FAQ

The 400-page Top 400 Europe is the first and only ranking of the major retail chains, catalog/call center companies, consumer brand manufacturers and web-only merchants that sell online in Europe. Each retailer’s individual profile and listing is a complete set of comprehensive performance and business metrics, including annual web sales, which is the basis of Internet Retailer’s Top 400 Europe proprietary rankings. Also included are monthly web site visits, average ticket, and conversion rate. A detailed index of URLs also breaks down the e-commerce brands operated by Europe’s biggest retailing and direct marketing companies.

Collectively, Europe is a bigger online retailing market than even the U.S., but most sales are local and consumers prefer shopping online in their home country. To identify who the major web retail players are in each diverse market and across the continent, Internet Retailer introduces the Top 300 Europe, the first ever comprehensive ranking of the 300 largest European retail web sites. Each listing is packed with financial and operational data.

Selling online in Europe is completely different than any other international web retailing markets, including the U.S. In fact, Europe is a series of individual e-commerce markets and each market has its own distinct shopping audience. To sell successfully online in Europe, you must know who the players are in each country, how they compete in their local market and what share of the market they control. The Internet Retailer Top 400 Europe analyzes the e-commerce sites of the 400 leading online retailing companies and breaks down the key details and operating metrics of each one.

The Internet Retailer Top 400 Europe is available for $69 plus shipping. You may order at our secure Internet Retailer Shop page by clicking here.

For about half of the list, from the horse's mouth, that is, from the e-retailers themselves. For the other half we estimate the e-retailer's annual sales online for the past year by analyzing traffic patterns for the e-retailer's web site, based on traffic numbers we get from comScore, and by applying average tickets and conversion rates found for other sites in the retailer's merchandising category.

Since all e-retailer rankings in the Top 400 Europe are based on a web merchant's prior year online sales, retailers must demonstrate that they have annual online sales that are at least as high as the 400th-ranked web site. If your site has those numbers and we failed to include you in the Guide, contact Internet Retailer's Research Director, Mark Brohan at mark@verticalwebmedia.com.

The Top 400 Europe uses a combination of internal research staff and well-known e-commerce market measurement firms such as comScore, Compete.com, Hitwise.com, Foresee Results, Gomez and Conductor to collect and verify information. For example, the internal research staff spends up to four months breaking down the more than two dozen individual features and functions on each Top 400 web site. Key metrics such as monthly unique visitors or total monthly visits are supplied by the retailer or compiled by comScore or Compete Inc.

A team of four senior editors headed up by the research director spends six months each year compiling data, writing profiles, researching companies and fact-checking data for each Top 400 retailer. Surveys with compiled historical information are sent to each existing Top 400 merchant and likely newcomers at the beginning of each research cycle. Retailers then up update their information and the new data is verified and edited by the research team. Each retailer sees their individual compiled data summary at least three times during the course of the research to verify and update their information.

You can ask, but the answer will always be no. The Top 400 Europe is a painstakingly researched and objective editorial product. If we have information that puts your company among the 400 largest e-retailers in Europe, we owe it to the buyers of the Guide to include you in the rankings.

The Top 400 Europe is edited and published as soon after the end of the fourth quarter as humanly possible in order to supply the online retailing market with the most-up-to-date information. Most Top 400 retailers, including both public and private companies, don't disclose their annual financials such as web sales until January of the following year. By the March publication date, the Top 400 staff has surveyed the industry and compiled the latest web sales total for each merchant ranked in the Top 400 Europe.

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Yes. Some retailers such as Amazon.com will be in each annual issue. But each year as the web retailing market grows in size, new and bigger web retailers are added to the rankings while some smaller companies drop off. In the case of the 2012 Top 400 Europe, last year’s edition featured only the 300 top-ranked web sites, so for 2012 we have added data on 100 extra companies.

As web retailing becomes more complex, the Top 400 Europe keeps up with the times by adding new metrics and each year.

The starting point for data gathering is the retailers' web traffic from Compete Inc. and comScore Inc. That list is supplemented with merchants that Internet Retailer has covered. Whenever possible, web sales listed in the electronic and print versions of the Second 500 came from the company. If the company did not provide sales figures, Internet Retailer estimated sales based on traffic and assumed conversion rate for that retailer's category—as well as on analyst interviews—to formulate estimates. For monthly visits and monthly unique visitors, official numbers were supplied by many retailers. When a retailer did not reveal numbers, researchers used comScore, Compete or Internet Retailer estimates. For the conversion rate, in most instances researchers used category data and analyst interviews to formulate estimates. For the average ticket, if the merchant would not reveal a number, researchers used category data and analyst interviews to formulate estimates. In all instances where an estimate is used it is footnoted. Retailers were given multiple opportunities to review and respond to estimates.

Researchers contact each retailer several times over the course of data collection to compile, collect and fact-check each merchant's information. If the merchant did not provide full financial, operations and web site summary information, Internet Retailer used metrics from that retailer's category—as well as analyst interviews—to formulate estimates. Additional data is supplied to the Second 500 from these information partners: comScore Inc., Compete Inc. and CompuwareGomez. In all instances where an estimate is used or the data is supplied from a third-party, the figure is footnoted. Retailers were given multiple opportunities to review and respond to estimates and metrics provided by third-party research firms.

Yes. Each year as the web retailing market grows in size, new and bigger web retailers are added to the rankings while some smaller companies drop off. In the 2011 edition, the company ranked as No. 501 had annual web sales of about $13 million

The starting point for data gathering is the retailers' web traffic from comScore Inc. and Compete Inc. That list is supplemented with merchants that Internet Retailer has covered. Whenever possible, web sales listed in the electronic and print versions of the Top 500 came from the company. If the company did not provide sales figures, Internet Retailer estimated sales based on traffic and assumed conversion rate for that retailer's category - as well as on analyst interviews - to formulate estimates. For monthly visits and monthly unique visitors, official numbers were supplied by many retailers. When a retailer did not reveal numbers, researchers used comScore, Compete Inc. or Internet Retailer estimates. For the conversion rate in most instances researchers used category data and analyst interviews to formulate estimates. For the average ticket and if the merchant would not reveal a number, researchers used category data and analyst interviews to formulate estimates. In all instances where an estimate is used, it is footnoted. Retailers were given multiple opportunities to review and respond to estimates.

Researchers contact each retailer several times over the course of data collection to compile, collect and fact check each merchant's information. If the merchant did not provide full financial, operations and web site summary information, Internet Retailer used metrics from that retailer's category - as well as analyst interviews - to formulate estimates. Additional data is supplied to the Top 500 from these information partners: comScore Inc., Compete Inc., Conductor Inc., ForeSee, Hitwise and Silverpop Systems Inc. In all instances where an estimate is used or the data is supplied from a third-party, the figure is footnoted. Retailers were given multiple opportunities to review and respond to estimates and metrics provided by third-party research firms.

Yes. Some retailers such as Amazon.com will be in each annual issue. But each year as the web retailing market grows in size, new and bigger web retailers are added to the rankings while some smaller companies drop off. In the 2011 edition, the company ranked as No. 500 had annual web sales of $11.6 million while the cut off in 2009 for No. 500 was $10.5 million.

Yes, Internet Retailer encourages companies to make the exclusive research in the Top 400 Europe available to as many of their company managers as possible. We do that through deep discounts on multiple-user licenses that goes as low as $75 per license for 20 licenses - a 73% discount from the single-license fee.

Yes. After a subscriber logs on and is on the home page, there is an option to select different annual editions of the Top 400 Europe database to research and compare and rank metrics and prepare custom reports.

For any question related to content, please e-mail research director Mark Brohan at mark@verticalwebmedia.com or phone 312-362-9535. Technical and customer service questions can be directed to Chaz McCrobie-Quinn at chaz@verticalwebmedia.com.

Internet Retailer created the Top500Guide.com web site with a goal of giving subscribers the online information and tools they need to access data based on their own unique need each time they log on. In general the most popular data sorts include ranking web retailers on annual web sales, identifying key vendor relationships and identifying key executives.

Researchers contact each retailer several times over the course of data collection to collect and fact-check each merchant's information. If the merchant did not provide full financial, operations and web site summary information, Internet Retailer used metrics from that retailer's category - as well as analyst interviews - to formulate estimates. Additional data is supplied to the databases from these information partners: comScore Inc., Compete.com, Conductor.com, Nielsen Online, ForeSee Results, Hitwise and Silverpop Systems Inc.

The newly updated site search tool on Top500Guide.com allows subscribers to quickly access an individual Top 400 Europe retailer's full information, including their profile. For example, after a subscriber Types "Amazon" or "Amazon.com" into the search box and clicks on the GO button, they will be taken to the company profile page for Amazon. This will be the case for all Top 400 Europe retailers.

The newly compiled annual information for all Top 500 retailers included in the 2012 edition will be uploaded and available to subscribers in early May. Data and profiles for individual retailers are updated throughout the year. Updates may include newly released quarterly web sales, new vendor relationships and newly hired or promoted executives.

The newly compiled annual information for all Second 500 retailers included in the 2012 edition will be uploaded and available to subscribers this summer. Data and profiles for individual retailers are updated throughout the year. Updates may include new vendor relationships and newly hired or promoted executives.