Five of the Top Online Shopping Sites

5 min. read
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Online retailers are always interested in finding out what sites give their products the best exposure. It's no trade secret that in order to sell online you have to be visible to your customers. Naturally, you spend a lot of your energy trying to get noticed. This includes riding on the coattails of top online shopping sites which, as it turns out, can be a perfectly symbiotic relationship.

When you advertise your products on popular online marketplaces, it makes your inventory more available to your customers. If your products become popular as a consequence, you drive more traffic to that platform. Traffic begets more traffic as satisfied customers spread the word about your brand, and so the cycle continues. It's a win-win for all parties involved. But how do you distinguish decent online shopping sites from the best ones to advertise your wares?

You look at ranking, of course.

The thing about getting the most eyes possible on your brand, at least when it comes to retail, is that you don't really need to concentrate much on the SEO tips and tricks that result in page one placement in the results. That's really important if you're an independent storefront, but if you're a dropshipper selling on eBay you can just ride the wave of popularity the website already enjoys. You'll still need to keyword optimize and use quality product images, but the majority of the work is already done for you.

In this case, the goal is to be affiliated with the online shopping sites that consumers don't bother searching for but simply go to directly. It just takes a lot of worry off your plate straight away.

Methodology

What we're looking at in this article are the 5 top shopping sites in the world in terms of reach and traffic. To determine the most popular shopping sites, we looked at AlexaRank; more specifically we looked at Alexa Traffic Ranking.

Briefly, AlexaRank is a service used to monitor the traffic that a particular website attracts on a daily basis. Traffic Ranking is historical data aggregated over a three-month period which gets the mean of the number of users and page views per user over time. From these numbers it produces a global and US rank for any given period.

When you check a site's traffic ranking, AlexaRank will also give you the bounce rate (percentage of users that visit just one page on a site and then leave), daily time on site, audience demographics (which is particularly import for niche markets), and a whole lot of statistical information. Suffice it to say, to top a category (such as shopping) in AlexaRank is a pretty big deal.

Let's go for a ride, shall we?

1. Amazon

It may not surprise you a whole lot that Amazon is top banana in this list. It may be worth knowing that AlexaRank is a subsidiary of Amazon, but before that knowing look on your face appears, think about your own shopping habits.

If you haven't visited Amazon ever, I'll eat my hat. In all probability, you've visited Amazon many times, if only to check out what the prices are for products you are thinking of or already selling. Amazon UK also did pretty well (96th globally) but for the sake of variety we won't be featuring it here.

2. eBay

No surprise here either. eBay is like the Walmart of the online world. You go there for the auctions, which gives you at least a chance to get a really good deal. Most times, though, the instant gratification impulse makes us impatient over waiting for the auction period to be over, so we end up either buying fixed price items or going to Amazon (see #1) to compare prices.

Notice how there is a wide discrepancy over the global rank of Amazon (5) and eBay (26)? That's because Alexa ranking isn't limited to e-commerce platforms, but rather it ranks the authority of all websites, not just for the shopping category. The fact that two of the biggest shopping sites in the world appear on the top ten goes to show you just how much online shopping the world does.

It's also worth noting that the bounce rate of eBay is considerably lower than that of Amazon. That means when people go to eBay they are more likely to go to other pages in the site and thus spend more time shopping.

This is an important statistic that you should keep your eye on. It inversely represents the level of engagement of the browser, and you want them to be as engaged as possible

Recommended reading: Dropshipping on eBay: 7 tips for guaranteed success!

3. Etsy

Not everyone's cup of tea since Etsy caters to sellers who make their own stuff, but hey if you're into that, then this is the best place to display your wares. This is a niche market you'd think would attract more women than men, and AlexaRank agrees with you.

4. Groupon

So it's not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about what to buy, but Groupon has an excellent email marketing strategy that gets people to the pages whether they were thinking of buying or not. Groupon tugs at the bargain hunter in all of us. It takes impulse buying to a whole new level!

5. Newegg

Consumer electronics are the most popular items bought online, so it just makes sense that an online shopping site dedicated to computers and electronic gadgets should enjoy a lot of custom and inclusion in this list. If you aspire to be a consumer electronics dropshipper or retailer, this is where you want to be. The name is kinda cute too.

 

So there you have five of the top-ranked online shopping sites in the world, all of which are open to dropshippers and other retailers. There are many others that are quite good as well, and may eventually make this list at another time. At the time of this publication, though, these are the 5 sites you want to be on to start the road to becoming a top online store.

If you think we should include an online shopping site you don't see here, give us a buzz and we'll look into it. If not, give us a buzz anyway; it would be great to hear from you!

 
About the author
Zack Rutherford

Zack Rutherford is a freelance copywriter. A combat sports enthusiast and poetic soul, he endeavors to create beauty through syntax, sentence structure, and the liberal use of hyperbole.

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2 Comments
  • IBRAHIM EL SHAHAWY 3rd of November
    what about bonanza and aliexpress?
  • Fade 16th of November
    Thanks for the list. I believe a lot of online shopping sites are coming out with better online shopping experience like cashbackmall.co.uk. Will you review new and promising online shopping sites please. Thanks again