This coming year is likely to be monumental in the global marketplace arena as Chinese, North American and European companies compete across borders for dominance in different countries and niche verticals.
In certain territories and sectors, US and Chinese companies are already so dominant, it’s difficult to imagine them being seriously challenged. Nevertheless, we are living through an era of change, when companies’ ability simultaneously to master emerging methods of selling such as social commerce, drive new revenue streams from retail media and manage the transition to an AI-powered world will be crucial. Businesses that negotiate the changes and challenges here with efficiency, flair and at scale will reap the dividends.
Against this backdrop, the RetailX Marketplaces Report 2026 offers a critical consideration both of where the marketplace sector is today, and where it is heading in the months and years ahead.
Inside the European Marketplaces Sector Report 2026
The Platform Flip
Why traditional linear retailers are shifting to platform models, inflating product catalogues from thousands of SKUs to millions while capturing high-margin, third-party service fees without inventory risk.
The Attention Economy
How platforms are combatting fragmented consumer attention across an average of ten interaction channels by transforming into centralised discovery hubs.
Social Commerce Conversion
The data that shows how platforms such as TikTok Shop are merging social inspiration with native in-app checkouts, driving social commerce to capture an estimated 20% of global online sales.
The Trust Threshold
Why 41% of consumers do not yet trust a single organisation to provide an autonomous AI shopping agent, making brand reputation and data accuracy the competitive battlegrounds.
Brands & Long-Term Value
Why customers in search of deals are looking not just at price but buying more expensive secondhand goods, such as designer items, that hold out the promise of retaining their value.
The European Marketplaces Report 2026 also offers case studies of leading marketplaces, including Amazon, TikTok, Vinted, Decathlon and Zalando. Plus we analyse why Chinese marketplaces are gaining market share by connecting manufacturers directly to consumers, localising operations and offering same-day delivery networks.
