USA online marketplaces researched by SellerSingh.com
USA online marketplaces researched by SellerSingh.com
The US is the largest economy in the world and the second largest ecommerce market after China, with annual sales of $792 billion. Online retailing represents 14% of overall retail sales.
Many global ecommerce companies hail from the US, including Amazon and eBay, and the US Continues to dominate the world in technology. Other benefits for the US are its large population of 328 million. Americans are greedy consumers, offering great growth potential for domestic companies.
But ecommerce in the US is not free of challenges. The relatively small population density and long distances between major cities mean that shipping is slower and more costly than in other developed countries. Sales taxes and other laws vary considerably from state to state, creating obstacles to trade. Online grocery shopping is a slow process. These factors could explain why online retailing is much higher in China (25%) and the UK (23%) than in the US.
But we must not underestimate the strength of ecommerce and online marketplaces in the US. In addition to the large players, the US has strong online competition from established retailers and niche markets, with loyal customer bases and innovative business models.
The largest online marketplaces in the USA
|
S.no |
Type |
Name |
Region/Country |
Product Category |
US Visits/months |
|
1 |
Retailer & Marketplace |
Global
|
General |
2.0B |
|
|
2 |
Marketplace |
Global |
General |
688.9M |
|
|
3 |
Retailer & Marketplace |
USA |
General |
388.8M |
|
|
4 |
Marketplace |
Global |
Art, Crafts & Gifts |
238.4M |
|
|
5 |
Retailer & Marketplace |
USA |
General |
175.7M |
|
|
6 |
Retailer & Marketplace |
North America, Europe |
Homewares |
122.5M |
|
|
7 |
Retailer & Marketplace |
USA |
General |
37.9M |
|
|
8 |
Marketplace |
Japan, USA |
General |
27.7M |
|
|
9 |
Marketplace |
Global |
Fashion |
23.5M |
|
|
10 |
Retailer & Marketplace |
USA, Canada |
Electronics |
22.6M |
There is no doubt about Amazon's dominance in the ecommerce marketplace in the US. The company is simply in a different league from its competition, with more than 2 billion monthly visits.
eBay stands far behind with approximately 689 million monthly visits. Amazon is way ahead, even taking into account eBay being a pure-play market, while Amazon's market accounts for 55% of its total sales.
The Walmart retailer is next, and Target is two places down, but they have very different ecommerce strategies. Walmart's online business has been revitalized by the purchase of Jet.com and, after years of neglect, the Walmart marketplace is now growing quickly. Target's online marketplace is relatively small and very closed, and is not a significant growth driver.
What the US marketplace has is a great strength in depth, with successful online marketplaces in a variety of niche categories.
Etsy has the category of handmade crafts, an online furniture retailer Wayfair sells furniture and Homewares, Newegg sells video gaming, postmark is a fashion marketplace, then there’s Reverb, GunBroker, TheRealReal and many more.
In the United States, niche markets seem to help companies build a loyal customer base, rather than preventing them from gaining the critical mass of buyers and sellers that all marketplaces need to function.
Amazon in the US
Amazon is the most popular online market in the US, with two billion visitors a month. The US is by far Amazon's largest country, but its 38% share of global traffic is larger than Amazon's total international markets.
Amazon’s global gross merchandise volume is estimated at $490 billion and 69% of sales originate in North America, according to its 2020 annual report, making an estimated US GMV of $338 billion. It is interesting that the US accounts for 38% of Amazon’s website traffic, but 69% of sales, suggesting that US traffic is almost twice as valuable to Amazon as international traffic.
Amazon does not have a global account system, so current sellers outside of North America will need to sign up for a new account to sell in the US. However, Amazon has a unified account system in the US, so online sellers in Mexico, Canada and Brazil should be able to sell to the US using the same login Id.
There is a common understanding in the US that Amazon is the only online marketplace to be taken seriously, and there is a reason for that. Amazon's share of total online retail sales is estimated at 40%, and it is still growing, even though it is already way ahead of other retailers. However, other online marketplaces may be worth exploring for additional sales, and some product niches, like craft and fashion, have very solid alternative markets to explore.
As Amazon's country of origin, the US is usually the first market where new services and programs are implemented. US sellers were the first to gain access to listing videos, Launchpad, FBA, Seller Fulfilled Prime, new advertising opportunities and much more.
Amazon's Prime membership program has been highly successful in the US, with approximately 58% of households subscribing to the service.
Prime members spend an average of $1,400 per year on Amazon, while non-prime members spend an average of $600 per year. This helps to explain why Amazon's sales are higher in the US than in international markets. Prime members have access to benefits like guaranteed two-day delivery, and Amazon is continuing to invest in its fulfillment capabilities to offer one-day and same-day delivery to many parts of the US.
eBay in the US
eBay is the second largest online marketplace in the US, with 689 million visits per month. The US represents 41% of global eBay traffic, just over 38% from Amazon.
The global gross merchandise volume for eBay was $100 billion in 2020. This means that based on the assumption that sales are in proportion with traffic levels, GMV accounted for $41 billion.
eBay started in 1995, and the company grew rapidly in the first years of adoption of the public Internet and the dot-com boom. It has been favored in financial markets, due to its purely technological business model without the need for physical inventories or expensive warehouses.
eBay quickly became a family name, with a unique proposal that anybody can sell anything using an online auction. For many years, it was believed that auctions would be the dominant online sales format and many eBay competitors, including Yahoo! And Amazon, launched their own marketplaces at auction.
As online retailing has evolved over the first decade of the 2000s, eBay's image as an online bidding flea market has remained unchanged. This perception remains today, even though most eBay sales are now fixed price, mass produced and new products sold by businesses rather than by individuals.
eBay's share of online retail sales in the US is estimated at only 4.7%, far behind former rival Amazon, whose share is approximately 40%.
eBay's early successes are now seen as weaknesses, as the company is hindered by old-fashioned ideas and an unrestrained marketplace that makes it difficult to standardize product information and deliver dependable shipping and customer service.
eBay has a global account system, so the sale is the same in all countries and sellers have a consistent feedback profile around the globe. The lists are unique to each eBay site, however, and do not automatically display across all countries.
Walmart.com in the US
Walmart, Established in 1962, is a multinational retail company, the largest company in the world in terms of revenue and the largest private employer in the world.
Despite thousands of stores, unbeatable brand recognition and nearly unlimited resources, Walmart has not had much impact on ecommerce until recently.
After Jet.com was acquired in 2016, Walmart completely modified its ecommerce strategy. Rather than growing the jet.com brand, Walmart puts jet.com's team, led by Marc Lore, in charge of its ecommerce operations.
Walmart's online market has now been rejuvenated, following many years of stagnation since its launch in 2009, and its base has increased to 93,000 sellers.
Walmart does not release what percentage of sales on their website come from marketplace sellers, but it is apparent that marketplace growth is a vital part of Walmart's online ecommerce strategy.
Walmart.com has 389 million monthly visits from the US, accounting for 95% of its global traffic. It has 5.3% of online retail sales in the US, which puts it second (but well behind) to Amazon's 40%. Walmart's online business is valued at $50 billion.
Selling on Walmart is intended for US businesses, although nearly 100 Chinese sellers have recently been authorized to join.
A new seller's listings will not be approved until they have gone through an approval process that can take up to three weeks. Walmart also requires that the seller upload at least 10 of their products before their listings can be approved.
Even though it is harder to become a seller on Walmart, the quality control and support for sellers can be poor, making the marketplace feel like it is in chaos from the seller's point of view.
Other Online Marketplaces in th US
Seven other online markets are listed above.
Etsy is a highly successful pure-play online marketplace, with 238 million monthly visits from the US and $10.3 billion in GMV annually worldwide. It specializes in crafting and provides sellers with a platform to present themselves personally, unlike Amazon and many other marketplaces.
Target is a physical retail outlet with annual sales of $94 billion. The Target website receives 176 million visits per month from the US. Target.com is a large online retailer, but its marketplace, known as Target Plus, is by invitation only and has seen slow growth. A year after its launch in February 2019, there were just over 100 sellers selling 165,000 products.
Wayfair is an online furniture retailer and marketplace focused on furniture and household items. It has an annual GMV marketplace worth $14 billion, and 122 million monthly visits from the US. Rather than charging a commission, Wayfair sets the retail price of the products and pays the wholesale price to traders, following a dropshipping model.
Overstock has 38 million monthly visits to the US, accounting for 95% of its world total, and annual turnover of 2.5 billion dollars. Overstock is mainly known for furniture and household goods, but also sells jewellery, clothing and other products. Overstock shut down its initial auction marketplace in 2011. It still has a few market sellers, but activity is low with a lot of out-of-stock products.
Mercari focuses on two countries: the US and Japan. It receives 28 million visits per month from the US, accounting for 26% of its total worldwide traffic. The model relies primarily on sales between consumers, but companies can also trade on Mercari.
Stockx is an online marketplace where buyers and sellers set prices independently for hot fashion items such as sneakers and streetwear, trading cards, and other collectibles. Trades are only made when both parties can agree on an acceptable price. stockx is a global marketplace that is most popular in the US where it has 24 million monthly visitors, representing 52% of its global traffic.
Newegg is an online retailer and a marketplace that focuses on selling electronics, with an emphasis on video gaming. With annual sales of $2 billion and 23 million monthly visits from the US, Newegg has its own fulfillment program that is shipped by Newegg. There are three different seller membership levels. The membership level that does not involve a monthly fee ranges from 8% to 15% in terms of the commission rate.
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