In the latest Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, the top two most valuable retail brands are the Chinese e-tailer Alibaba in the number one spot with $66.4 billion and Amazon, coming closely behind with $62.3 billion.
The annual ranking, released by Millward Brown, shows these two e-tailers are now more valuable than Walmart which now comes in at number three in the retail ranking at $35.2 billion. Another key difference to keep in mind is the fact Walmart has 11,000 stores worldwide and both Alibaba and Amazon have none.
In the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, retail is now one of the fastest growth categories alongside technology.
Discount retailers show strong growth
Discount retailers have shown strong growth in recent years in this ranking. Aldi (number eight), has grown its brand by 22 per cent to $11.7 billion and Lidl (number 20), is now up 27 per cent to $6.0 billion.
New Chinese brand enters ranking for first time
A new Chines e-commerce site called JD.com entered the BrandZ ranking for the first time this year. JD.com processed 689 million orders in 2014 and came in at $7.649 million, entered the BrandZ ranking for the first time this year. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s largest overall retail market within five years.
The BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Retail Brands 2015
- Alibaba
- Amazon
- Walmart
- The Home Depot
- Ikea
- eBay
- Woolworths
- Aldi
- Costco
- Lowe’s
Apple overtakes Google for top spot in Most Valuable Global Brands
In the same ranking but this time not the retail rankings but the overall brand rankings, Apple has now got the top spot having overtaken Google and having grown by 67 per cent to record a total brand value of $247 billion, driven by sales of the iPhone 6. Google has grown by just 9 per cent to $173.7 billion.
Microsoft, now worth $115.5 billion, is ranked third, rising one position with value growth of 28 per cent.
The fastest riser in the BrandZ Top 100 is Facebook, growing 99 per cent to $71.1 billion, achieved by acquiring other social apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp, plus what some insiders say is an understanding of how to monetise and cross-sell its acquired platforms by selling the right advertising solutions.
The success of Apple, Google and the other tech brands in this year’s listing also reflects the power of the technology sector, which grew the total valuation of the Top 20 brands by 24 per cent to just over $1 trillion. Retail was the only category to match this performance, growing by the same percentage.
Huawei new to the top 20 tech brands
New to the top 20 tech brands this year is China’s rising telecom provider Huawei, which has been valued at $15.3 billion and photographic software to marketing platform company Adobe, valued at $7.4 billion.
Huawei has invested $600 million in 5G research as it challenges Sweden’s Ericsson in telecoms infrastructure while also boosting its status as a handset manufacturer.
The BrandZ Top 20 Most Valuable Global Technology Brands 2015
- Apple
- Microsoft
- IBM
- Tencent
- Baidu
- SAP
- HP
- Oracle
- Samsung
- Accenture
- Intel
- Cisco
- Siemens
- Huawei
- LinkeIn
- Sony
- Adobe