Amazon ranked as highest value brand in retail

Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 09:58 by Graham Miller

The latest global ranking of retail brands completed by Kantar and Millward Brown has placed e-commerce giant, Amazon, at the top of the pile, giving it significantly more value than any of its competitors.

Companies which offer safe shopping online were clearly dominant at the top of the list, with second place going to Chinese firm, Alibaba. But interestingly, it has lost out on some impact in the past year, with analysts determining that the value of its brand was down by 26 per cent compared with 2015.

The rest of the top 10 was made up of brands which established themselves in the world of physical retail stores, with the likes of IKEA and Walmart represented. In total, it was determined that the world’s biggest retailers have collectively boosted their brand value by seven per cent in the past year.

The fact that some international retailers are still thriving is a testament to the power of safe shopping online, which has helped firms like Amazon and eBay to gain traction globally and build a strong relationship with consumers.

British retailers were not especially well represented in the top 25, with only Tesco and Marks & Spencer managing to crack into this elite group.

Observers have pointed out that Amazon has actually failed to reach projected profit levels in the third quarter of 2016, which could be seen as a sign of trouble ahead. But this is in part as a result of its ever-increasing efforts to penetrate new markets around the world, as well as the introduction of cutting edge services, such as Prime Air and Amazon Fresh.

Branding is immensely important in the retail market, although the web has made consumers less loyal and better able to compare prices to get the best deal, irrespective of the site that is offering it.