An email came from a fellow veteran online marketer who is primarily focused on North America, but is looking to expand to Europe. The gist of his question read:
Is there a site like Amazon that caters to all of Europe?
(With his consent I am putting my answer into a blog post.)
While Amazon’s European subsidiaries (e.g.: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, etc) still represent the most powerful force(s) in many (Western) European markets, Europe is pretty segmented with “Amazons” of their own operating in various countries around the continent. Here is my attempt to outline Amazon’s chief competitors in 10 European countries where my knowledge allows for it:
- United Kingdom – Argos.co.uk
- Germany – eBay.de and Otto / Neckermann.de
- France – Cdiscount and La Redoute
- Spain – Privalia and Carrefour
- Italy – Zalando.it and IBS
- The Netherlands – bol.com and Wehkamp
- Belgium – Unigro and La Redoute
- Ireland – eBay.ie
- Russia – Ozon.ru
- Romania – eMag.ro
Of course, the above list is by no means comprehensive. So I invite you to chime in with your comments — both on the above-listed countries, and on those that I have omitted. The final list (and I will be editing the above one based on your comments, provided that I can verify the veracity of the submitted data) will be of help to many companies looking to expand internationally. So many thanks in advance for your input.