The beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a massive shift in the global business landscape. Key sectors including tourism, hospitality and energy were decimated overnight, while sales in industries such as technology, pharmaceuticals and healthcare skyrocketed.
Using GlobalData’s Multinational Companies database, we reviewed more than 6,000 of the world’s leading businesses to find out which thrived and which faltered during this time. For this analysis, we focused on companies that generated more than $1bn in revenue in 2019 and assessed which saw the largest rise in sales in 2020 and which experienced the largest fall.
E-commerce, tech and financial services companies prospered
Before Covid-19 hit, bricks-and-mortar retailers were already struggling to compete with online stores that could offer lower prices and quick deliveries. When national lockdowns forced non-essential shops to close, e-commerce companies reaped the rewards of the drastic shift to online shopping.
This is certainly true for Amazon, which recorded the largest nominal increase in revenue of all companies analysed. It experienced explosive growth in 2020, with sales increasing by $106bn from 2019. Revenue grew across all geographic segments, jumping by 36% in the US, 51% in the UK and 33% in Germany.
Sales also surged across most of the company’s product categories, with third-party seller services up by 50%, online stores by 40% and Amazon Web Services by 30%. Physical store sales were the only area that declined, falling by 6%.
Two other e-commerce companies also made the top 20. China-based JD.com (sixth) and Alibaba Group (tenth) benefitted enormously from the surge in online shopping, growing by $25bn and $20bn,…
