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The State of Custom Cart in 2024

Updated Mar 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 1,644,547 live stores running on the Custom Cart platform.

Here is the historical growth of stores running Custom Cart.

  • Custom Cart stores increased 12.8% quarter-over-quarter in 2023 Q4.
  • Custom Cart stores increased 72% year-over-year in 2023 Q4.
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 (to date)
1,644,547
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 30.6% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Instagram is used by 27.5% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Twitter is used by 10.4% of Custom Cart stores.
Type
Stores
Facebook
502,599
Instagram
452,790
Twitter
171,582
YouTube
166,088
LinkedIn
104,231
WhatsApp
76,616
Pinterest
52,498
Tiktok
30,648
Facebook Group
13,754
Yelp
11,642
Snapchat
1,298

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.

  • 50% of Custom Cart stores provide a phone number on their website
  • 44% of Custom Cart stores have an email on their website
Type
Stores
Phone
820,158
Email
727,042

Top Categories For Custom Cart Stores

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

  • 4.9% of Custom Cart stores sell Apparel products.
  • 4.6% of Custom Cart stores sell Home & Garden products.
  • 3.7% of Custom Cart stores sell Food & Drink products.

Top Countries For Custom Cart Stores

Here are the top countries for stores using Custom Cart.

  • 16.9% of Custom Cart stores are in United States
  • 6.2% of Custom Cart stores are in Russian Federation
  • 3.7% of Custom Cart stores are in Germany
  • 3.3% of Custom Cart stores are in United Kingdom
Country
Stores
277,597
61,430
38,554
33,424
25,786
25,662

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.

  • 95.8% of Custom Cart stores have Unknown employees.
  • 1.7% of Custom Cart stores have 1 - 9 employees.
  • 0.6% of Custom Cart stores have 10 - 24 employees.
Employees
Stores
Unknown
1,575,032
1 - 9
27,179
10 - 24
9,054
25 - 49
6,462
50 - 99
6,070
100 - 249
7,608
250 - 999
6,756
1000 - 4999
4,478
5000+
1,908

Number Of Products Sold For Custom Cart Stores

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

  • 26.3% of Custom Cart stores sell 1 - 9 different products.
  • 7.8% of Custom Cart stores sell 100 - 249 different products.
  • 7.3% of Custom Cart stores sell 250 - 999 different products.
Products Sold
Stores
1 - 9
432,674
10 - 24
100,387
25 - 49
102,628
50 - 99
30,829
100 - 249
128,639
250 - 999
119,624
1000 - 4999
59,415
5000 - 9999
19,687
10000 - 24999
23,527
25000 - 99999
16,675

Top Technologies on Custom Cart Stores

We're tracking 646 different technologies that have 5,767,296 collective installs on Custom Cart stores.

  • Google Tag Manager is used by 43.9% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Google Adsense is used by 42.0% of Custom Cart stores.
  • reCAPTCHA is used by 32.9% of Custom Cart stores.

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

Technology
Stores
690,090
541,280
378,582
341,501
279,243
237,461
233,520

Top Shipping Carriers Used By Custom Cart Stores

  • UPS is used by 3.0% of Custom Cart stores.
  • USPS is used by 2.8% of Custom Cart stores.
  • Fedex is used by 1.8% of Custom Cart stores.

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

Shipping Carrier
Stores
UPS
48,699
USPS
45,665
Fedex
29,455
Royal Mail
10,032
Japan Post
7,415
Correios
4,734
DHL
4,281
Australia Post
3,228
Correos
3,172
Canada Post
2,691

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.

  • 44.6% of Custom Cart stores have a .com domain.
  • 5.6% of Custom Cart stores have a .ru domain.
  • 3.8% of Custom Cart stores have a .shop domain.
Top-level Domain
Stores
.com
733,980
.ru
92,490
.shop
62,197
.de
56,587
.co.uk
37,439
.net
37,106
.com.br
35,602
.cz
33,115
.org
23,984
.store
23,815

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
The Depot
3
2016/12/30
Target
4
2016/12/30
eBay
5
2016/12/30

New Custom Cart Stores

Here are the 5 highest-ranked stores added most recently.

Name
Domain
Rank
Created
www.peoplesbankofky.com
142,968
2024/03/15
Monte Carlo Fan Lights
184,403
2024/03/15
Akvarel
196,601
2024/03/15
Joyful Expressions
251,133
2024/03/15
Nature`s Way
264,401
2024/03/15

Stores Switching to Custom Cart From Other Platforms

Over the last 90 days, Custom Cart has taken 23,855 merchants from competitive ecommerce platforms.

Platform
Stores
7,137
5,920
1,624
1,412
847
780
701
701
699

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

Name
Domain
Rank
Last Platform
Changed
Weedmaps
209
weedmaps
2024/03/11
COACH®️ Outlet Official Site
223
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/01/15
Zales
292
SAP Commerce Cloud
2024/03/11
AJC.com
331
Shopify
2024/02/16
Alexander McQueen
385
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/02/05

Stores Switching from Custom Cart To Other Platforms

Over the last 90 days, Custom Cart has lost 43,009 merchants to competitive platforms.

Platform
Stores
10,954
5,730
5,385
2,173
1,400
1,321
884
875
800

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

Name
Domain
Rank
New Platform
Changed
COACH® Official Site
95
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/02/26
Five Below
110
Spree Commerce
2024/03/14
Traeger Grills®
271
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2024/02/16
Hanes
593
Magento
2024/03/15
Trulieve
647
Magento
2024/01/17

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.