Which Mid-Tier Online Retailers Are Growing the Fastest?

CHICAGO, June 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Smaller and midsized online retailers are slipping behind Amazon, Walmart.com and other web giants, shows the Internet Retailer 2014 Second 500 Guide, which ranks mid-tier North American web merchants numbered 501-1,000 by 2013 online sales. But some startups are making their mark.

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Collectively, these 500 e-retailers, who compete for the 25% of market share not dominated by the Top 500 e-retailers in North America, rang up $4.74 billion in 2013 online sales, up 14.1% from $4.155 billion in 2012. That growth rate is lower than the 15.6% growth Second 500 merchants posted in 2012, and well behind the 17.1% growth the leading U.S. e-retailers reached in 2013—the 2014 Top 500. As a result, the Second 500's share of U.S. e-retail sales slipped slightly to 1.80% in 2013 from 1.84% a year earlier.

However, the Second 500 Guide's data show some types of merchants did better than others. Web-only merchants form the most prevalent merchant type in the 2014 Second 500 Guide—in fact, 297 out of the 500 are pure-plays, up from 292 in the 2013 edition of the Second 500 Guide. They collectively grew sales 15.6% last year to $2.8 billion. Web-only start-up companies fared particularly well as a subset: of the 25 fastest-growing retailers in the 2014 Second 500, four out of five sell only online and were founded in 2009 or later.

In addition to detailing web sales, growth rates and rankings, the 2014 Second 500 contains a wealth of other vital financial and operating metrics—160 in all per ranked e-retailer, including web traffic, online conversion rates, the number of SKUs offered online, average ticket,  online shopper demographics, search and e-mail marketing statistics, e-commerce vendors used, web site features and functions, and much more.

"There's as much competitive information to be gleaned in studying mid-tier players as there is in tracking the major e-retailers," says Jack Love, Internet Retailer publisher. "In fact, the competitive secrets of the all-new 2014 Second 500 Guidemay be even morecompelling because they are lesser known and are often more innovative and aggressive when it comes to applying best e-retailing practices. They target market niches better than many large e-retailers and in particular use social media more effectively as well."

The 352-page guide is now available in a print as well as a digital version and all of its proprietary data can be accessed and customized by user preference through a subscription to Top500Guide.com, the world's largest online database of competitive e-commerce information.

For research information, contact Mark Brohan, vice president, research and product development, Internet Retailer, at 312.362.9535.

For media inquiries, contact Chaz McCrobie-Quinn, circulation manager, Internet Retailer, at 312.362.0107.

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SOURCE Internet Retailer