Top 1000 Retailers, COVID, and Why the Common Perception Is Wrong

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many stores closed and consumers moved to online shopping, many observers predicted that the pandemic would accelerate the growth of online sales and that the biggest winner from this development would be Amazon.com Inc.

Now that the dust has settled, we can say that none of these reports turned out to be true.

As part of Digital Commerce 360’s recently released Top 1000/Top 500 report, we analyzed e-commerce growth from 2019 to 2023 for the 1,000 largest North American-based retailers and consumer brand manufacturers by global online sales. And there were a few surprises.

How has the pandemic affected sales growth for the top 1,000 online retailers?

It’s true that the Top 1000’s online sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic. In fact, their global e-commerce revenue will surpass $1 trillion in 2023 for the first time, up 6.9% from 2022.

From 2019 to 2023, online sales of the top 1,000 companies increased by 17.2% year-on-year, almost doubling that value during that period. But online retail sales were growing even faster before COVID hit. The top 1,000 saw an 18.6% compound annual growth rate from 2016 to 2019, well above the pandemic-era CAGR.

How fast did Amazon grow during the pandemic?

And while Amazon (No. 1 in the top 1,000) has fared well during the pandemic, posting a compound annual growth rate of 17.8% over the five-year period, brick-and-mortar retailers collectively have fared even better, posting a year-over-year growth of 19.2%.

As a result, their share of sales of the top 1,000 companies rose to 34.0% in 2023 from 31.8%. Amazon’s share also rose, but to a lesser extent, to 38.7% in 2023 from 38.0% in 2019.

Amazon accounted for 7.4% of global online retail sales in 2023. However, this global figure includes $2.17 trillion in online retail sales in China, where Amazon no longer competes effectively. Excluding China, Amazon accounts for 12.2% of online retail sales in the rest of the world. This more accurately reflects its dominance everywhere outside of China.

Among those losing ground during the pandemic were 416 of the Top 1,000 online retailers that didn’t mention Amazon. Their share of Top 1,000 sales fell to 10.3% in 2023 from 11.8% in 2019.

Grocery sales online are on the rise

One of the main reasons for the growth of brick-and-mortar retail sales is the increase in online grocery shopping during the pandemic.

The Food/Beverage category posted the highest compound annual growth rate from 2019 to 2023 at 26.0%. This was primarily driven by traditional supermarkets such as Kroger (No. 6 in the top 1000), which increased its share of online sales as a percentage of total sales to 10.5% in 2023 from 5.3% in 2019, and Walmart (No. 2), which sells the most groceries of any U.S. retailer and increased its e-commerce penetration to 15.4% in 2023 from 7.6% in 2019.

Here are some of the highlights from the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000/Top 500 report:

The conversion rate for the top 1,000 retailers fell to just over 2.6% in 2023 from almost 2.8% in 2022. But that’s still better than the 2019 rate of 2.2%.

Shoppers aged 55 and older made up just 18.4% of visits to the top 1,000 sites in 2023, down from 21.8% in 2022. This suggests that older consumers were particularly likely to return to in-store shopping as the pandemic eased in 2023.

Larger retailers are more likely to offer a mobile app than smaller ones, and app store operators are more likely to offer omnichannel services: in 2023, 33.0% of retailers with a mobile app offered curbside pickup compared with 13.5% of those without an app, and 87.0% offered in-store pickup for online orders compared with 50.4% of those without an app.

The top 1000 accounted for 19.2% of global retail e-commerce sales in 2023, unchanged from a year earlier. Amazon alone accounted for 7.4% of global retail e-commerce sales in 2023, up from 7.2% in 2022.

What else will we find in this year’s Top 1000 report?

The Top 1000/Top 500 report includes all of the following:

Top 1,000 growth by retailer type and product category, 2023 vs. 2022 comparison, and five-year analysis from 2019 to 2023

Website traffic trends, broken down by merchant type, product category, gender, and age.

Average order value and conversion rate by merchant type and product category.

Analysis of the winners and losers of the 500 largest North American retailers by global online sales, 2024.

Mobile traffic and sales for the top 1000 e-commerce sites.

International shipping methods, payment types, and shopping features from the top 1000 sites.

Which online sales platforms do the top 1,000 retailers sell on, divided by seller type and product category.

Analysis of multi-channel retail service offerings, including in-store pickup of online orders, curbside pickup, and presentation of store assortments on retail chains’ websites.

How digital brands are doing online.

Are you classified in our databases?

Send us your details and we will check what place you will take in our next ranking.

Sign up

Stay up to date with the latest developments in e-commerce. Sign up for a free subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, TwitterFacebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.