eMarketer: Forecast for growth of third-party e-commerce platforms in the United States by 2023

  Recently, eMarketer released its growth forecast for the three major U.S. e-commerce platforms in 2023, and conducted a comparative analysis of the three major mainstream e-commerce platforms. The report pointed out that in 2023, the e-commerce sales of third-party market platforms in the United States will reach nearly 385 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 10.2%, accounting for more than one-third of the total retail e-commerce in the United States.

The report predicts that in the next five years, US e-commerce sales will grow by $588 billion, of which third-party platform sales will grow by nearly 40%. By 2027, the growth rate of US third-party market platform sales will exceed that of the overall e-commerce market, and sales will exceed $600 billion, accounting for 34.8% of retail e-commerce sales.

In terms of sales, Amazon will continue to maintain its leading position, followed by eBay ($35.41 billion), Walmart ($8.57 billion), Etsy ($7.87 billion) and Poshmark ($1.91 billion). At the same time, more and more retailers are opening online third-party market businesses, and retail media revenue will further grow.

Amazon, eBay, and Walmart: A comparison

Amazon's third-party seller sales this year are expected to reach $277.91 billion, accounting for 65% of its total sales in the U.S. Currently, Amazon still occupies the largest share of the U.S. e-commerce market, but faces fierce competition from Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms, which have an advantage in price and conform to the current U.S. consumer trend.

eBay's third-party sellers' sales this year are expected to reach $35.41 billion, down more than $4 billion from two years ago. eBay is characterized by not having its own products, but it is adjusting its strategic direction to focus on high-priced items such as handbags, sports shoes, watches, and collectibles.

Currently, eBay is facing the problem of user loss. According to data from BusinessOfApp, eBay's quarterly users have continued to decline since 2021, which to some extent reflects the limitations of its C2C market model.

Walmart's third-party sales this year are expected to reach $8.57 billion, up 12.6% year-on-year. Last year, Walmart's third-party sales accounted for 10.7% of its total sales.

The report pointed out that among the three major platforms, Walmart is the platform with the fastest growth in third-party sellers’ sales. Currently, the scale of Walmart’s third-party seller market is still much smaller than that of Amazon, and it is unlikely to surpass Amazon in the short term.

US retailers scramble to open third-party marketplaces

eMarketer reported that more and more US retailers and brands have launched third-party marketplace businesses. Walmart is the largest retailer among them. Other retailers include Macy's, Kohl's, Kroger, J.Crew, Michaels and Lands' End.

The report pointed out that in the next few years, retail media will continue to be the fastest growing part of digital advertising in the United States, and retailers will also earn high-profit income from advertising and marketing services charged to sellers.

Amazon has a more than 75% share of the U.S. retail media market, but Walmart’s advertising revenue is growing at twice the rate of Amazon. By 2023, this figure will increase by 39.1% year-on-year to more than $3 billion, and by 2025 it will exceed $6 billion.

eBay is also increasingly dependent on advertising revenue, while Etsy requires sellers with sales above a certain threshold to use part of their revenue for on-site advertising.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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