amazon prime drone

The Aamazon Prime drone

Amazon has retained its title as the world’s most valuable retail brand in the 2017 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, released today by WPP and Kantar Millward Brown.

The brand was also the fastest-growing performer in the BrandZ Retail Top 20, up 41% ($40.1bn) year on year.

It said that Amazon retained the top spot by making online shopping faster and more convenient via initiatives such as Amazon Prime Pantry and Amazon Prime Now. Innovations such as Amazon Echo, Prime Air and Alexa, combined with moves to develop the benefits of subscribing to Prime, were also highlighted.

Alibaba, China’s online portal, retained its number two spot with a brand value of $59.1bn. Asda owner Walmart was at number four, also retaining its position from the 2016 listing.

Tesco retained its number 15 ranking, despite a drop in brand value of 10%. Ebay jumped up two places in the ranking to number eight. Aldi came in at number nine, down one from last year, while Lidl was number 16, up from 19 in 2016.

“The pace of retail was always fast and furious but in the 12 years since the BrandZ rankings began the rules of the game have radically changed,” said David Roth, CEO EMEA and Asia, The Store WPP.

“Walmart has been overtaken as the world’s most valuable retail brand by Amazon and two Chinese e-commerce brands are in the Top 10. E-commerce has radically reshaped the retail and brand landscape and these changes are set to accelerate. Retail brands that don’t deliver seamless, unique customer-centric experience online and offline will continue to suffer. The future of retail is not what it used to be.”