Glossary

Unless otherwise noted, data is collected, analyzed and estimated by Digital Commerce 360 researchers.

ELIGIBILITY

To qualify for Digital Commerce 360’s retail rankings, merchants must operate their own ecommerce website selling physical goods and not just list products on marketplace platforms as third-party sellers. Their parent company’s headquarters also must be located in the designated region for a given ranked list of retailers.

Retailers that primarily offer the following are excluded from rankings:

• Digital goods (i.e. downloadable software or games, streaming services, music, e-books, etc.)
• Services (i.e. food delivery, salons, car washes, activities, classes, etc.)
• Ticketing (i.e. concerts, museum entrance/special exhibits, events, etc.)
• Travel (i.e. flights, hotels, travel packages, excursions, etc.)
• B2B products and services
• Coupon websites and comparison-shopping engines
• Classifieds

Retailers in the following categories are eligible for the rankings:

• Auto merchants selling tires, parts and accessories (vs. those that sell vehicles themselves — as vehicles still largely need to be purchased in person)
• Secondhand goods merchants that take possession of used inventory and resell items are listed in our retailer databases. Secondhand goods marketplaces must facilitate payments to be included in our marketplace rankings, so classified sites like Craigslist do not qualify. 
• Hybrid marketplaces, or retailers that both sell their own products directly to consumers and have a marketplace arm that allows third-party sellers to also list products on the retail website, qualify for both retailer and marketplace rankings

SOURCING

Whenever possible, sales figures and key operations data (i.e. average order value, conversion rate, etc.) are reported by the retailer directly — including through the following sources:

• Public company filings
• Earnings call transcripts
• Other company reports (i.e. press releases, investor presentations, etc.)
• Financial surveys
• On- and off-the-record interviews
• And more

At times, actual data may be unavailable — whether a private retailer declines to report its revenue or a public retailer doesn’t break out ecommerce revenue or provide any guidance, for example. If figures aren’t disclosed, Digital Commerce 360 conducts extensive research and estimates those numbers, which are sourced accordingly.

Researchers study a variety of factors to inform estimates including the following:

• Performance of the overall market
• Performance of individual public retailers — especially ones selling in the same category or with a similar business model
• Client data from technology companies with insight into online transactions
• Merchandise category trends
• Traffic patterns to ecommerce websites
• Retail shipment volume
• Discounting levels and price fluctuation
• Shifts in average order value
• Shifts in conversion rate
• Marketing campaigns
• Anonymous retailer and consumer surveys
• Editorial interviews with retailers, consultants and vendors
• And more

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All retailers are given several opportunities to update their company listing and provide financial data. They also are asked to view and adjust any Digital Commerce 360 estimates. Please see below for how to update or upload your company data. 

Global Ecommerce Data Submission Form

Global Online Marketplace Data Submission Form

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COMPANY INFO

Rank: Ranking a retailer received among all ranked merchants in a list — not just within its primary merchandise category — as determined by the most recent year’s annual web sales figures for retailers, or third-party GMV for marketplaces.

Parent Company: The name of the company that owns or has controlling interest in a given retailer. In some cases, this will be the same as the retailer’s company name since the merchant operates independently. In other cases, the parent company name will be different as the merchant is one of multiple subsidiaries — whether retail or non-retail businesses — owned by one larger corporation.

Public Company: A retailer that is a publicly traded — rather than a private — company. This means it lists on an exchange and makes its shares available for trading in public markets. This also means the merchant generally is required to make certain financial disclosures.

RETAILER SUMMARY

URL(s): A list of the websites owned and operated by a retailer. Excludes country-specific URLs operated to expand the primary brand’s reach to international markets.

Year Ecommerce Launched: Year a retailer launched ecommerce operations with a website that allows consumers to order products and complete payment online.

Merchant Type: Primary classification for a retailer’s business model, usually reflecting the merchant’s main sales channel. All retailers are bucketed in one of four merchant types. Web-only retailers sell primarily online with few or no brick-and-mortar stores. Retail chains sell online but generate most of their sales through their network of brick-and-mortar stores. Consumer brand manufacturers’ defining characteristic is that they design and produce their own line of products and sell online, but they can have a variety of primary revenue streams — their own ecommerce websites, their own physical stores, print catalogs, wholesale arrangements with other retailers, etc. If a retailer manufactures and sells primarily its own brand, the merchant type will default to consumer brand manufacturer as this attribute trumps the main sales channels that define other merchant types. Direct marketers sell online but generate most of their sales through channels other than ecommerce websites or physical stores — like print catalogs, call centers that take orders for home shopping networks or infomercials, etc. — and don’t primarily sell their own brand of products.

Merchandise Category: Primary type of merchandise sold, representing the high-level cohort to which a retailer belongs. All retailers are bucketed in one of 14 categories.

Merchandise Subcategory: Primary type of merchandise sold, representing the more granular cohort to which a retailer belongs. All retailers are bucketed in one of roughly 100 subcategories.

Rank in Category: Ranking a retailer received within its primary merchandise category as determined by the most recent year’s annual web sales figures.

Digitally Native Vertical Brand: A consumer brand manufacturer that was founded as a direct-to-consumer company selling its own products to shoppers via its ecommerce website and not in its own brick-and-mortar stores or through other retailers offering its products through a wholesale agreement. The brand, often called a DNVB, may since have expanded its operations to include some physical locations or entered into wholesale agreements. But it is a digital native and remains focused on consumers’ online experience.

Subscription Model: A retailer’s primary business model is centered around shoppers signing up for recurring orders that arrive monthly, quarterly, etc. Most products or bundles sold online are offered through subscriptions, although one-off items may be sold as individual, one-time purchases. Shoppers often have the flexibility of pausing charges and postponing shipments if needed. Includes curated boxes of apparel, cosmetics, books, food and beverage, etc., that rotate items each order cycle — whether or not the retailer allows consumers to select any of the products. Also includes meal kits with recurring plan options. Includes recurring, auto-shipped orders for the same consumable products that need replenishing on a frequent basis, or auto-replenishment, if this is the retailer’s primary business model and is available on most of its products sold online — not just a service offered for some items. There is overlap between retailers with a subscription model and those offering auto-replenishment, but some merchants fall in one bucket but not the other depending on the primary business model and the type of products sold. Also includes retailers that offer product rental programs if they are recurring. Any retailer marked “partial” for subscription model offers at least one subscription plan but doesn’t rely on that model as the foundation of the business. Often, these merchants started as traditional retailers but later added a subscription plan to its offerings.

Luxury: A retailer’s primary business model is centered around selling high-end, luxury goods. Their products are typically marketed as high-quality, exclusive, designer items that are an indulgence and part of a certain lifestyle rather than necessities. While a product’s price point is one indicator, high-ticket items aren’t necessarily luxury goods, as appliances, TVs and computers, for example, are generally expensive but aren’t classified as luxury. Rather, a product’s more expensive price point relative to the price range of its subcategory is more telling of its luxury status. There is overlap between retailers with luxury status and those in the high-fashion subcategory within the apparel/accessories category. High-fashion retailers are usually major fashion houses that frequent the runway and don’t generally offer their products in department stores, so all of these merchants sell luxury products. But not all luxury apparel/accessories retailers necessarily fall in the high-fashion subcategory, as some higher-end items are sold in department stores and aren’t from major fashion houses that frequent the runway. The following categories and subcategories are eligible for luxury status:

• Apparel/accessories
  • Apparel accessories
  • Bridal
  • Custom apparel
  • General apparel
  • Handbags
  • High fashion
  • Men
  • Outerwear
  • Shoes
  • Specialty apparel
  • Women
• Health/beauty
  • Contacts/eyewear
  • Cosmetics/skincare/haircare
  • Fragrance
• Housewares/home furnishings
  • Accessories/home décor
  • Decorative lighting/lamps
  • Furniture
  • Kitchen/bath/linens
  • Outdoor living
• Jewelry
  • Fine jewelry
  • Watches
• Specialty
  • Baby gear
  • Luggage

Used/Second-Hand Goods: A retailer offering at least one used/second-hand product in its online inventory. Includes merchants with a primary business model centered around selling pre-owned items like designer handbags, authenticated luxury watches, collectible sneakers, etc., that were originally purchased from other retailers. Also includes merchants that resell at least some of their own pre-owned merchandise. Any retailer marked “partial” for used/second-hand goods sells at least one product that’s pre-owned but doesn’t rely on that model as the foundation of the business.

Buy-Back/Trade-In Program: A retailer allowing consumers to return at least some products they’ve previously purchased and used for either money or merchandise credit toward a new purchase. The program usually limits which products are eligible, often based on the type, condition and age of an item. The merchant sometimes offers an online valuation tool to help a shopper estimate how much their product is worth or has employees complete an inspection once they receive the item and notify the shopper of how much they will receive. Products bought back through these programs are then either resold as- is as pre-owned items, refurbished and resold, or used for parts.

Product Rentals: A retailer offering at least one product that can be rented in its online inventory. Includes merchants with a primary business model centered around lending products — like outdoor gear, evening dresses, handbags, etc. — to shoppers for a specified period of time and price. Merchants may or may not offer an option to buy rental products at the end of the rental period. Any retailer marked “partial” for product rentals offers at least one product that can be rented but doesn’t rely on that model as the foundation of the business.

Livestream Shopping: A retailer offering a live or live-to-tape video feed featuring products it’s selling — generally with items listed on the same page to make it easy for shoppers to add them to their carts and complete a purchase online. Also known as live shopping, this video-selling format is similar to the one popularized decades ago by home shopping networks and infomercials where a host — or often an influencer nowadays — showcases an item, talks about its attributes and frequently does a product-usage demonstration as a testimonial, of sorts. Includes a retailer’s livestreams that air in real time and pre-recorded live events that are aired later or played on demand. Also includes formats where hosts interview brand founders, stylists, designers, etc., about products. Excludes produced commercials. Includes streams hosted on a retailer’s ecommerce website or a retailer-branded website dedicated to livestreaming. Excludes streams hosted on third-party websites or social media platforms.

FINANCIAL

Financial data generally is tied to the calendar year — unless retailers operate on a different fiscal year and publicly report numbers. If the latter is the case, six or more months of their fiscal year must fall in the calendar year for which the sales are being attributed. If the fiscal year ends on June 30 of a given year, financials are attributed to the previous year.

Web Sales: Annual sales transacted through digital channels, by year. Includes ecommerce revenue from:

• Orders placed through a retailer’s own website or mobile app
• Orders placed online — including payment — through the above channels but delivered to a customer through omnichannel programs (i.e. buy online, pick up in store — or BOPIS — and curbside pickup)
• Sales through online marketplaces (i.e. Amazon.com Inc., etc.) where the merchant lists products as a third-party seller (vs. instances where the products are resold there through wholesale agreements)
• Online sales to both domestic and international consumers
• Commissions and fees from the sale of third-party sellers’ products on the platform for any ranked hybrid marketplaces (i.e. Amazon, etc.)

Wherever possible, excludes ecommerce revenue from:

• Non-retail sales (i.e. membership fees, financial services revenue, etc.)
• Wholesale revenue
• Instacart and other on-demand third-party sales, which generally are placed through Instacart’s interface and typically fulfilled by an in-store Instacart shopper who is picking and paying for items in a brick-and-mortar location. If Instacart or similar sites are powering a retailer’s same-day delivery operation, but the sales take place on a site owned by the retailer, those sales would be included in the web sales figure.
• B2B orders

Web Sales Growth: Year-over-year web sales growth.

5-Year Web Sales CAGR: Five-year compound annual growth rate, or the proportional web sales growth from year to year for the previous five years. The progression ratio reflects a constant rate of return and takes into consideration the amount of annual growth compounded since, as base revenue grows, larger dollar gains are required to maintain the same level of growth.

Total Sales: Annual sales transacted through all channels, by year. For companies owned by holding companies and non-retail entities, the would be total sales just for the listed retailer. Includes revenue from:

• All digital channels
• Brick-and-mortar stores
• Catalogs
• Call centers
• Wholesale agreements
• Non-retail income like financial services
• And more

OPERATIONS

Average Ticket: Average value of individual orders placed through a retailer’s digital channels over the course of a year. Also known as average order value, or AOV.

Conversion Rate: Share of website visits that end in a sale over the course of the year.

Average Monthly Total Visits: A measure of how many times a website is visited, on average, per month. A user can access one or more pages during one session, and subsequent page views are included in the same visit until a user is inactive for more than 30 minutes. Traffic figures are calculated from January through December in a given calendar year. Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from Similarweb, a website traffic monitoring firm, for this metric. This definition is derived from Similarweb.

Average Monthly Unique Visitors (MUVs): A measure of how many unique individuals visit a website, on average, per month. A user who visits one or more pages during one or more sessions is considered a single unique visitor. Traffic figures are calculated from January through December in a given calendar year. Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from Similarweb, a website traffic monitoring firm, for this metric. This definition is derived from Similarweb.

MOBILE COMMERCE

Shopper Mobile App: A retailer’s mobile app that is consumer-facing and allows consumers to shop and complete a purchase in app. Includes both iOS and Android apps. Excludes retailers’ mobile apps that don’t have ecommerce capabilities and are focused just on coupons or loyalty programs, gaming, virtual tools, etc. Also excludes seller-facing mobile apps for third-party marketplace sellers or retailer vendor.

% of Web Sales from Mobile Devices: Share of annual web sales from consumers using mobile devices. Includes sales from shoppers using both mobile phones and tablets to complete a purchase through a retailer’s mobile website or mobile app.

ECOMMERCE SALES BY REGION

% of Web Sales from Country/Region: Share of annual web sales from consumers in a given country or region.

OMNICHANNEL

No. of Stores: A count of the total number of traditional brick-and-mortar stores a retailer operates. Excludes showrooms, which also are physical locations but only have products on display that are for testing but not for shoppers to purchase and take home the same day.

Buy Online, Pick Up in Store: An omnichannel service offered by retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores that allows shoppers to place an order online — including completing payment — and pick up purchased items inside a nearby store. It’s often called BOPIS. This on-demand service is typically faster than waiting for a product to ship and be delivered to a consumer’s home.

Reserve Online, Pick Up in Store: An omnichannel service offered by retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores that allows shoppers to reserve products online and then pick up and pay for the items inside a nearby store. This on-demand service is typically faster than waiting for a product to ship and be delivered to a consumer’s home.

Curbside Pickup: An omnichannel service offered by retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores that allows shoppers to place an order online — including completing payment — and pick up purchased items at a nearby store while remaining in their vehicle. Typically, the retailer designates parking spots in a lot or at the store’s entrance for consumers awaiting delivery of their curbside orders, and once store employees are notified of a shopper’s arrival via app or phone call, they bring the purchase out to the vehicle. This on-demand service is typically faster than waiting for a product to ship and be delivered to a consumer’s home.

Store Locator: A store locator tool offered by retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores to help shoppers to find the address of the nearest local store while researching online. Includes interactive tools where consumers have to allow location sharing or enter their zip code to bring up search results of the closest stores as well as static, comprehensive lists of all locations operated by the retailer. Excludes locators for where to find a brand’s products in other retailers’ stores.

In-Store Stock Status: An online tool offered by retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores that informs shoppers that a given product is in stock at a particular store location and often shows the quantity remaining. The tool — which either uses geolocation to guess at shoppers’ nearest store or requires consumers to input their zip code and select their preferred store location — typically appears on the product-detail page. Includes website filters that allow shoppers to search for products that are currently available in a local store. Excludes features that give information about the physical location of a product within a store like aisle number. Also excludes mentions of an item being eligible for free shipping to a given store.

Make an In-Store Appointment: A tool offered by retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores that allows shoppers to schedule an appointment online to meet with an associate in store for services including fittings, design consultations, etc.

Retailer Store Returns: For retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores and accepting returns, this allows shoppers to take online orders back to a retailer’s physical store to exchange items or return them for a refund. Excludes retail partnerships with third-party returns processors like Happy Returns, which allows for consumers to make returns at return “bars” in various brick-and-mortar locations.

Third-Party Returns: For retailers accepting returns, this partnership allows shoppers to take online orders to a third-party returns processor’s physical location to return items for a refund. Includes Happy Returns, which allows for consumers to make returns at returns “bars” in various brick-and-mortar locations, and Kohl’s Corp.’s stores, which accept returns for Amazon.com Inc., etc. Excludes returns brought to the original retailer’s own brick-and-mortar stores or shipping carriers’ stores like UPS, FedEx or USPS.

Third-Party Returns Locations: For retailers accepting returns, this is a list of any partnering third-party returns processors that handle shoppers’ returns from online orders at designated physical locations and issue refunds. Includes Happy Returns, which allows for consumers to make returns at returns “bars” in various brick-and-mortar locations, and Kohl’s Corp.’s stores, which accept returns for Amazon.com Inc., etc. Excludes the original retailer’s own brick-and-mortar stores or shipping carriers’ stores like UPS, FedEx or USPS.

Curbside Returns: An omnichannel service offered by retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores that allows shoppers to exchange or return and refund online orders — whether delivered to their homes or picked up at a nearby store using BOPIS or curbside pickup services — to a nearby store while remaining in their vehicle. Typically, the retailer designates parking spots in a lot or at the store’s entrance for consumers awaiting curbside pickup or returns, and once store employees are notified of a shopper’s arrival via app or phone call, they come out to the vehicle for assistance. The service may have product exclusions or payment methods restrictions that limit curbside return capability.

ONLINE MARKETPLACES

Online marketplaces are digital shopping platforms that allow a variety of outside merchants to sell their products on one website. Some, like eBay Inc., are pure marketplaces, which means an operator owns no inventory sold on the website and just runs the platform for third-party sellers to list their products while also receiving a commission on any sales. Others, like Amazon.com Inc., are hybrid marketplaces, which means a merchant operates both a traditional retail model — where a merchant resells products it purchases via wholesale agreements or a brand sells products it manufactures on its ecommerce website — and an online marketplace — where third-party sellers can list products alongside a retailer’s own inventory, in this case, while the retailer receives a commission on any sales.

Marketplace Operator: A retailer that operates both a traditional retail model and an online marketplace, which classifies it as a hybrid online marketplace. Includes retailers like Amazon.com Inc., Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. Excludes retailers that sell their inventory on external online marketplaces.

Sells on Marketplace: A retailer that sells its products on a given external online marketplace in addition to on its own ecommerce website. List includes key online marketplaces in the U.S. and internationally. Includes retailers that are listing products on an external online marketplace as a third-party seller. Excludes retailers whose products are just resold on an external online marketplace via wholesale agreements with the platform operator that technically owns the inventory.

WEBSITE FEATURES & FUNCTIONS

Predictive Type: As a shopper begins typing letters into a text field, a website’s technology suggests words the user may be intending and helps to auto-complete the entry. In the search bar, likely keywords for product categories, product attributes, brands or individual products are populated in a dropdown for the user to select the most relevant option.

Preview Search: When a shopper uses the search bar, a website’s technology visually suggests relevant results in a dropdown by showing thumbnail images of product categories, individual products, etc., that seem to match the user’s actual or intended search term.

Video: A website features videos in some capacity. Includes how-to instructions for product assembly and other product-usage demonstrations; models showcasing the fit of apparel and accessories; stylists or interior designers talking about product attributes and how to build a look or room design; makeup gurus giving before and after shots or discussing application techniques; social influencers marketing products; behind-the-scenes looks at the company including content documenting any processes like how something is made or shipped to consumers; messages from management or employees trumpeting the company’s mission or sharing its origins story, etc.

Interactive Product-Match Tools: Features offered on a website to help shoppers find the right product for them. These are interactive tools that require information from a user to identify an item that is the best match. Includes quizzes that ask shoppers to answer a series of questions about what they need, augmented reality tools that allows products to be superimposed somewhere to help shoppers better visualize items on themselves or in their own world, design-related features like room builders, etc. For example, cosmetic retailers might offer a quiz that probes shoppers to help them color match their foundation: “Do you have dry, oily or combination skin? Do you look best in warm or cool colors? Based on your answers, we recommend our XYZ foundation shade.” Cosmetics retailers also often have virtual try-on tools that let shoppers see how a lipstick shade would look on their own face via a live camera, uploaded photo or photo of a model with similar traits. Furniture retailers frequently offer virtual design features to help shoppers build a layout so they can envision how products will fit in their home as well as augmented reality tools that overlay the image of a couch in a user’s actual family room and render a multi-dimensional item for the shopper’s inspection, for example. Data reflects features available on websites accessed on a desktop and excludes tools offered just through apps.

Remote Appointment/Consultation: An online tool that allows shoppers to schedule a virtual, one-on-one appointment with a salesperson at a specific time on a particular date. The consultation — which is usually aimed at helping consumers find the right product to buy — can take place online, over the phone or via live chat as long as it’s a scheduled appointment and not an exchange that happens in the course of a shopper reaching out with a regular, on-demand customer service inquiry.

Product Customization: Products can be personalized based on a shopper’s preferences or needs. Includes monogramming, upgrading a computer with extra memory, selecting the fabric and seat configuration for a sectional, etc. Doesn’t include standard options like different size and color options.

Product Q&A: The option for shoppers to publicly ask a question about a specific product that is posted on a website and answered by the retailer or other shoppers. Often includes submission and reply time stamps. Excludes generic, canned Q&A content supplied by the retailer or manufacturer that often appears in an FAQ section but includes real, shopper-generated questions that are open for official or unofficial answers from others.

Customer Ratings & Reviews: Product pages include customer ratings and reviews that allow buyers to publicly describe or rate their experience with a given product or customer service by posting on the website. Feedback often centers around whether the item arrived as described, assessments of the quality or sizing, whether anything was damaged, or parts were missing, if items were delivered on time, if customer service handled any questions or issues promptly, etc.

User-Generated Content: Community-based, user-posted content like photos or videos on a retail website. Includes social media posts such as Instagram photos with a hashtag that funnels into a retail website's feed. Includes shoppers promoting a retailer but excludes retailer-generated promotional content, which typically is polished content posted on the website or social media as part of ad campaigns. Also excludes user-submitted content if it’s part of a rating or review.

Multiple Languages: Shoppers can choose to translate website content into another language by selecting from options offered on the website. Excludes third-party translation tools like Google Translate.

Currency Converter: A tool that automatically converts the prices of goods from one currency to another to help international shoppers gauge how much a product costs.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Any Free Shipping: Under at least some circumstances, online orders are delivered directly to consumers’ homes with no shipping fees charged. Reflects general policy and excludes limited-time offers for free shipping promotional codes. Also excludes free shipping to a retailer’s store.

Unconditional Free Shipping: All or the majority of online orders are delivered directly to consumers’ homes with no shipping fees charged — regardless of the amount spent on the order, loyalty program membership, etc. Includes retailers that offer free shipping for most orders but charge a shipping fee for a limited number of heavy, bulky or fragile items. Reflects general policy and excludes limited-time offers for free shipping promotional codes. Also excludes free shipping to a retailer’s store.

Free Shipping with Minimum Order: Online orders over a certain dollar threshold are delivered directly to consumers’ homes with no shipping fees charged. Reflects general policy and excludes limited-time offers for free shipping with a minimum order promotional code. Also excludes free shipping to a retailer’s store.

Free Shipping Dollar Amount: The spending threshold for online orders that qualify for no shipping fees to be delivered directly to a consumer’s home. Reflects general policy and excludes limited-time offers for free shipping with a minimum order promotional code. Also excludes free shipping to a retailer’s store.

Free Shipping with Other Prerequisite: Under some miscellaneous circumstances, online orders are delivered directly to consumers’ homes with no shipping fees charged. Includes free shipping for loyalty program members, the retailer’s credit card holders, etc. Reflects general policy and excludes limited-time offers for free shipping promotional codes. Also excludes free shipping to a retailer’s store.

Next-Day Delivery: Delivery method where a package is shipped to a consumer and delivered the day after an order is placed if it’s finalized within a certain time frame. Generally, expedited delivery requires a surcharge.

Same-Day Delivery: Delivery method where a package is shipped to a consumer and delivered the same day an order is placed if it’s finalized within a certain time frame. Generally, expedited delivery requires a surcharge.

Accepts Returns: Consumers can return products from an online order.

Free Return Shipping: Consumers can return products from an online order from a retailer that accepts returns without incurring return shipping fees. Excludes free return shipping only for exchanges if consumers are charged return shipping fees if they opt to return items for a refund. Excludes pre-paid return labels whose value is later deducted from consumers' refund amount.

Online Return Processing: For retailers that accept returns, this allows consumers to initiate the return process online. Consumers submit a return request by logging into their customer account, locating the order and then items they want to return and following the instructions for sending items back to the retailer. Process typically requires consumers to answer questions online about the reason items are being returned and prompts them to print a pre-paid return label. Consumers then schedule an at-home pickup with a shipping carrier like UPS or FedEx or bring the package to the post office or carrier drop-off location.

Live Chat: Allows shoppers to communicate with a customer service representative in real time via a live chat pop-up window on a retailer’s website. Includes human interaction, automated chatbots or a combination, which would be a self-serve chatbot that eventually connects a shopper to a live representative if needed.

Registry: Allows shoppers to create an online list of desired gift items to be shopped by friends and family members for occasions like bridal showers, weddings, baby showers, housewarming parties and other events.

Wish List/Favorites: Allows shoppers to add desired items to a personal online wish list or list of favorites on a retail website to review and potentially purchase at a later time.

Loyalty Program: Free, incentivized shopping program where shoppers earn rewards and can sign up online. Includes dollars back, discounts, free shipping, free gifts and other bonuses. Excludes perks only offered to a retailer’s credit card holder.

Paid Membership: A retailer’s membership program where shoppers pay a fee to enroll in exchange for services or perks and can sign up online. Associated benefits include cost savings, free or expedited delivery, early access to sales, exclusive offers, member shopping events, loyalty points, etc. Excludes paid subscriptions that just cover the cost of the product like meal kits, coffee beans, moisturizer, etc.

Auto-Replenishment: A service that gives shoppers the option to set up recurring, auto-shipped orders for the same consumable products that need replenishing on a frequent basis — like diapers, dog food, laundry detergent, razor blades, copy paper and toner, etc. — and for which consumers can sign up and manage shipments online. Shoppers generally select the quantity of a product and frequency of the requested delivery and have the flexibility of pausing charges and rescheduling shipments if the product doesn’t yet need replacing. Discounts are frequently offered to consumers who sign up for auto-replenishment as an incentive for them to commit to future restocking of the product through the same retailer. Includes retailers with at least one product in their inventory that’s eligible for recurring shipments — but this doesn’t require auto-replenishment as a primary business model or for it to be offered on most products. Includes grocery items if the product that’s being resent after consumption is the identical match like the same brand, size and type of milk, for example. Excludes auto-shipped subscriptions that send different items within a category each order cycle like meal kits since ingredients and dishes vary, fruit-of-the-month clubs, apparel or cosmetics “discovery” boxes with new items to try out each delivery, etc. There is overlap between retailers with a subscription model and those offering auto-replenishment, but some merchants fall in one bucket but not the other depending on the primary business model and the type of products sold.

Try Before You Buy: A service that allows shoppers to have products delivered to their home for a trial period without first buying them outright in an online order so they can test them before deciding whether to make a purchase. Shoppers can then agree to keep the items and get charged for them or opt to return them for free or a small processing and/or shipping charge. Includes retailers that send sample products that are then replaced with real items if a consumer chooses to purchase them after testing. Excludes instances where consumers are required to visit a store to try out a product even if they can reserve them first online.

Home Services: Supplemental, in-home services that support a consumer's online purchase. Services can be supplied by the retailer or a third party. Includes product support or repair completed at a consumer’s residence like installation or assembly, mounting of TVs, hanging of wall art, tech support for electronics, etc. Excludes services for which a consumer brings the product to a store for support or repair. Also excludes white-glove final delivery service, which is usually associated with furniture and other large- or heavy-item deliveries, as it’s a shipping-related option.

PAYMENTS

Offers Payment Method: A retailer that offers a given payment option for shoppers completing a purchase online. Includes offerings available on its ecommerce website — whether accessed by a desktop or mobile device — as well as in both iOS and Android mobile apps. The following payment options warrant individual definitions:

• Cashier’s Check: A check that’s purchased at and issued by a bank. It’s drawn from the bank’s own funds rather than a payer’s funds and signed by a cashier or teller. Unlike a regular check, the bank — not the check writer — guarantees payment of a cashier’s check, making it a more secure form of payment for a payee. Often called an official check, it typically is used to pay for larger transactions and has associated fees.
• Co-Branded Credit Card: A credit card that a retailer issues in partnership with a particular credit card issuer or network like Visa or Mastercard. It can be used anywhere cards from the network are accepted. The card usually bears the logos of both partnering parties and provides perks through the retailer. Excludes store-branded, private-label credit cards that can only be used at one specific retailer.
• Electronic Funds Transfer: An electronic transfer of money from one entity to another, often using a data network-based payment like a direct deposit system. Includes electronic checks, wires and bank transfers.
• Gift Card/Certificate: A gift card or voucher a retailer issues with a stored merchandise value that shoppers use to purchase products from its ecommerce website, app or brick-and-mortar stores. Includes gift cards or certificates that are purchased by consumers — who generally are gift givers buying for gift recipients’ later use. Excludes reward vouchers tied to a retailer’s loyalty program. Also excludes general gift cards or certificates issued by Visa, Mastercard, etc., that can be used at a variety of retailers.
• Money Order: A document instructing a payee to be paid a specified amount of money from prepaid funds, making it a more secure method of payment than a personal check but less secure than a cashier’s check. A money order can be purchased at banks, post offices, check-cashing locations, retail stores, etc., and is backed by the location that sold it. It typically is used for smaller purchases or transactions completed by mail and has smaller fees than cashier’s checks. Payers do not need a bank account to get a money order issued.
• Pay with Cash: An option for shoppers to pay for an online order with cash — typically by processing payment once they arrive at a brick-and-mortar store to pick up their items. This is a common payment method in some cash-heavy economies outside the U.S.
• Personal Check: A personal paper check that’s processed to pay for an online order.
• Private-Label Credit Card: A store-branded, private-label credit card issued by a retailer that can only be used for purchases with that same merchant — not other retailers. Excludes co-branded credit cards that a retailer issues in partnership with a particular credit card issuer or network like Visa or Mastercard that can be used anywhere cards from the network are accepted.

Buy Now, Pay Later: A type of payment method that allows consumers to make a purchase online, receive it immediately and pay for it over time in installments. This type of short-term financing is often called BNPL, frequently has no associated interest charges and is offered during checkout, when an upfront payment is generally due while the remaining balance is split over a defined period of time.

Any BNPL: A retailer that accepts at least one buy now, pay later — often called BNPL — payment option tracked by Digital Commerce 360 for shoppers completing a purchase online. This type of payment method allows consumers to make a purchase online, receive it immediately and pay for it over time in installments. This type of short-term financing frequently has no associated interest charges and is offered during checkout, when an upfront payment is generally due while the remaining balance is split over a defined period of time. The following payment options are buy now, pay later plans:

• Affirm
• Afterpay
• American Express Pay It Plan It
• Bread
• Klarna
• Mastercard Installments
• PayPal Pay in 4
• Sezzle
• Splitit
• Visa Installments
• Zip

Cryptocurrency: A type of digital currency in which transactions are highly encrypted — and therefore highly secure — and completed through a computer network. Unlike traditional currencies, which are managed and controlled by a central authority like a government or bank, cryptocurrency is maintained by a decentralized system.

Any Cryptocurrency: A retailer that accepts at least one cryptocurrency payment option tracked by Digital Commerce 360 for shoppers completing a purchase online. This type of payment method involves digital currency in which transactions are highly encrypted — and therefore highly secure — and completed through a computer network. Unlike traditional currencies, which are managed and controlled by a central authority like a government or bank, cryptocurrency is maintained by a decentralized system. The following payment options are cryptocurrency:

• Bitcoin
• Bitcoin Cash
• Dogecoin
• Ethereum
• Litecoin

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

Ships to Country: A retailer that ships orders to consumers in a given country.

TRAFFIC SOURCES

Traffic source data on a retailer’s website is calculated from January through December in a given calendar year. Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from Similarweb, a website traffic monitoring firm, for these metrics. The following definitions are derived from Similarweb:

% of Traffic from Desktop: Share of website traffic from visitors using a browser on a desktop device.

% of Traffic from Mobile: Share of website traffic from visitors using a browser on a mobile device. This excludes mobile app usage.

% of Traffic from Direct: Share of website traffic from visitors entering a URL directly into a browser, using a saved bookmark or clicking a direct link from outside the browser like via Microsoft Word or an app.

% of Traffic from Display Ads: Share of website traffic from visitors coming from display and video ads via an identified ad-serving platform like GDN or Doubleclick.

% of Traffic from Email: Share of website traffic from visitors coming from web-based email clients like Gmail. This channel is identified by the URL of email providers, so if the referring domain is Gmail.com, for example, that would be categorized as email traffic. In some cases, email traffic shares may be under-represented. One of the ways this happens is if the referring domain isn’t properly classified as an email client, in which case the traffic would be sourced as referral. Or if there is no referring domain, like when traffic comes from an email application like Outlook, for example, rather than an email website, in which case it would be sourced as direct.

% of Traffic from Organic Search: Share of website traffic from visitors coming from organic, non-paid results on search engines like Google or Bing.

% of Traffic from Paid Search: Share of website traffic from visitors coming from paid search ads on search engines like Google or Bing.

% of Traffic from Referrals: Share of website traffic from visitors coming from one website to another through a direct link. Includes affiliates, content partners, direct media buying or news coverage.

% of Traffic from Social: Share of website traffic from visitors coming from social media websites like Facebook or Reddit — organic and paid. Includes direct media buying from Facebook.

SHOPPER PROFILE

Demographic data on visitors to a retailer’s website is calculated from January through December in a given calendar year. Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from Similarweb, a website traffic monitoring firm, for these metrics. The following definitions are derived from Similarweb:

Gender Female/Male: Share of website visitors who are identified as female vs. male.

Age 18-24/25-34/35-44/45-54/55-64/65+: Share of website visitors who are identified as falling in various age ranges.

MARKETING

Monthly Average Paid Search Spend: Average monthly advertising spend by root domain based on an analysis of tracked search engine results pages, or SERPs. Figures are estimates and capture global paid search, which is the sum of all country databases available, through both desktop and mobile. Data isn’t specific to sub-domains or sub-folders. Paid search spend figures are calculated from January through December in a given calendar year. Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from Semrush, a firm that helps companies run and benchmark online marketing with SEO and pay-per-click plus competitor research tools, for this metric.

FUNDING

Funding data reflects a retailer’s ability to attract investors who put money into the company for profit or other material results. The size and timing of funding rounds as well as the type of funding often indicate the trajectory of or potential for a merchant’s growth and the buzz surrounding its products or business model. Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from Crunchbase, a firm that tracks funding details as well as other industry news, for this metric. The following definitions are derived from Crunchbase:

Number of Funding Rounds: Total number of funding rounds.

Total Funding Amount: Total amount raised across all funding rounds.

Last Funding Amount: Amount raised during the most recent funding round.

Last Funding Date: Date of the most recent funding round.

Last Funding Type: Funding classification for the most recent funding round.

• Angel: Typically, a small round designed to get a new company off the ground. Investors include individual angel investors, angel investor groups, friends and family.
• Pre-Seed: A pre-institutional seed round that either has no institutional investors or is a very low amount — often below $150,000.
• Seed: Among the first rounds of funding a company will receive, generally while the company is young and working to gain traction. Round sizes range from $10,000 to $2 million, though larger seed rounds have become more common in recent years. A seed round typically comes after an angel round, if applicable, and before a company’s Series A round.
• Venture –Series Unknown: An investment that comes from a venture capital firm and describes Series A, Series B and later rounds. This funding type is used for any funding round that is clearly a venture round but where the series has not been specified.
• Series A and Series B: Funding rounds for earlier-stage companies. They generally range from $1 million to $30 million.
• Series C: Series C rounds and onward are for later-stage and more established companies. These rounds are usually $10 million-plus.
• Equity Crowdfunding: A round in which funding comes from platforms that allow individuals to invest in companies in exchange for equity. Typically the investors invest small amounts of money on these platforms, although syndicates are formed to allow an individual to take a lead on evaluating an investment and pooling funding from a group of individual investors.
• Product Crowdfunding: A round in which a company provides its product, which often is still in development, in exchange for capital. This type of round also is typically completed on a funding platform.
• Private Equity: A round that’s led by a private equity firm or hedge fund and is a late-stage round. It is a less risky investment because the company is more firmly established. The rounds typically are upward of $50 million.
• Convertible Note: An “in-between” funding round to help companies hold over until they want to raise their next round of funding. When they raise the next round, this note “converts” with a discount at the price of the new round. Convertible notes typically come after a company raises a Series A round but does not yet want to raise a Series B round, for example.
• Debt Financing: A round in which an investor lends money to a company in exchange for repayment of the debt with added interest.
• Secondary Market: A round in which an investor purchases shares of stock in a company from other existing shareholders rather than from the company directly. These transactions often occur when a private company becomes highly valuable and early-stage investors or employees want to earn a profit on their investment. These transactions are rarely announced or publicized.
• Grant: A round in which a company, investor or government agency provides capital to a company without taking an equity stake in the company.
• Corporate Round: A round in which a company — rather than a venture capital firm — makes an investment in another company. These are often completed for the purpose of forming a strategic partnership.
• Initial coin offering (ICO): A round where money is raised via crowdfunding using cryptocurrency as capital. A company raising money through an ICO holds a fundraising campaign during which backers purchase a percentage of a new cryptocurrency — called a “token” or “coin” — in the hope that the new cryptocurrency grows in value. The transaction often is completed using another cryptocurrency like bitcoin to make the purchase.
• Post-IPO Equity: A round that takes place when firms invest in a company after the company has already gone public.
• Post-IPO Debt: A round that takes place when firms loan a company money after the company has already gone public. Similar to debt financing, a company promises to repay the principal plus added interest on the debt.
• Post-IPO Secondary: A round in which an investor purchases shares of stock in a company from other existing shareholders rather than from the company directly after the company has already gone public.
• Non-Equity Assistance: A round in which a company or investor provides office space or mentorship and does not get equity in return.
• Funding Round: General term used for a round when information for a more specific funding type designation is unavailable.

 

SITE PERFORMANCE

Website performance of a retailer’s website is calculated from January through December in a given calendar year. Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from Blue Triangle, a firm that tracks digital experience analytics for site performance metrics. The following definitions are derived from Blue Triangle:

• First Contentful Paint: First Contentful Paint measures the time from navigation to the time when the browser renders the first bit of content from the DOM. It can be measured with synthetic or real user monitoring.
• Fully Loaded Time: The point after First Contenful Paint and Onload have fired, and there has been network and CPU idle. 
• Onload: The average amount of time required for the server to load the page completely so that the onload event is triggered, including content, images, JavaScript, CSS, and other external files. Also known as Page Load Time (PLT).
• Time to Interactive: A performance metric that measures how long it takes a page to become interactive. "Interactive" is defined as the point where: 1) The page has displayed useful content, which is measured with First Contentful Paint. 2) Event handlers are registered for most visible page elements. 3) The page responds to user interactions within 50 milliseconds. It can only be measured with synthetic monitoring.

VENDORS

Vendor data offers information on which companies a retailer works with for a variety of ecommerce technologies and services. If work is performed in house rather than through an outside vendor, the metric is notated accordingly. Unless this information is disclosed directly by a merchant or vendor, Digital Commerce 360 relies on data from website-scraping companies like BuiltWith and Ghostery, which crawl websites to capture information about the technologies and frameworks that a website is built upon, for these metrics.

Affiliate Marketing: A marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.

Channel Management: Technology and services that help sellers list products and establish storefronts on a marketplace. Services include providing product descriptions or product feeds and multi-channel management assistance. Also includes vendors that prepare and monitor product data flow to marketplaces and price-comparison platforms.

Content Delivery Network: A system that copies the pages of a website to geographically dispersed servers. When a page is requested, content is identified and served from the closest server to the users, enabling faster delivery.

Content Management Systems: Technology that allows for the creation, review, approval and publishing processes of web-based content.

Customer Ratings & Reviews: Technology that enables consumers to rate and/or review products they’ve purchased and post that feedback to a retailer or brand manufacturer's website for other shoppers to view.

Customer Relationship Management: Also known as CRM, this technology manages all aspects of interaction a company has with its customers. It helps aggregate, organize and analyze shopper data in a centralized location that’s accessible to all company teams in order to manage relationships with existing and prospective customers. Related tools assist with managing contacts and sales, running marketing campaigns, identifying sales opportunities, following customer service interaction and documenting those issues, viewing order status and more for a holistic view of a given shopper and their history with the company.

Customer Service Software & Support: Technology that provides access to order and support history, including customers’ product purchasing details from purchase to delivery. Also includes services that enable retailers to communicate, or chat, in real time with visitors to their websites as well as vendors that supply loyalty, coupon and incentive programs.

Ecommerce Platform: Technology that provides a combination of operating system software, hardware and individual tools that enable online shopping.

Fulfillment Services: Labor-based services such as warehousing, packing, delivery, and exchange and return processing. Includes providers of third-party logistics.

Fulfillment Software: Technology that automates the fulfillment process to help an online retailer receive, warehouse, pack, ship, exchange and return orders.

International Ecommerce Services: Technology that allows for the processing of orders from international consumers. Services include currency conversion, order fulfillment, parcel shipments and returns.

Marketing Automation Platform: Technology that automatically manages marketing processes and campaigns across multiple channels like web, app, email and text.

Mobile Commerce: Technology that enables ecommerce transactions to be conducted on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

Online Advertising: Technology that manages online advertising or marketing.

Order Management: Technology that helps process, track and manage orders.

Payment Processing: Technology that automates payment processing for ecommerce transactions.

Payment Security/Fraud Prevention: Technology that offers online customer payment security tools to protect consumers’ personal data or provides fraud-detection services to flag suspicious transaction attempts and prevent illegitimate orders from being processed.

Personalization: Technology that allows for customized experiences for unique visitors to a website. The process includes gathering and analyzing personal data about individual consumers like demographics, geographic location, browsing/search history, order history, average spending and more. A given consumer’s profile allows a retailer to tailor its website, app, product recommendations, emails, promotions and more for that specific visitor after determining what they’re most likely to buy, etc.

Search Engine Marketing: Technology that includes paid search and organic search software and other services designed to increase exposure via online search engines.

Security Certification: Technology via service providers that offer a safe web connection by Single Sockets Layer, or SSL, protocol, which uses encryption to ensure the secure transfer of data over the internet.

Shipping Carrier: Shipping and receiving companies like UPS and FedEx that deliver retailers’ goods to consumers who order online.

Site Design & Development: Services that allow for the planning, building and maintaining of ecommerce websites. Also includes vendors that enable dynamic imaging, video, audio, augmented reality, virtual reality and other online content that encourages visitors to engage with a website.

Site Search: Technology that organizes and presents website content, including products, when users search for keywords and also tracks how website visitors use the tool by analyzing search terms, etc.

Social Media Marketing: Services that use social media platforms as a marketing tool for branding, messaging and promotions. Also includes the tracking of consumers’ mentions of a retailer’s name or its products.

Web Analytics: Technology that enables the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of online data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. Metrics studied include how many people visit a website, how they landed on the URL and what keywords they search via the website’s search engine, among many others.

Web Hosting/Cloud Services: Technology that offers cloud computing services for building, testing, deploying and managing applications and services through a network of managed data centers. Also includes web-hosting vendors that operate website data servers either at a data center or a co-location facility.

Web Performance: Technology that offers measurements to gauge visitors’ website or app experience and manages the use of controlled experimentation to improve metrics like the speed with which webpages are downloaded and displayed on a browser, how digital assets render, whether scrolling is smooth and buttons are clickable, etc.

MARKETPLACE DATABASE METRICS

These fields are specific to the Marketplace databases only.

Marketplace Type: Pure indicates the marketplace operator only sells products from third-party sellers. Hybrid indicates the marketplace operator sells its own products in addition to products sold by third-party merchants.

3P or Third-party GMV: The total value of transactions by outside sellers.

1P or First-party GMV: The total value of transactions of the products sold by the marketplace operator. Only Hybrid marketplaces will have 1P sales. Total GMV is a combination of 1P and 3P figures.

Seller Fees/Commission: The percentage or dollar amount a marketplace operator charges third-party sellers to sell on the marketplace. Commission is typically charged on each product sale.

Advertising for Sellers: The marketplace offers sellers the opportunity to advertise on the platform (i.e. the marketplace). This could include sponsored search listings, display ads on certain pages, etc.