Koen van Gelder
Team Lead E-commerce
Online marketplaces in the United States - statistics & facts
American marketplaces rule the American market. Few e-commerce nations have such a strong emphasis on domestic enterprises as the United States. Amazon, Walmart, Target, and eBay were all founded on U.S. soil, and are currently running the show when it comes to marketplace e-commerce. These online retailers are responsible for a large portion of the ever-growing e-commerce revenue, which is estimated to reach over 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars in 2024.
Online marketplaces currently sit atop the e-commerce throne in the U.S., with Amazon crowned king of online retail. Whether it is direct sales, third-party selling, or C2C secondhand e-commerce, established online platforms are the go-to destination for American shoppers.
Pure players and early adopters
Generalist marketplaces are a global force, as their immense range of products makes them ideal one-stop shops. The ranking of the most-visited online marketplaces in the country is a blend of e-commerce pure players and brick-and-mortar retail institutions. The two largest internet retailers in the U.S., Amazon and eBay, were both founded in the .com era as online alternatives to, in these respective cases, bookstores and auction houses. Not long after Amazon started achieving the retailing dominance that it currently enjoys, retail giant Walmart commenced e-commerce operations, launching Walmart Marketplace in 2009. Recently, another institution of retail, Target, scaled up its e-commerce operations as well. Regardless of the paths they have taken to build up the online presence they have today, these are examples of generalist online marketplaces that rank among the top-selling websites in the whole of the United States.Facilitating sales – digital platforms as old-school marketplaces
The aforementioned marketplace behemoths operate with a combined marketplace/retailer model, with direct sales revenues coming from first-party sales, and further revenue streams derived from third-party sales. Connecting shoppers with external sellers on the marketplace platform has proven to be a lucrative business – for instance, Amazon is earning over 36 billion U.S. dollars quarterly through third-party seller services alone. Such platforms are also well-established for C2C online sales. In the United States, consumer-to-consumer e-commerce is almost synonymous with eBay and Craigslist, but these giants are no longer achieving consistent revenue growth. This does not mean that the C2C e-commerce market is declining – on the contrary, consumers are finding it easier than ever to find each other online. One company that has done especially well in satisfying the demand for artsy, crafty, and vintage products is Etsy, which is coming up to 100 million active buyers.Online marketplaces currently sit atop the e-commerce throne in the U.S., with Amazon crowned king of online retail. Whether it is direct sales, third-party selling, or C2C secondhand e-commerce, established online platforms are the go-to destination for American shoppers.
