2020 has been a year of\u00a0unprecedented growth for ecommerce businesses. With 2020 ecommerce sales projected to\u00a0exceed the $4 trillion mark<\/a>, and many businesses switching to online during the pandemic, the ecommerce market is more overcrowded than ever.<\/p>\n This puts the ecommerce entry bar at its highest and pushes existing ecommerce business owners into entering a challenging race. As the average 2020\u00a0traffic growth to ecommerce sites reaches 30%<\/a>, industry players are looking for opportunities to get a share of this ecommerce boom and strengthen their market positions.<\/p>\n While traditional generic tips for growing an ecommerce business are still valid, to benefit from this online shopping bonanza, they should look for more tailored solutions to growing market share.<\/p>\n For this,\u00a0Semrush has analyzed the latest ecommerce trends, focusing on channels and tactics that drive growth in the US market<\/strong>. Based on insights from the three winning ecommerce categories and brands within each group, this post reveals:<\/p>\n With global\u00a0\u201cbuy online\u201d searches soaring this year<\/a>, some ecommerce categories have been benefiting from the global lockdowns and pandemic-related measures, despite the high economic uncertainty and volatile consumer confidence.<\/p>\n Focussing our attention on the US ecommerce market\u2019s biggest winners, with the help of Semrush\u2019s\u00a0Traffic Analytics<\/a>, we managed to identify the three categories that are showing the fastest market growth in the region this year:<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n With average annual traffic counts rising by 30%, Home & Garden, Food & Groceries, and Sports & Outdoors are the top-3 fastest-growing ecommerce categories in 2020.<\/p>\n Clearly, the global pandemic has played a big role in their growth \u2014\u00a0all the WFH, shelter-in-place and lockdown orders were (and still are) boosting demand for products within each category.<\/p>\n However, after deep-diving into each category, we managed to spot that this growth trend is in place from year to year, and so it\u2019s worth dissecting how these top categories manage to always take the lead across the ecommerce market.<\/p>\n Before exploring each category\u2019s precise traffic-generation strategies, we wanted to see the key players within each category in the US, as well as analyze any shifts in visitor count trends and market positions of the category leaders.<\/p>\n Analyzing the three-year traffic volumes for all three ecommerce niches, we can see a strong growth trend that only accelerated with the pandemic.<\/p>\n Following the market demand logic, we also spotted the traditional traffic seasonality, with higher site visitor counts during the biggest winter shopping season, which starts in October and creeps all the way into December.<\/p>\n The second wave of Covid and\u00a0reluctance of some Governments to continue with stimulus checks<\/a>\u00a0does not seem to have had an impact on consumers\u2019 online buying behavior.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Within the fastest-growing ecommerce niche, Home & Garden, the top 5 consists of familiar big box stores like Home Depot, Lowe\u2019s, and Menards. However, the most rapid traffic growth \u2014\u00a0of over 50% \u2014\u00a0occurs across the largest US-based purely online furniture sellers \u2014\u00a0Wayfair and Houzz.<\/p>\n Home & Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
The Fastest-Growing Ecommerce Categories in 2020<\/h2>\n
Fastest-Growing Brands Within Top Ecommerce Categories<\/h2>\n
Total Market Trends For All Categories: Growth and Strong Traffic Seasonality<\/h3>\n
YoY Traffic Shifts Across Top Market Players<\/h3>\n