Dive Brief:
- Amazon's brand is the most valuable in the retail industry, worth nearly $125.3 billion and coming in at No. 3 on Interbrand's 2019 list of the most valuable global brands. Apple and Google hold the No. 1 and No. 2 spots respectively.
- With Amazon's brand value increasing 24% year over year, it was among the fastest-growing on Interbrand's list.
- Other retail and fashion brands on the list include Nike (No. 16), Louis Vuitton (No. 17), Chanel (No. 22), Ikea (No. 26), Hermes (No. 28), Zara (No. 29), H&M (No. 30), Gucci (No. 33), eBay (No. 44), Adidas (No. 45), Tiffany & Co. (No. 94), Burberry (No. 96) and Prada (No. 100), among others.
Dive Insight:
Amazon was third among the movers on Interbrands top 100 list and represented the largest increase in brand value, with a bump worth $24.5 billion. That is more than the entire brand value of Pepsi (No. 24 on the list) and Ikea, among others. Last year, Amazon's brand expanded by even more, with 56% growth.
"Amazon's infrastructure, scale, and growth rates are having a huge impact on the entire retail landscape," Interbrand said in an accompanying report on tech brands.
The e-commerce giant enjoys a reputation for convenience, customer-centricity and low prices. Consumers also click on its ads and trust Amazon with their data, which is an important component to a tech company's overall brand. A lack of trust on data, privacy and governance led Facebook to lose brand value and drop out of the top 10 in Interbrand's rankings this year.
There may be risks to Amazon's brand, though, especially as third-party sales increase on the company's e-commerce platform and overtake its own retail arm. The Wall Street Journal this summer detailed an extensive investigation that found more than 4,000 banned, unsafe and mislabeled products on Amazon's Marketplace. Amazon responded by saying it had an "industry-leading safety and compliance program."
Other manufacturers and brands have complained for years about the proliferation of counterfeits on the company's website. Amazon also currently faces multiple government investigations into its competitive practices and treatment of third-party sellers, which could potentially take a toll on the company's reputation, depending on the findings.
Among other retail brands, sellers of luxury goods make up a sizable chunk of Interbrand's list. The consultancy noted in a report that the sector's most valuable brands have revolutionized relationships with customers in part "by anticipating the formation of new cultural patterns, sensing the shifts in values, and finding their role in it."
