During the global pandemic, some of the world’s leading e-commerce companies have thrived with unexpected employee hires, massive turnover and agile operation procedures.

Big players Amazon and Alibaba Group in particular have announced remarkable revenue growth in their respective regions, as reported by Compare the Market.

For Amazon, a strategic diversion of product focus to COVID-19-related products such as sanitizers and face masks resulted in the significant influx of new employees.ⁱ The company increased staff numbers by 34% from the previous year, while also increasing net sales by 40% from the same period in 2019.

The results directly contradict data from a June 2020 survey, which forecasted that online spending behaviours of consumers in developed economies would not increase during the pandemic.ⁱⁱ

The same survey, released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Netcomm Suisse, indicated that respondents in China showed some of the biggest changes in online spending habits. Respondents confirmed that they had participated in online shopping more since the pandemic outbreak than what they did prior.

Alibaba Group’s latest quarter results support this data, where their annual active consumers increased by 15 million from the previous twelve months.ⁱⁱⁱ

“Our domestic core commerce business continued to grow steadily during the post-COVID-19 environment in China through higher purchase frequency and consumer spending,” said Maggie Wu, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group.^iv The company’s revenue growth reflected a 30% increase from 2019 to 2020.

More similarities and differences such as continental dominance, diversification, fee system and subsidiaries can be found at comparethemarket.com.au.

To find a more detailed comparison of the world’s largest e-commerce players, visit comparethemarket.com.au.