When it comes to selling general merchandise online, Amazon dominates the field, accounting for 56% of the traffic share to the top 10 most-visited sites from January to April 2017, according to a report from SimilarWeb.
Amazon’s share far outpaces the combined traffic of eBay (23%) and Walmart (9%), the second- and third-most-visited general merchandise sites.
Apparel Remains Competitive Despite Department Stores’ Struggles
Although department stores have had difficulty adapting to recent shifts in shopper trends, they still manage to draw in more online traffic than other brands selling apparel. But the apparel market remains quite competitive. Macy’s boasts a 21.7% traffic share, but this is the second-lowest traffic share for a category leader of the eight verticals reviewed. Following closely behind Macy’s are:
Advertisement
-
Kohl’s (16%);
-
JCPenney (12.3%); and
-
Nordstrom (11.6%).
The study also revealed that the marketing mix for generating site traffic varies enormously for each apparel retailer:
-
42% of search traffic to kohls.com arrives directly from a search bar;
-
49% of search traffic to jcpenney.com is paid search; and
-
54% of nordstrom.com users come from mobile, the highest in the top five apparel companies.
Nike Tops Traffic Share For Sporting Goods Supremacy
Nike (28%) led traffic share in the Sporting Goods category, well ahead of second place Dick’s Sporting Goods (17.4%). The other Sporting Goods brands seeing significant traffic include:
-
Adidas (12.7%);
-
Finish Line (10%);
-
Academy Sports + Outdoors (9.7%); and
-
Under Armour (6.1%).
Nike.com sponsored the U.S. Olympic track and field teams and numerous athletes in the 2016 Rio Summer Games, which delivered a huge boost to the site last August. Adidas, on the other hand, received a massive traffic spike from the launch of Kanye West’s line of Yeezy sneakers. On the day of Yeezy sneaker releases, traffic was 106% greater than on an average day.
The U.S. Retail Trends and Insights 2017 report, conducted by digital market intelligence company SimilarWeb, studied the digital performance of major retailers across eight sub-categories: General Merchandise, Home & Garden, Consumer Electronics, Apparel, Beauty, Sporting Goods, Food & Beverage and Outdoor & Hunting.
