During a time when Ecommerce businesses are seeing success due to the travel restrictions the UK has been under, high street stores have slowly begun to re-open.  Amazon has cemented it’s position in becoming the world’s most valuable brand. 

According to Kantar’s new global BrandZ ranking, Amazon has remained in front of Apple for the second year running, despite Apple enjoying a 14% increase in value from 2019, up to $352bn. The rankings covers progress from the past 12 months – concluding on the 7th of April. 

The rankings saw a few changes with household name Google dropping to fourth, overtaken by Microsoft, who saw a 30% increase, now seeing them valued at $327bn. Google is now valued at $324bn with a 5% increase. The top five are rounded off with Visa; worth $187bn with a 5% increase. 

Social media giant, Facebook, saw a fall into 8th place, being valued $147bn – with a decrease of -7%. Above Facebook is Alibaba in 6th at $153bn and Tencent in 7th $151bn. McDonald’s, who have suffered during the pandemic lie in 9th place ($129bn) with a decrease of -1% and Mastercard with an increase of 18% see out the top 10 at ($108bn). 

As brands slowly look to recover from the loss made by the pandemic, the overall value of the top 100 brands grew by $277bn, a 5.9% increase from 2019.

“We do believe that in aggregate the world’s top brands are still growing and that’s because the top 100 brands have this extremely strong brand equity,” says BrandZ global strategy director, Graham Staplehurst.

Staplehurst expects the “strong” brands to recover quickly: “We saw during the last recession that strong brands recover about five times faster than average.”

The retail and technology brands have been performing strongly; which has seen the likes of Costco and Netflix in the  top five rankings as fastest risers. 

The value of Chinese spirits brand Moutai (18 in the rankings) rose by 58%, followed by Instagram (29) up 47%, athleisure brand Lululemon up 40%, Costco (47) up 35% and Netflix (26) up 34%. The value of most-valued  brand Amazon rose by 32%, followed next by LinkedIn (43) up 31%, Microsoft (3) up 30%, Adobe (35) up 29% and Chinese food delivery service Meituan (54) up 27%.

Staplehurst believes that as consumers seek trust in brands during an uncertain time; trusted brands will provide that assurance. 

“It’s a huge validation of brand-building investment,” he says. “People are uncertain and are looking for reassurance. Trusted brands will give people that reassurance.”