The Top 10 Retailing Websites

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On October 8, 2008, in Internet Marketing, by Brett Duncan

Internet Retailer, a magazine that’s quickly becoming a favorite of mine, has published its Top 500 Guide of America’s largest e-retailers. The website has some interesting facts. Here are just a few nuggest I pulled:

The top 10 retailing websites:

Amazon.com ($14.8 B)
Staples ($5.6 B)
Office Depot ($4.9 B)
Dell ($4.2 B)
HP ($3.4 B)
OfficeMax ($3.2 B)
Apple ($2.7 B)
Sears ($2.6 B)
CDW ($2.4 B)
Newegg.com ($1.9 B)

Interesting facts:

As a group, the Top 500 grew their online sales by 21.6% in 2007 and accounted for a total of $101.7 billion of the nation’s $166 billion in online retail sales
Of the 500 e-retailers ranked in the Top 500 Guide, catalogers and web-only merchants grew their online sales faster than anyone else, achieving growth rates of 30.8% and 22.2%, respectively. By comparison, consumer brand manufacturers in the Top 500 grew their e-retail sales by 21.7% and chain retailers by 18.4%.
In 2007, fully 21 companies recorded online retail sales of $1 billion or more compared to just 17 the prior year.
In percentage terms, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters achieved the best e-retail sales growth among the Top 500 with a 250% gain. Meanwhile Palm Inc. turned in the worst performance with a decline of 45% in online sales. While the specialty/non-apparel segment sector grew fastest online with a 47% growth rate in 2007, the runner-up was not far behind. Online jewelers grew their combined sales by 36% to just over $1 billion from $772 million in 2007. The merchants in the largest category (in terms of numbers of merchants) in the Top 500 Guide—apparel/accessories—continued to show that shoppers have no qualms with buying fashions online. Combined 2007 web sales for this group rose by 24% to $12.4 billion.
Amazon.com dominated the rankings for retailers in natural search engine marketing, appearing first in six of 20 categories. Overstock.com placed a distant second with three. In pay-per-click search marketing, retailers controlled 85% of the top 60 spots. Sears.com and Target.com each held four of the top paid placements.