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The State of Custom Cart in 2024

Updated Nov 15 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 1,757,097 live stores running on the Custom Cart platform.

Here is the historical growth of stores running Custom Cart.

  • Custom Cart stores increased 10.1% quarter-over-quarter in 2024 Q3.
  • Custom Cart stores increased 53% 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)
1,757,097
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 28.1% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Instagram is used by 26.9% of Custom Cart stores.
  • YouTube is used by 9.8% of Custom Cart stores.
Type
Stores
Facebook
493,607
Instagram
472,505
YouTube
172,861
Twitter
166,200
LinkedIn
109,451
WhatsApp
76,122
Pinterest
49,500
Tiktok
33,767
Facebook Group
13,648
Yelp
12,341
Snapchat
1,234

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.

  • 49% of Custom Cart stores provide a phone number on their website
  • 47% of Custom Cart stores have an email on their website
Type
Stores
Phone
853,194
Email
828,899

Top Categories For Custom Cart Stores

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

  • 5.8% of Custom Cart stores sell Apparel products.
  • 5.6% of Custom Cart stores sell Home & Garden products.
  • 3.8% of Custom Cart stores sell Food & Drink products.

Top Countries For Custom Cart Stores

Here are the top countries for stores using Custom Cart.

  • 16.6% of Custom Cart stores are in United States
  • 5.7% of Custom Cart stores are in Russian Federation
  • 3.4% of Custom Cart stores are in Germany
  • 3.0% of Custom Cart stores are in United Kingdom
Country
Stores
291,190
59,535
40,113
36,890
31,999
26,964

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.

  • 96.4% 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
1,693,870
1 - 9
19,382
10 - 24
9,038
25 - 49
6,600
50 - 99
6,207
100 - 249
7,867
250 - 999
7,628
1000 - 4999
4,356
5000+
2,149

Number Of Products Sold For Custom Cart Stores

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

  • 24.7% of Custom Cart stores sell 1 - 9 different products.
  • 7.0% of Custom Cart stores sell 100 - 249 different products.
  • 6.5% of Custom Cart stores sell 250 - 999 different products.
Products Sold
Stores
1 - 9
433,755
10 - 24
97,405
25 - 49
99,632
50 - 99
29,944
100 - 249
123,722
250 - 999
114,833
1000 - 4999
56,961
5000 - 9999
18,672
10000 - 24999
21,942
25000 - 99999
16,018

Top Technologies on Custom Cart Stores

We're tracking 736 different technologies that have 6,762,636 collective installs on Custom Cart stores.

  • Google Tag Manager is used by 44.1% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Google Adsense is used by 41.3% of Custom Cart stores.
  • reCAPTCHA is used by 27.9% of Custom Cart stores.

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

Technology
Stores
726,387
490,733
415,407
365,312
359,311
326,807

Top Shipping Carriers Used By Custom Cart Stores

  • UPS is used by 4.2% of Custom Cart stores.
  • USPS is used by 4.0% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Fedex is used by 3.0% of Custom Cart stores.

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

Shipping Carrier
Stores
UPS
73,683
USPS
69,569
Fedex
53,154
Royal Mail
9,330
Japan Post
7,810
Correios
4,494
DHL
4,388
Correos
3,204
Australia Post
2,836
InPost
2,799

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.

  • 41.8% of Custom Cart stores have a .com domain.
  • 8.5% of Custom Cart stores have a .shop domain.
  • 5.1% of Custom Cart stores have a .ru domain.
Top-level Domain
Stores
.com
733,710
.shop
149,052
.ru
89,506
.de
54,576
.co.uk
37,626
.com.br
37,107
.cz
35,225
.net
34,402
.org
25,618
.store
24,585

Top Custom Cart Stores

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

Name
Domain
Rank
Created
Amazon.com
1
2016/12/30
Yahoo
2
2016/12/30
eBay
4
2016/12/30
Target
5
2016/12/30
Etsy
6
2016/12/30

New Custom Cart Stores

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

Name
Domain
Rank
Created
GATE
16,654
2024/11/15
MarppleShop
19,139
2024/11/15
Diabetes.shop
41,906
2024/11/15
Van Gogh Museum shop
46,886
2024/11/15
Big Deals Media
47,039
2024/11/15

Stores Switching to Custom Cart From Other Platforms

Over the last 90 days, Custom Cart has taken 25,610 merchants from competitive ecommerce platforms.

Platform
Stores
5,058
4,971
3,282
1,592
1,341
1,128
1,012
792
596
537

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

Name
Domain
Rank
Last Platform
Changed
to Costco Wholesale
10
HCL Commerce
2024/09/18
Barnes & NobleĀ®
51
Oracle Commerce
2024/11/16
PetSmart
67
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/09/24
Dollar General
76
Magento
2024/08/26
Bloomingdale's
178
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/10/16

Stores Switching from Custom Cart To Other Platforms

Over the last 90 days, Custom Cart has lost 78,537 merchants to competitive platforms.

Platform
Stores
41,399
7,931
5,087
3,877
2,652
1,594
1,528
1,524
1,070
1,000

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

Name
Domain
Rank
New Platform
Changed
Tractor Supply Co.
42
HCL Commerce
2024/09/09
New Balance
53
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/11/14
DIOR
99
Magento
2024/11/14
Furniture & Decor
121
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/10/28
Rite Aid
127
Magento
2024/11/07

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.