From Start-ups to ecommerce Giants: Statistics of 5 Best Online Stores in the US

The US ecommerce industry is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets. Every week, there are between 7,897–38,179 new American online stores—according to Store Leads—which is a 16% increase from 2020.

This means that every week, more online shopping sites are created in America than in Canada (551–6,136), the United Kingdom (528–11,041), and Australia (517–6,463).

Furthermore, the ecommerce market in the United States is diverse. 23% of the shopping websites are in the apparel market (414,001), 10% sell beauty and fitness products (175,939), while 9.8% are in the home and garden market.

What’s more, there are numerous hosting platforms to choose from, for instance:

• Shopify with 61% market share (1,099,499 stores)
• WooCommerce with 16% market share (286,113 stores)
• Custom ecommerce implementations with 4.8% market share (86,582 stores)
• Square Online with 3.8% market share (61,528 stores)
• Wix with 2.8% market share (47,620stores)

With over 1.7M online shopping sites in the US, competing through various platforms, applications, and in different market categories, we are going to be looking at the top performers:

• Kylie Cosmetics
• ModCloth
• Urban Outfitters
• Fashion Nova
• Under Armour

The Rise and Rise of Kylie Cosmetics

Four years after founding Kylie Cosmetics, Kylie Jenner sold 51% of her stake to Coty Inc for $600M.

Back in 2015, when Kylie Jenner set out to establish a cosmetics brand, she started with Kylie Lip Kits. Armed with social media and an online shopping site now hosted by Shopify, Kylie Jenner created a billion-dollar brand in four years—she was 22 years old at the time.

Running the Kylie Cosmetics website are apps like:

• Afterpay, a financial tool that lets you buy today but pay later in four equal installments
• Klaviyo, an SMS and email marketing platform that automates campaigns for ecommerce

More statistics and data on Kylie Cosmetics:

• Store Leads estimates Kylie Cosmetics’ sales to be over $80 million/month. This is from the 242 different beauty products sold on the website.
• Kylie Cosmetics switched from a standard Shopify store to a headless ecommerce implementation, backed by Shopify, on July 19, 2021.
• Kylie Cosmetics has 25M followers on Instagram. This is an increase of 1M from 2020 when it had 24M Instagram followers.

• Kylie Cosmetics has 4,151,412 Facebook followers. This is a 9% increase from 3.8M Facebook followers in 2020.

ModCloth, Shopify’s #2 on Women’s Clothing

In July 2021, ModCloth jumped from Shopify rank #16 to rank #2

When Susan Gregg started ModCloth in 2002, she was simply looking to sell her preloved vintage clothing. Today, ModCloth employs 285 people and is your one-stop-shop for women’s clothing at affordable prices. The average product price is $48 with 4,533 products sold.

At the heart of ModCloth’s website are applications like:

• CJ Network Integration, an affiliate marketing network specializing in pay-for-performance programs that drive results for ecommerce businesses.

• Kustomer, an omnichannel customer relationship management tool.

• Shogun Landing Page Builder, a drag-and-drop store builder for Shopify used to design blogs, product pages, etc.

• Yotpo, an app used to collect product and site reviews to drive traffic and boost conversions.
• Hotjar, an app that lets retailers see how visitors are using their website.

 Here are some more ModCloth statistics:

• ModCloth makes over $20 million in monthly sales and ranks 2nd on Shopify. This is 2nd out of 45,204 US online clothing stores specializing in women’s outfits.
• ModCloth rose from rank 16 to rank 2 in one month—July 2021. In the same month, ModCloth installed Hotjar, an app that monitors website usage and collects feedback.
• ModCloth has 2,511,529 Pinterest followers. This is a rise from 2,404,545 followers as of 9th April 2020.

• ModCloth has 720,104 Instagram followers. This is a rise from 671,988 as of March 12th, 2020.

3 Statistics That Make Urban Outfitters One of the Best Online Shopping Sites

From its humble beginnings across the street from the University of Pennsylvania, Urban Outfitters is now among the top online shopping websites.

Using a custom ecommerce implementation, Urban Outfitters sells 49,437 products (according to Store Leads). To maximize sales, this online store uses the following apps:

App	Function	Date installed
Afterpay	A financial app that lets shoppers buy today then pay later in four equal installments, interest-free.	July 3, 2021
Dynamic Yield	An omnichannel personalization platform that delivers individualized experiences at each customer contact point.	July 3, 2021
Telium	Enables an online store to collect, control and manage customer data	July 20, 2021
reCAPTCHA	A free service that protects websites from spam and abuse.	July 3, 2021

Source: Store Leads

Here are 3 statistics on Urban Outfitters:

• Urban Outfitters is the 22nd ranked store in the Store Leads database. A rise from rank 25 (as of July 22, 2020) and after installing Afterpay, Dynamic Yield, and Tealium.
• Urban Outfitters sells 49,437 different products with an average product price of $32 which is affordable.
• In two months(Jun–July 2021), Urban Outfitters gained 7,300 TikTok followers. This is a 9.9% increase.

Fashion Nova, Shopify’s Number 1 in Apparel

Fashion Nova has been Shopify’s number 1 apparel brand since 2019.

When Richard Saghian founded Fashion Nova in 2006, he envisioned a quick-to-market fashion brand with affordable clothing. Today, Fashion Nova’s average product price is $16.85 from a catalog of 178,472 products. This makes Fashion Nova one of the cheapest online shopping sites for designer clothes.

To manage its website, Fashion Nova relies on these apps:

• Shoppable Instagram & UGC (installed on January 22, 2019), an app that lets retailers tag products photos on Instagram and leads back to the retailer’s ecommerce website.
• Instant Search and Filter (installed on January 22, 2019), a search & merchandising app used on the Shopify platform.
• PushOwl (installed on January 22, 2019), a push notification app used for abandoned cart recovery.
• Rapid inSITE (installed on November 10, 2020), a free analytics tool that measures website performance and the impact of 3rd party elements.
• Tapcart (installed on April 28, 2021), a SaaS platform that enables Shopify merchants to create shopping apps without coding.

Here are some more Fashion Nova statistics:

• According to Store Leads, Fashion Nova spends at least $309/month on Shopify apps. Since March 2021, this has been spent between 6 apps.
• Fashion Nova is the #1 apparel brand on Shopify. This has been consistent since August 2019.
• Fashion Nova has 20M Instagram followers which is a 9.6% increase from 2020.
• Fashion Nova has 2.5M TikTok followers which is a 40% increase from 2020.
• Fashion Nova has 2.7M Facebook followers which is a 12.9% increase from 2020.

2020	2021	Gains
Instagram followers	18,318,684	20,270,172	9.6%
TikTok followers	1,500,000	2,500,000	40%
Facebook followers	2,414,792	2,773,812	12.9%

Source: Store Leads

Under Armour, a Model Online Store

When Kevin Plank founded Under Armour back in 1996, he owed $40,000 in credit card debt. Today, Under Armour employs 9,091 people and is a top online shopping destination for athletic wear.

Behind the Under Armour website are the following apps:

App	Function	Date installed
Apple Pay	Makes contactless, secure purchases in stores, in apps, and on the web.	May 20, 2021
CQuotient	Enables retailers to deliver uniquely tailored messages to every customer at any interaction	August 6, 2020
Cloudflare CDN	A content delivery network that makes websites run faster	June 8, 2021
Curalate	Lets retailers use social content and audiences to sell more effectively online.	August 6, 2020
Klarna	A financial platform that enables customers to shop online and pay for products after receiving them.	May 27, 2021
Tealium	Enables companies to collect, control and manage customer data.	July 19, 2021
Zendesk	A customer relationship management tool for small and large businesses.	April 13, 2021
Borderfree	Provides the shopping cart software that processes payments for overseas shipping.	April 13, 2021

Source: Store Leads

• Under Armour ranks 8th on the Salesforce Commerce Cloud, this is up from rank 18 (as of March 18, 2021) within 4 months. In this period, Under Armour installed Apple Pay, Cloud CDN, Tealium, Zendesk, and Boarderfree.
• Under Armour sells 79,629 different products with an average product price of $13.56. Under Armour is one of the most affordable online clothing stores.
• Under Armour has 8,579,073 Instagram followers, a 6% rise from 8,090,334 followers on Oct 1, 2020.

• Under Armour has 11,143,332 Facebook followers. This is a consistent 6% increase from 10,510,088 as of Sep 26,2019.

What is common with the leading ecommerce stores is their strategy:

Effective applications and technology

The best ecommerce websites rely on multiple applications with different capabilities. These apps are updated and replaced frequently to ensure effectiveness and relevance.

Strong social media presence

The leading shopping websites have a strong social media presence. They have a large following on multiple platforms which they maintain by consistent and engaging content. From influencers, product launches to celebrity endorsements, they keep their followers engaged.

Favorable platform ranking

What is common among the top websites is their platform ranking, this is their stores’ ranking against all the other brands on the platform. A higher rank means more visibility and translates into better performance.

This is how to become a top performer.

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