Asian Upstarts and Local Players on Par in UK eCommerce Marketplace Ranking

In the United Kingdom, eCommerce is a US$162 billion industry. As with most markets in Europe and North America, online stores are significant revenue contributors, but increasingly, marketplaces take hold of the online market.

UK eCommerce has seen a shift in common retailer models towards marketplaces, even though online stores remain strong. Among the third-party (3P) marketplaces, Asian competitors ascend the ranking quickly. Local players are still ahead, but look to fall behind in the coming years.

Among them all, Amazon holds the top position and isn’t looking to stop leading the market any time soon. Here are the specifics on the marketplace ranking in the UK.

1P Online Stores vs 3P Marketplaces: A Distinction

What is the distinction between first-party (1P) online stores and 3P (third-party) marketplaces? 1P online stores sell products directly to customers from own inventory, while 3P marketplaces distribute products from external sellers on their own platform.

Amazon is an example of a hybrid retailer who sells both through a 1P and 3P model. eBay sells products exclusively through third-party sellers, resulting in a 3P model. Among local retailers in the UK, a hybrid model is more common, whereas upstarts from Asia tend to drive a 3P exclusive model.

In this examination, the focus is on marketplaces, meaning those retailers driving a 3P and 1P/3P model. A clear trend towards the ascend of Asian marketplace disrupters is visible, particularly in the 3P focus taken.

Amazon Accounts for 67% of Top 10 Marketplace GMVs

For all the marketplaces in the UK top 10, Amazon is far ahead of all players with a GMV share of 66.8%. All top 10 marketplaces collectively generated US$93.8 billion in 2024, meaning Amazon marketplace made US$62.7 billion in the UK.

Amazon is followed at a far distance by eBay, which generated a share of 6.1% of the top 10 marketplaces GMV. eBay’s performance has dropped off from pandemic peaks in 2022, but is right now seeing minor increases.

The problem with eBay is that the competitive landscape is shifting in favor of platforms with either a similar approach (3P consumer-to-consumer sales) or low-cost product assortment on offer.

Local Players and Asian Upstarts on Similar Level

Of the lower-share clusters, two categories stand out in particular and are in direct competition to each other. They include local players on the one hand, in this case Next, Asos and John Lewis, as well as Asian market disrupters on the other, namely Temu, AliExpress and TikTok Shop.

Where the locals generate a GMV share of 4.6%, trend declining, the Asian disrupters follow close at a 4.0% share, trend soaring. Of the three local players in the marketplace top 10, Next is the only one with a non-negative development expected in the coming years. That means Next GMV is stagnating, instead of declining, which is the case for John Lewis and Asos.

Temu, AliExpress and TikTok Shop see tremendous GMV increases with steep projections for the coming years. This growth is fueled by aggressive pricing, constant product variety updates, and highly targeted marketing campaigns, particularly on social media.

Their ability to capture a variety of shoppers and adapt quickly to trending products gives them a clear advantage over traditional players, whose slower decision-making and higher cost structures make it harder to keep pace. As a result, the competitive gap between the fast-rising Asian entrants and established local retailers is expected to widen further.

Etsy and Vinted Diverge in Performance

Etsy and Vinted are within the top 10 but without an affiliation to any of the aforementioned clusters. Their expected performance diverges from another: Etsy declines, Vinted surges.

Etsy’s problems are caused by an increase of competitiveness in the online market environment, creating a possible scenario in which Etsy is going to slip out of the top 10 marketplace ranking. Contrasting Etsy is Vinted, which benefited from current market trends towards affordability with an interactive reCommerce approach.

Despite Vinted’s rise, however, its competition to other platforms is not expected to rival upstarts with tremendous backing from eCommerce leaders in China. The marketplace ranking is at the moment not much higher in GMV than the ranking including 1P online stores, but as time goes on, a now visible shift will have progressed significantly.