Sensor Tower: Global popular shopping app list in the first half of 2021

The global outbreak of the epidemic in early 2020, under the restrictions of the stay-at-home order, people's demand for online shopping surged, causing the download volume of shopping apps to explode in Q2 last year. In the first half of this year, with the popularization of vaccines and the easing of the epidemic, many countries have gradually relaxed travel restrictions, and the download volume of shopping apps has also declined. However, as people have developed a dependence on online shopping, the download volume of shopping apps is still higher than before the epidemic. Please see below for detailed data.

Note: The data in this article comes from Sensor Tower Store Intelligence Platform. Downloads are counted only from the App Store and Google Play, excluding third-party Android markets in China and other regions; the statistical period for ranking data is from January 1 to June 16, 2021.

Latest developments in global shopping apps

Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates show that global shopping app downloads reached 2.47 billion times in the first half of 2021 (as of June 22), slightly higher than 2.38 billion times in the same period last year and a 32% increase from the first half of 2019.

India is the market with the highest number of downloads, accounting for 14% of the total global shopping app downloads in the first half of 2021. The US and Brazilian markets followed closely behind, accounting for 12% and 10% respectively.

In the first half of 2021, Amazon Shopping topped the global shopping app download list with 78.8 million downloads. Cross-border e-commerce SHEIN has rapidly risen in the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, with about 75 million downloads this period, surpassing Shopee and Wish to rank second on the list and becoming the world's number one mobile fast fashion brand.

In the first half of 2021, there are as many as 6 apps with their headquarters or R&D departments established in China. With the advantages of China's manufacturing supply chain, cross-border e-commerce represented by SHEIN is further attracting overseas consumers.

List of key overseas markets

In the US market, Amazon Shopping topped the list with 13.8 million downloads, and SHEIN's ranking jumped from 6th in 2020 to 2nd in this period. Sensor Tower advertising intelligence data shows that SHEIN is the largest shopping advertiser on Instagram and Facebook in the United States in Q2 2021. Focusing on fast fashion apparel, SHEIN has a large number of loyal fans on social platforms and among Generation Z.

In Brazil, the largest market in Latin America, Shopee surpassed local manufacturer Americanas by a large margin with more than 25 million downloads, ranking first. In the fashion-conscious Brazilian market, SHEIN also won the favor of local consumers with its high-quality and low-priced Chinese-made products, ranking second on the list.

In the Southeast Asian market represented by Indonesia, Shopee and Lazada maintained their leading advantages, ranking first and second respectively on Indonesia's shopping app download list.

In the Middle East market represented by Saudi Arabia, Chinese cross-border e-commerce is also popular among local users. SHEIN surpassed Saudi Arabia's local e-commerce noon shopping and ranked first in the local shopping app download list. Another Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform Jollychic also achieved good results, rising from 6th in 2020 to 4th in this period.

Note: Sensor Tower download data only counts first-time installs from an App Store or Google Play account. Multiple installs from the same account on different or the same device are not counted repeatedly. Download data has been combined with multiple versions of the same app, such as Facebook and Facebook Lite.