Over the years, our purchasing habits have shifted dramatically. With more transactions than ever taking place online, rather than on the high street, the way we shop has undoubtedly changed forever.
Many traditional retailers have moulded their businesses with this shift and have created a strong eCommerce presence. However, alongside this, there are now many fresh online-only retailers making names for themselves. But, of all these big eCommerce players, who can claim to be the biggest in the UK?
We’ve analysed 500 of the country’s biggest online brands on factors such as Google search volume, social media following and more, to find out.
Category Key
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Rank |
Brand |
Category |
Search |
% Change |
Instagram |
Instagram |
Instagram |
Overall |
|---|
1
As one of the leading apparel brands, Nike’s online presence is one of the world’s biggest and most powerful. It sits in the reigning #1 position in this ranking, mainly due to their impressive social media presence. Their Instagram account boasts over 101 million followers, however, overall, they host far more fans on social than any other brand we looked at. With over 97 million hashtag mentions on the platform too, they are beating mega sportswear rivals such as Adidas who have over 30 million.
2
With an estimated revenue of $280 billion, is there any wonder why Amazon is one of the world's biggest businesses? They sit comfortably in second place in the ranking due to their incredibly high search volume. Around 18.7 million searches occur every month for this influential company, which trumps every other brand on the list. Within this ranking, they can also claim the title of being the only eCommerce-only brand in the top three.
3
Nike may be wearing the eCommerce crown, but as one of their longest and greatest rivals, Adidas doesn't fall too far behind. They are one of the world's leading clothing retailers and are still making waves for eCommerce influence. They scored well when it comes to the number of Instagram hashtags (63.5 million), as well as a respectable 480,000 searches, although search interest has actually dropped by 5.26% in the last twelve months.
Searches mean popularity, so it's little surprise to see two of the biggest global retailers way ahead in this popularity competition. Outweighing the rest of the pack, Amazon sits at the top again with 18.74 million searches a month, beating eBay to the top spot by just over 200,000 searches.
While you may not be too shocked to find these two eCommerce powerhouses at the top when it comes to popularity and searches, it is interesting to see the dramatic difference between searches for these brands and others. After all, in third place, Asda is over 14 million searches behind!
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searches a month
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searches a month
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searches a month
Various brands have stormed into the eCommerce field and become powerful in a short amount of time. These three brands have experienced the biggest increase in search interest over the last twelve months - and they are all fashion brands. MatchesFashion.com has seen a huge 87% rise, followed by luxury brands Bottega Veneta (43.04%) and Fendi (42.66%).
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search increase
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search increase
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search increase
Fashion has always been at the forefront of social media and when it comes to the most followed eCommerce fashion brands, the trend continues. However, this pattern sees an unusual turn in this ranking, with Nike taking the social crown; they have just over 100 million followers on Instagram which is over 30 million more than any of the other brands we looked at.
The next seven most followed brands were all fashion brands too, including Victoria’s Secret (69.1 million), Gucci (39.6 million) and Zara (38.4 million).
Interaction from customers often means likes, follows, and of course, hashtags. Nike’s dominance of the social game is clear once again, with 97.3 million hashtags mentioning the brand on social media. This was followed by Adidas (63.5 million), which slightly beat Gucci (63.4 million) by around 100,000 mentions.
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hashtags
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hashtags
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hashtags
Engagement is key for any brand wanting to build relationships with their customer base - after all, it can have benefits for reach, brand awareness and ROI. When it came to researching the engagement levels of these brands, we discovered that it was often the less followed accounts that had a higher rate of engagement. This is partially due to the obvious lack of fake followers or bots. Google Store makes the top of the engagement ranking with their @madebygoogle account averaging 18,000 likes and 105 comments per post, making for an engagement rate of 2.29%.
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