Shopify and Amazon’s Growing Sellers, Not Commands: Extensive Market Insights

Extensiv – a provider of omnichannel software solutions for warehousing, logistics and order management – ​​today announced a summary of key findings from its 2Q 2024 Market Insights survey that analyzes order volume trends and dynamics. sellers on various ecommerce platforms. 2Q data shows a more complex picture of the ecommerce sector, with Amazon and Shopify seeing a decrease in the number of sellers despite an increase in the number of sellers. This trend suggests market saturation where the flow of new sellers is not matched by a commensurate growth in orders. The overall drop in orders also indicates that consumers are being more careful with their spending. However, some smaller markets have seen growth in sellers and orders per seller, indicating that ecommerce products are diversifying sales channels.

The 2Q 2024 Market Insights survey is based on data from Extensiv’s proprietary platform. Extensiv Market Insights, launched in 2022, provides order quality trends for leading retailers such as Amazon, Shopify, and other marketplaces based on data from the Extensiv platform, which analyzes over millions of orders 170 per year from over 10,000 online retailers. This enables brands to mark their results in the wider ecommerce landscape. To access Extensiv’s custom insights, visit www.extensiv.com/market-insights.

Highlights from 2Q 2024 Extensive Market Insights:

• Amazon Sellers Are Suffering for Order Volume: The data shows that while orders per Amazon seller fell 7% compared to 2Q23, the number of sellers rose 18% in the same period year-over-year (YoY). Additionally, there was a 22% decrease in orders per seller compared to 1Q24, despite a 6% increase in sellers quarter on quarter (QoQ). These trends suggest an increasingly crowded and competitive market for sellers, and demand has not risen proportionately. This marks a sharp turnaround after 6 consecutive quarters of double-digit volume growth, indicating that consumers may be pulling back on spending.
• Amazon Prime Day Results: Amazon reported an 11% increase in sales compared to last year’s Prime Day. However, Exteniv’s market data suggests a noticeable trend where the number of orders as a whole grew, but individual sellers did not experience the same level of business growth. Extensiv followed a 15% year-over-year increase in orders and a 14% increase in the number of sellers during Amazon Prime Day, resulting in just a 1% increase in orders across all sellers. This means that even though the market is flooding with new models, the increase in orders may not go well for these newcomers.
• Shopify Sellers Skyrocket. Shopify experienced an 8% decline in seller orders YoY, with a massive 36% YoY increase for sellers. While sellers also increased over 1Q24 by 8%, Shopify customers saw orders decrease by 13% QoQ. This increase in the number of sellers, which is not compared to the number of orders, points to a competitive environment where differentiation and innovation are the keys to success for sellers.
• Other Markets Gained Share. All other marketplaces, such as eBay, Walmart, and Etsy, saw an increase of 11% YoY in their number of orders per seller and an increase of 8% QoQ. The number of dealers also increased 17% YoY and 5% QoQ. As many brands are struggling to grow revenue and maintain sales YoY, this approach identifies the various types of their markets, managing and improving profit opportunities and differentiation.

“With nearly a third of consumers reporting a decrease in spending in Q2, we see consumers being cautious amid economic uncertainty,” said Aaron Stead, president of Extensiv. “Current market conditions mean that ecommerce brands must innovate and expand beyond traditional platforms to be successful, explore different markets and add new sales channels to maximize network management opportunities and access to new customer segments. We’re also seeing brands seek more savings, through pricing and customer engagement, to offset any profit erosion they see in competitive markets. .”