Meet July’s Top 10 U.S. Web Brands

By Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_)  

U.S. consumers spent roughly $184 billion on eCommerce purchases using their desktop computers during 2012, but this figure is expected to rise even higher in the coming years as mobile technology blossoms and more shoppers migrate online.

The result is escalating competition between established U.S. eCommerce giants, who must compete not only against their existing competitors in the space, but also new entrants garnering multibillion-dollar valuations to disrupt the industry. In the ensuing fray, it can be difficult to discern who is the top dog.

Nielsen, however, has provided new insight into this ongoing drama in a September report that ranked the performance of online mass merchandisers in July. For the study, researchers evaluated major eCommerce players on key metrics such as unique audience and time spent per page.

The verdict? When it comes to eCommerce, there’s Amazon and the rest.

In this PYMNTS.com Data Point, we’ll break down Nielsen’s “Surfing and Shopping: Top U.S. Web Brands And Mass Merchandiser Sites” to reveal new truths about the online shopping market and how its big-name participants are faring with consumers.

A Look At Amazon’s July Performance

Nielsen found that during the study period Amazon was the top brand in the mass merchandiser category, garnering 78 million unique visitors. Each visitor spent an average of 30 minutes shopping and searching on the site.

As this chart illustrates, Amazon had double the unique audience of its nearest competitor – Walmart – in July, and more than triple that of the third-place entrant, Target.

Best Of The Rest

Though Amazon had a sizeable lead in both unique audience and time spent per page, it does have viable competitors. Etsy garnered an average time spent per page of nearly 20 minutes during the study period. This marked a strong showing from a company that is more than 10 years Amazon’s junior.

Likewise, Walmart showed encouraging signs of growth considering it has largely struggled to reproduce its real-world success online. New studies show Walmart’s eCommerce revenue increased by 30 percent over the first half of 2013, and that its recent efforts to capture Amazon’s market share seem to be paying off..

Physical Retailers Make Presence Felt

Nielsen’s report indicated that when it comes to eCommerce, it isn’t just online-only businesses dominating the market. The top 10 included a host of familiar big-box retailers including Staples, Barnes & Noble and Costco.

For a more detailed look at the eCommerce market, read Nielsen’s full report here.