Amazon's Volume Skyrockets by 40% YoY, While Shopify Orders Climb 15%

Extensiv Market Insights Data Contrasts Industry Leaders and How Amazon and Shopify Navigate YoY Growth Amidst QoQ Fluctuation

EL SEGUNDO, Calif -- Extensiv (formerly 3PL Central) — delivering omnichannel software solutions for warehouse, inventory, and order management — today announced a summary of key findings from its 1Q 2024 Market Insights research which analyzes the order volume trends and seller dynamics across different ecommerce platforms. The research reveals how Amazon and Shopify, two of the most popular platforms for online sellers, experienced contrasting patterns of growth and decline in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period last year and the previous quarter. The data reveals a significant 40% year-over-year growth in order volume for third-party sellers on Amazon, while Shopify volume increased 15% and all other third-party marketplaces showed a decrease of 3%.

Launched in 2022, the Extensiv Market Insights website offers order volume trends for leading vendors such as Amazon, Shopify, and a consolidation of dozens of other smaller marketplaces. To access Extensiv trend data, visit www.extensiv.com/market-insights.

The Q1 2024 Market Insights research is based on data from Extensiv's proprietary platform, which tracks and analyzes more than 170 million orders per year from more than 10,000 online sellers across various ecommerce platforms. Market Insights monitors changes in order volume per merchant processed through leading vendors such as Amazon and Shopify to show year-over-year and week-over-week volume trends beginning in 2021. This enables brands to benchmark their own results to the seasonality changes across the broader e-commerce landscape.

Key Highlights from April 2024 Extensiv Market Insights:

• Amazon average order volume spiked year-over-year: Extensiv data shows Amazon experienced a 40% increase in order volume year-over year in Q1, but declining order volume of nearly -26% from 4Q23 to 1Q24. Despite the increase of Q1 order volume YoY, the drop off from Q4 to Q1 was more dramatic than in the two prior years suggesting that Amazon's strong performance in the holiday season was not sustained in the new year, despite its efforts to reduce fulfillment fees and attract more sellers.
• Amazon number of sellers fluctuates: Amazon also appears to have attracted sellers to the platform with an increase of 12.6% of sellers year-over-year, though they saw a dip of -2.4% in 1Q24 versus 4Q23. Concern about fees increasing on average $.15 per unit sold may have sellers looking to drive more sales through their own websites to mitigate costs.¹
• Shopify volumes show greater consistency: Shopify's order volume by customer increased by 15% YoY, but decreased by 13% QoQ. This indicates that Shopify's growth was more consistent and resilient than Amazon's, as the platform continued to add new features and integrations to support its sellers.
• Shopify merchant numbers jump: Shopify's seller base grew by 37% YoY and 5% QoQ. This shows that Shopify was able to attract and retain more sellers than Amazon, especially in the lower-end plans, which now have a limit of three markets per plan. Shopify also increased its pricing for the Shopify Plus plan by 25%, which may have an impact on its high-end sellers in the future.² 
• Other Marketplaces Lost Share: All other marketplaces, such as eBay, Walmart, and Etsy, saw a decrease of 3% YoY in their order volume and a decrease of 22% QoQ. This suggests that these platforms are losing market share and relevance to Amazon and Shopify, which offer more benefits and opportunities to their sellers.

"These results demonstrate the changing marketplace dynamics that are driving seller behavior. These changes have implications for both online sellers and third-party logistics fulfillment providers," said Andy Lloyd, CEO of Extensiv. "With Amazon decreasing the cost of Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) to make it more competitive with 3PLs and monetize more on the store side where there is limited competition, we may be seeing their reaction to antitrust action as they need to show they are not using the buy button to force uncompetitive fulfillment costs on sellers.³”

“Amazon’s announcement of lowering cost to deliver in Q4 through inventory regionalization reinforces the need to bring inventory closer to the consumer so companies can deliver orders as fast as possible at the lowest possible shipping cost. At Extensiv, we help 3PLs build the geographically dispersed fulfillment networks they need to compete, while also helping brands optimize their fulfillment strategy so they can deliver faster, cheaper, and more reliably, regardless of which platform they choose to sell on," Lloyd continued.

Additional resources:

• Extensiv Market Insights
• Extensiv 2024 State of the Third-Party Logistics Industry Report
• Extensiv Third-Party Logistics Warehouse Benchmark Report 

Sources:

¹ Amazon Update to US Referral and Fulfillment by Amazon Fees

² Shopify’s Surprising 34% Price Hike

³ Link to FTC's September 2023 press release regarding antitrust action

About Extensiv 

Extensiv, formerly 3PL Central, is a visionary technology leader focused on creating the future of omnichannel fulfillment. We partner with warehouse professionals and entrepreneurial brands to transform their fulfillment operations in the radically changing world of commerce and consumer expectations. Through our unrivaled network of more than 1,500 connected 3PLs and a suite of integrated, cloud-native warehouse management (WMS), order management (OMS), inventory management (IMS), and integration management software, we enable modern merchants and brands to fulfill demand anywhere with superior flexibility and scale without painful platform migrations as they grow. More than 25,000 logistics professionals and thousands of brands trust Extensiv every day to drive commerce at the pace that modern consumers expect. Learn more at www.extensiv.com.