, they offer the best of both worlds. They have one of the best e-commerce websites to shop easily from home, but if you have any issues, you can return your item to any retail store, without having to go through the hassle of shipping it back to the e-commerce website.
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Conclusion—Top 6 Best E-Commerce Websites
There is a big benefit to shoppers of each best e-commerce website: sales volume lowers prices. Lower prices are a big reason that people keep returning to these top e-commerce websites over and over again. Everyone loves a bargain.
While the U.S. may have been the first to catch on to the ease of shopping the best e-commerce websites back in the 1990s, today the world has more than caught up. The e-commerce sites with the most traffic now, are in countries like China and India.
Image Source: Best E-Commerce Website
What this means to the consumer is all great things. More choices to shop your favorite best e-commerce website no matter where in the world it is based and get great products at excellent prices.
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