Do you want to know the top e-commerce sites in the United States and what they sell on them? In the article below, we highlight the top 15 e-commerce sites in the US for you to know.
Overview of Top E-Commerce Sites in the US
- Amazon: Over 2 Billion Monthly Visit – Number one E-commerce Site in the US
- eBay: Over 800 Million Monthly Visit – Best Auction-Based E-Commerce Site in the US
- Walmart: Over 400 Million Monthly Visit – Largest Retailer in the US
- Etsy: Over 390 Million Monthly Visit – Best Marketplace for Handmade Crafts
- The Home Depot: Over 200 Million Monthly Visit – Best Home Improvement Store
Top 15 E-commerce Sites in the USA
More than ever, consumers are increasingly making more purchases online than offline. And this remains true even in the post-covid period. One thing you will come to admit. After China, the US is the largest e-commerce market in the world, with a lot of online spenders.
You can purchase most things you will need without leaving the comfort of your house, and you will get them delivered. And the e-commerce stores? Competition among them of who delivers fast in the right condition is at its highest. This makes e-commerce interesting in the United States for product consumers and buyers.
Whether you are a seller looking for the best e-commerce site to sell your products or you are a buyer looking for where to make reliable purchases, this article has been written for you.
In this article, we will be taking a look at some of the top e-commerce sites in the US, with some of them being the most popular e-commerce sites in the world.
The list consists of 15 shopping sites that consumers in the US purchase. Some are a general marketplace, while others are meant for specific products or product categories. The first is, of course, Amazon.
1. Amazon — Overall Top E-Commerce Site for Everything
- Founder: Jeff Bezos
- Revenue: $469.822 billion
- Total Asset: $420.549 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 2 billion web visits
While the term the shop for everything might seem like an overstretch, there is no denying that you can literarily buy anything you want from the Amazon online store. From regular groceries to eyelashes and car accessories. In fact, when people hear of the world of e-commerce, the store their minds go to is Amazon.
This platform is not meant for only US consumers as it ships over 45 million products around the world. It has got a good number of subsidiaries and companies, which make you want to see the name as more of a brand than the e-commerce platform itself.
In terms of delivery, this platform's in-house delivery capacity is 50% through it Logistic services such as Amazon Air, Amazon Logistics, Amazon Flex, and Amazon Prime Air. It also makes use of third-party delivery options.
Amazon is arguably the first online store in the world, haven opened a virtual storefront in 1992 as the then Book Stacks Unlimited. Yes, a company that started as a bookstore company is now one of the top 5 IT companies in the world alongside Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
There are many data scraping businesses that rely on Amazon's data to drive profitability, such as Jungle Scout, CherryPicks and Helium 10.
2. eBay — Best Auction-Based E-Commerce Site
- Founder: Pierre Morad Omidyar
- Revenue: $10.42 billion
- Total Asset: $26.63 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 800 million web visits
eBay is another top e-commerce store. This e-commerce store is known for its auction-based platform where users can bud for products. However, it has grown from being just an online auction site to a platform where you can just pay for items without bidding for them.
This platform is one of the popular online destinations for those looking for deals. You could get items dead cheap on this platform if you go for their auctioned items. It is one of the places where you can buy used products at a good price.
It can be seen as a platform that facilitates both consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales. This platform, just like Amazon, has had a change of name as it was formerly known as AuctionWeb and can be said to be one of the success stories of the dot com bubble. The platform has many subsidiaries, including Kijiji, an online classified advertisement platform.
3. Walmart — Largest Retailer in the US
- Founder: Sam Walton
- Revenue: $572.8 billion
- Total Asset: $244.86 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 400 million web visits
This store is one of the top online stores in the US. You can buy consumer goods ranging from groceries to electronics, down to clothing. Walmart is a force to reckoned with in the e-commerce space in the United States. It is the largest retailer in the US, having over 4742 stores in the US. If you are to consider the total number of stores it has in the 24 countries it operates, then the store count is over 10K stores.
Together with its retail store outlets, it also operates an online storefront where users can make purchases and either pick up their items from a nearby store or get the item delivered to them. In terms of delivery, it does have support for pay-per-delivery or a delivery membership option. It might interest you to know that Walmart was started as a family business and the family (Walton Family) still owns the majority of it.
4. Target — Good Retail Outlet Support
- Founders: George Dayton, Douglas Dayton, and John Geisse
- Revenue: $106 billion
- Total Asset: $51.248 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 180 million web visits
75 percent of the US population lives within 10 miles of a Target store. This means that the store outlets are quite popular already in the US. But that is not all. Aside from retail outlets, there is also the target online store that you can visit to purchase your everyday needs from.
It is also a one-stop shop like Amazon and Walmart. Target gets close to 200 million visits monthly, making it one of the most popular online stores. It is also one of the affordable shop outlets. Target can be likened to Walmart as it operates physical store outlets.
However, the number of stores it has is a little fewer than what Walmart has. Target is one of the stores that got a sizeable increase in visits and sales during the COVID-19 period as people turn towards. They have support for store pickup, which is considerably cheaper than warehouse delivery.
5. Craigslist — Best Site for Classified Ads
- Founder: Craig Newmark
- Revenue: $694 million
- Total Asset: $244.86 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 300 million web visits
According to Alexa, Craigslist is the 11th most visited website in the United States. This e-commerce platform is not like the regular online store like Amazon and Walmart. It is a store for classified advertisements in many categories such as jobs, items wanted, resume writing, community service, and even gigs. With this platform, you post an item you want, and those with such will respond to you.
The site is quite popular, and over 80 million advertisements are posted on it each month. Over 2 million jobs are posted every month, making it a popular job posting site in the United State. In terms of visits, the site gets over to 300 million monthly visits, and engagement is quite high as users usually visit more than 4 pages per visit. Surprisingly, the team behind the site is quite lean but productive with what they have done so far.
6. Etsy — Best Marketplace for Handmade Crafts
- Founders: Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, Haim Schoppik, and Jared Tarbell
- Revenue: $2.33 billion
- Total Asset: $3.83 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 390 million web visits
Another unique e-commerce store on the list is Etsy. This online shop is popular among those seeking to buy handmade crafts and vintage items. The items sold on this platform are in many categories. You can buy bags, clothes, jewelry, home decor items, toys, and arts. For an item to be termed vintage on this site, it must be at least 20 years old.
To give you a little detail of how big this platform is, it has got over 120 million items listed for sale. It currently has over 7.5 million sellers and over 96.3 million buyers. Unlike the other e-commerce stores above, many of the sellers on this platform see it as a side hustle. With this, it is no surprise why the product photos are more artistic and editorial rather than commercial.
7. The Home Depot — Top Marketplace for Home Improvement
- Founder: Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, Pat Farrah, and Ken Langone
- Revenue: $151.16 billion
- Total Asset: $71.88 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 200 million web visits
If you’re looking to purchase home appliances, construction tools, home improvement services, and tools, then The Home Depot is the place to go. This website is the largest retailer of home improvement in the United States. This service has over 2,000 stores around the United States with over 90 distribution centers. You can, however, make a purchase online and get the item delivered to you or use the store pickup option.
The site record over 200 million visit monthly from supported regions in the world. The Home Depot, alongside Target enforces a strict geo-restriction for non-supported locations. This service does have a good number of brands selling on its platform. It also does have subsidiaries. The Home Depot also does offer van rental services and has a few fuel centers in the US.
8. Best Buy — Top Consumer Electronic Retailer
- Founders: Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler
- Revenue: $51.76 billion
- Total Asset: $17.50 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 130 million web visits
If what you’re looking to buy is consumer electronics, then Best Buy is the site to buy them from. Best Buy is one of the top e-commerce platforms in the United States where you can purchase electronics such as smartphones, personal computers, home appliances, and device accessories, and more. It is one of the Fortune 500 companies in the world. Best Buy is one of the sellers of smartphones from AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Corporation.
This online store has been named the largest specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States. It has also won several awards, including the “The Most Sustainable Company in the United States” by Barron's in 2019. This e-commerce site also operates stores around the US. In terms of monthly visits to its online store, Best Buy records over 130 million visits monthly.
9. Macy’s — Online Destination for Fashion
- Founder: Rowland Hussey Macy
- Revenue: $24.97 billion
- Total Asset: $5.23 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 50 million web visits
Macy’s is one of the oldest companies on the list, as it has been around for over 160 years. However, its domain was registered only during the dot come bubble. Macy’s is another top online store worthy of mention. This site is highly niche, focusing only on the sales of fashion wear.
From this site, you can purchase clothes, footwear, accessories, houseware, beddings, jewelry, and furniture. According to the information provided by SEMrush, Macy’s gets over 50 million visits monthly.
While this might look small compared to the other e-commerce sites above, the number is quite huge, considering it is focused on majorly the fashion niche. Even with its online sales, its store outlets still remain, and it currently has over 500 stores in the United States. Aside from its main site, Macy’s has other popular subsidiaries, including Market by Macy’s, Macy’s Backstage, and Macy’s Gallery.
10. Wish — Direct Marketplace for Buyers and Sellers
- Founders: Piotr Szulczewski and Sheng Zhang
- Revenue: $2.1 billion
- Total Asset: $1.028 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 20 million web visits
How about an e-commerce store where each user gets a personalized shopping experience? Well, that is where Wish comes in, an e-commerce platform where a user can post his wishes items and then get paired with sellers. However, this is not the only way the site operates.
You can also be suggested items as with other online stores. One thing you’ll come to see about this site that makes it unique is the fact that it only connects buyers and sellers together, providing each protection and taking a cut from transactions made.
It does not handle products directly, and returns are also to be done directly from the buyer to the seller without the product passing through Wish. This means that they do not need to have a warehouse.
The app of this service is the most-downloaded e-commerce application worldwide in 2018.
11. Newegg — Top Retailer of Consumer Electronics and Hardware
- Founder: Fred Chang
- Revenue: $2.7 billion
- Total Asset: $388.5 million
- Monthly Visit: Over 40 million web visits
Newegg is another e-commerce platform worthy of mention. This platform has positioned itself to be one of the most popular destinations for US audiences online when they need to get consumer electronics. Newegg is a popular retailer for computer parts and peripherals.
You can also get a gaming console and even purchase software from the platform. It might also interest you to know that aside from the consumer electronics that they are known for, you can also purchase other products, including toys and apparel.
In terms of web traffic recorded, the average number of visits this website gets monthly is close to 50 million, making it one of the most popular options in the US.
It is one of the websites that has seen considerable growth. As with some of the sites above, Newegg does not cater to only the US audience.
12. Kroger — Top Site for Groceries Purchase
- Founder: Bernard Kroger
- Revenue: $137.888 billion
- Total Asset: $49.086 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 30 million web visits
In the e-commerce scene of the United States, Kroger is a force to reckoned with. It is the number one largest supermarket chain in the country by revenue. It also comes third place behind Walmart and Amazon in terms of general retail.
Kroger is one of the best online markets where you can purchase your groceries from. You can purchase meat, fish, egg, dairy products, seafood, fresh fruits, and vegetable from this site.
There are other products available, including beverages, health and wellness products, and even toys and games, among others. If you are looking for an online supermarket where delivery is done in a matter of hours or so, then the Kroger website is the site for you to make purchases from.
In terms of physical store locations, Kroger has got over 2800 store locations with over 2700 supermarkets and 130 jewelry stores in the US.
13. Wayfair — Top Site for Furniture
- Founder: Niraj Shah and Steve Conine
- Revenue: $13.71 billion
- Total Asset: $4.57 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 50 million web visits
Wayfair can be said to offer online shopping services for Internet users in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Ireland. Our focus here is their US audience, who troops to the site to purchase furniture and other home goods.
Currently, Wayfair has over 14 million items in its catalog sourced from over 11,000 suppliers globally. This website is only one of the sites under this brand as there are 3 other websites being managed by the same brand. You can buy office furniture, home decor, kitchen, and dining, as well as bed and bath materials from them.
You can also get god for home improvement from this website. This service has warehouse spaces where it keeps its stocks and then delivers to users from across the country.
According to information available, Wayfair has over 12 million square feet of warehouse space across North America and Europe.
14. Costco — Top E-Commerce Site with Membership Support
- Founder: James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman
- Revenue: $195.93 billion
- Total Asset: $59.27 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 80 million web visits
Costco is kind of different from the other sites listed above. This is because it operates a membership model where members pay $60 to enjoy their discounted prices. If you are not ready to pay this membership fee, then you should be ready to pay 5% extra for the prices of the items on their site.
This site is one of the most popular e-commerce sites in the United States and is seen in 2020 as the third-largest retail store online in the US. In 2016, this store was seen as the world’s largest retailer of organic foods, rotisserie chicken and choice, and prime beef.
One of the strong selling points of this online store is the discount you get being a member, which helps you make purchases at wholesale prices instead of buying at regular retail prices.
15. Lowe’s — Top Site for Home Improvement
- Founder: Lucius Smith Lowe
- Revenue: $72.148 billion
- Total Asset: $39.471 billion
- Monthly Visit: Over 140 million web visits
If you read the above completed, you will notice where we stated that The Home Depot is the most popular home improvement e-commerce site. Well, Lowe’s is the next site to it in the home improvement niche, and it is even bigger than Leroy Merlin in Europe. In North America, this Lowe’s and its associated partners operate over 2100 home improvement stores. You can buy all of the tools and materials you need for your home improvement.
Aside from their physical outlet, their website, which is Lowe’s main website, is also one of the top channels through which users in the United States access their service. Considering how big home improvement and real estate, in general, is in the United States, there is no denying that Lowe’s site is one of the top e-commerce websites in the US.
FAQs
Q. How Big is E-Commerce in the United States?
E-commerce is very big in the United States. The US was the largest e-commerce market until it was overtaken by China. Even with this, e-commerce is still growing at a good rate. In 2019, online retail sales in the US were $343.15 billion. This figure is projected to rise to $476.5 billion by 2024.
According to details provided by Statistica, about 80 percent of the US population shop online, which is one of the highest you can get around the world. With all of the techs, deals, and incentives available for the US population, online shopping will only get bigger in the future.
Q. Which E-Commerce Site is the Best for the US Online Shoppers?
To many, Amazon is the most popular option in the market and can even be said to be the best. This is because it offers you a one-stop shop where you can buy almost everything you need, from your every day groceries to home improvement, among others. Amazon is also known to offer one of the most reliable delivery options as it even has its own in-house Logistic options.
However, there are many competitors that still give it a run for its money. If you are looking for an alternative with a store outlet, then Walmart is the option for you. For auction-based shopping, go with eBay. Etsy is for handmade and vintage items. The Home Depot is for home improvement, and Craigslist is for classified and job ads, among other sites.
Q. Is Online Shopping Safe?
On a general note, online shopping is now safe compared to the early days of online shopping, where a lot of advancement has not been made in the areas of security and regulations that force web services to incorporate the best practices.
If you decide to shop from any of the sites discussed above, you are safe as they make use of encryption and follow laid down regulations by the government. However, you still have to be careful and follow the best practices to protect yourself from fraudulent figures online.
Q. Is Buying Online Cheaper in the United States?
The answer depends on many indices. But on a general note, you can get items cheaper online than buying from the store. This is because of the numerous deals, discounts, free shipping, and even no-taxed option you get online.
There are even tools developed to help online shoppers get the best price for an item which is something you will struggle with online. However, even with all of these, there are still instances where purchasing offline is cheaper than doing that online.
Q. What are the Most Purchased Items Online in the US?
Currently, you can purchase virtually anything you want online, from airlift guns to a piece of gold and even services. However, what are the most popular items being purchased by US online shoppers? Books, videos, and music are some of the most popularly purchased things online in the US.
Others popular items being purchased include computers, consumer electronics, fashion items, toys, office equipment and supplies, home finishing products, and beauty products, among others. Most of the aforementioned items are physical items. The US is big for purchasing services online. You can also purchase virtually all kinds of services and hire skilled workers online.
Conclusion
Looking at the above, you will agree with me that a good number of these sites are not only popular in the US but also in other countries as well. All of the sites mentioned above are quite secure and safe for online shopping. You also get to get good deals and discounts from these sites.
Your best bet is to use price comparison tools if you are looking for the best deals online. It is important you know that there are smaller sites that may provide you with cheaper pricing or provide you with some features not offered by the above-named sites.
