Internet Retailer, the leading industry guide for the online retailing industry, released their annual Top 500 Guide that analyzes and ranks the top 500 Internet retailers. The guide segments online retailers into four categories— Retail chains, Web only companies, Catalogers, and Manufacturers. Surprisingly, retail chains only managed 18% growth compared to catalogers 30% growth year-over-year. Retail chains would appear to have a competitive advantage for growth due to their traditional presence and ability to better leverage existing customers (But apparently, not.)
According to the guide, total online retail revenue hit $166 billion in the US in 2007, with the top 500 Internet retailers accounted for 61% of total online retail revenue.
By the way, total retail growth was only 3.8% last year while online Retail reached 21.8% growth.
So, who were America’s top retailers on the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guidein 2007?
- Amazon: $14.8B
- Staples: $5.6B
- Office Depot: $4.9B
- Dell: $4.2B
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HP Home & Office Store: $3.4B
Fastest growing categories in 2007 online:
- Jewelry: 36%
- Books/other media: 32%
- Mass merchants/dept. stores: 31%
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Apparel: 24%
Slowest growing categories:
- Health and beauty:11%
- Flowers/gifts: 11%
- Food/drugs: 12%
- Hardware/home improvement: 13%.
In a survey of retailers complementing the guide, Omniture Inc. was the most named ecommerce technology provider across multiple categories in the vendor listings of the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Omniture also topped the vendor list with 218 mentions, followed by GSI Commerce Inc., Commission Junction Inc., Google and Coremetrics.
Now, all marketers are not Amazon. But understanding the best practices and how the 500 Top Internet Retailers achieved their leadership positions can provide valuable lessons in how to succeed in the fast growing online marketing channel.