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The State of Custom Cart in 2024

Updated Dec 20 2024

Custom Cart is a term used to refer to any merchant who has a custom implementation of their online store, as opposed to using the standard offering of a platform such as Shopify. Nike.com is an example of a website that would be classified as a Custom Cart.

Custom Cart also includes merchants using a custom (or headless) website in front of a platform like Shopify. In these cases, we still try to determine if the website is using a well-known platform and map it to the platform if possible. In some cases, it is not possible to determine if a well-known platform is used by a custom implementation.

Finally, Custom Cart also includes merchants using a platform that is not yet supported by Store Leads. New ecommerce platforms are introduced regularly and though we support over 200 platforms, some newer (or smaller) platforms are not yet supported. Stores on these platforms are often classified as Custom Cart.

In this report, we'll cover the following essential statistics on Custom Cart usage.

Download a complete list of Custom Cart stores with a paid account.
Create a free account to get a feel for the data we provide.

Custom Cart Growth

At present, there are 1,661,248 live stores running on the Custom Cart platform.

Here is the historical growth of stores running Custom Cart.

  • Custom Cart stores decreased -7.5% quarter-over-quarter in 2024 Q3.
  • Custom Cart stores increased 15% year-over-year in 2024 Q3.
Quarter
Active Stores
2021 Q2
532,797
2021 Q3
910,480
2021 Q4
1,320,646
2022 Q1
1,295,047
2022 Q2
1,376,857
2022 Q3
1,445,227
2022 Q4
1,469,468
2023 Q1
1,369,875
2023 Q2
1,475,224
2023 Q3
1,559,717
2023 Q4
1,630,535
2024 Q1
1,650,200
2024 Q2
1,699,331
2024 Q3
1,796,553
2024 Q4 (to date)
1,661,248
Active Stores by Quarter

Note: the store counts displayed in this section are based on actual historical store counts.

It's hard to know exactly when a Custom Cart store was first created but we use a heuristic that includes historical DNS data which provides a reasonable approximation.

Social Media Usage On Custom Cart Stores

Ecommerce brands use social media sites to engage with millions of consumers. Instagram and Facebook are the dominant social media sites for ecommerce stores, by far, with Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube also having notable usage.

  • Facebook is used by 29.5% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Instagram is used by 28.4% of Custom Cart stores.
  • YouTube is used by 10.6% of Custom Cart stores.
Type
Stores
Facebook
489,581
Instagram
472,349
YouTube
176,780
Twitter
165,999
LinkedIn
111,222
WhatsApp
74,959
Pinterest
49,912
Tiktok
34,860
Facebook Group
13,695
Yelp
12,252
Snapchat
1,210

Contact Information On Custom Cart Stores

Email remains an extremely popular communication channel for merchants. Many merchants also provide a phone number so that their customers can reach them instantly.

  • 51% of Custom Cart stores provide a phone number on their website
  • 45% of Custom Cart stores have an email on their website
Type
Stores
Phone
841,245
Email
748,919

Top Categories For Custom Cart Stores

Here is the breakdown of industry verticals for stores on Custom Cart.

  • 4.6% of Custom Cart stores sell Apparel products.
  • 4.3% of Custom Cart stores sell Home & Garden products.
  • 3.3% of Custom Cart stores sell Food & Drink products.

Top Countries For Custom Cart Stores

Here are the top countries for stores using Custom Cart.

  • 17.0% of Custom Cart stores are in United States
  • 5.9% of Custom Cart stores are in Russian Federation
  • 3.5% of Custom Cart stores are in Germany
  • 3.2% of Custom Cart stores are in United Kingdom
Country
Stores
282,896
58,738
39,192
34,800
31,788
26,005

With a paid account, stores can also be segmented by region and city.

Number Of Employees For Custom Cart Stores

Here is the breakdown of Custom Cart stores by the number of employees.

  • 96.1% of Custom Cart stores have Unknown employees.
  • 1.1% of Custom Cart stores have 1 - 9 employees.
  • 0.5% of Custom Cart stores have 10 - 24 employees.
Employees
Stores
Unknown
1,596,853
1 - 9
19,104
10 - 24
9,135
25 - 49
6,635
50 - 99
6,598
100 - 249
8,001
250 - 999
8,073
1000 - 4999
4,648
5000+
2,201

Number Of Products Sold For Custom Cart Stores

Here is the breakdown of Custom Cart stores by the number of products that they sell.

  • 25.8% of Custom Cart stores sell 1 - 9 different products.
  • 7.4% of Custom Cart stores sell 100 - 249 different products.
  • 7.0% of Custom Cart stores sell 250 - 999 different products.
Products Sold
Stores
1 - 9
427,871
10 - 24
95,761
25 - 49
97,398
50 - 99
29,476
100 - 249
122,999
250 - 999
115,503
1000 - 4999
57,291
5000 - 9999
18,717
10000 - 24999
22,011
25000 - 99999
15,660

Top Technologies on Custom Cart Stores

We're tracking 749 different technologies that have 6,459,922 collective installs on Custom Cart stores.

  • Google Tag Manager is used by 46.3% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Google Adsense is used by 43.4% of Custom Cart stores.
  • reCAPTCHA is used by 29.2% of Custom Cart stores.

Here are the top 10 third-party technologies, ordered by number of installs, across all Custom Cart stores.

Technology
Stores
720,668
485,206
417,496
367,205
283,933
268,721

Top Shipping Carriers Used By Custom Cart Stores

  • UPS is used by 2.9% of Custom Cart stores.
  • USPS is used by 2.7% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Fedex is used by 1.7% of Custom Cart stores.

Here are the top 10 shipping carriers across all Custom Cart stores.

Shipping Carrier
Stores
UPS
48,112
USPS
44,144
Fedex
28,793
Royal Mail
9,483
Japan Post
7,867
Correios
4,360
DHL
4,329
Correos
3,188
Canada Post
2,997
Australia Post
2,935

Custom Cart Store Top-level Domain Distribution

.com is the most popular top-level domain for Custom Cart stores. This is not surprising since alternate top-level domains have only been introduced somewhat recently and there is still a certain cachet associated with .com domains.

That said, you'll find stark regional differences in certain countries. In Australia, .com.au is the most common top-level domain with .com a close second. This is the exception however as .com domains dominate in virtually all other countries.

  • 43.6% of Custom Cart stores have a .com domain.
  • 5.3% of Custom Cart stores have a .ru domain.
  • 4.5% of Custom Cart stores have a .shop domain.
Top-level Domain
Stores
.com
724,685
.ru
87,841
.shop
74,672
.de
53,762
.co.uk
37,555
.com.br
36,203
.cz
35,162
.net
34,111
.store
25,909
.org
25,625

Top Custom Cart Stores

Here are the top stores, powered by Custom Cart, ordered by store rank.

Name
Domain
Rank
Created
Amazon
1
2016/12/30
Walmart
2
2016/12/30
eBay
3
2016/12/30
Target
4
2016/12/30
Etsy
5
2016/12/30

New Custom Cart Stores

Here are the 0 highest-ranked stores added most recently.

Name
Domain
Rank
Created
Tennessee Glamping
110,094
2024/12/20
www.slopemagazine.com
128,472
2024/12/20
Pacific Motorsports, Eureka CA
223,329
2024/12/20
www.kirbyssupersports.com
269,726
2024/12/20
森半tea&coffee
tea-and-coffee.shop
280,456
2024/12/20

Stores Switching to Custom Cart From Other Platforms

Over the last 90 days, Custom Cart has taken 19,460 merchants from competitive ecommerce platforms.

Platform
Stores
5,538
2,118
1,546
1,155
1,031
1,016
756
669
618
480

Here are the top stores that have switched to Custom Cart from competitive ecommerce platforms.

Name
Domain
Rank
Last Platform
Changed
to Costco Wholesale
7
HCL Commerce
2024/11/23
Official LEGO® Shop US
41
VTEX
2024/11/29
Barnes & Noble®
51
Oracle Commerce
2024/12/20
Vans®
123
HCL Commerce
2024/11/25
JOANN
127
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/11/18

Stores Switching from Custom Cart To Other Platforms

Over the last 90 days, Custom Cart has lost 88,901 merchants to competitive platforms.

Platform
Stores
44,920
10,068
5,351
5,038
3,764
1,738
1,547
1,488
1,349
1,335

Here are the top Custom Cart stores that have recently changed to a competitive platform.

Name
Domain
Rank
New Platform
Changed
New Balance
54
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/12/10
Furniture & Decor
119
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/12/21
Five Below
135
Spree Commerce
2024/12/03
Rite Aid
138
Magento
2024/12/12
Bass Pro Shops
210
HCL Commerce
2024/12/18

Get more insights on Custom Cart stores

Our search interface is easy to use and helps you find the Custom Cart stores that are relevant to you.

You can segment stores on a variety of dimensions:

  • Social Media accounts
  • Email address
  • Phone numbers
  • Country
  • Third-party technologies
  • Creation date
  • Platform
  • Top-level domains
  • Domain status
  • Domain type
Filter stores on social media presence
Filter on stores with Facebook accounts.

For more insights on Custom Cart stores, create a free account and have a look for yourself.