America's Retail Store Chains Continue Their Aggressive Shift to E-Commerce

America's Retail Store Chains Continue Their Aggressive Shift to E-Commerce, According to New Research from Internet Retailer's All-New Top 500 Guide Year after year, each new edition of Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide®, which ranks and provides scores of metrics on America's largest 500 web merchants, documented how web-only merchants were consistently drubbing the big box stores in the e-commerce arena. But that began changing in 2013, when the chains closed the gap by growing their online sales by 16.7%, taking market share away from manufacturers and catalogers. With their new focus on web-based sales, the retail chains grew their share of the e-commerce market again last year by growing their e-retailing operations by expanding and streamlining their online operations and promoting services that allow customers to shop online and pick-up or return merchandise in stores. The fruits of these efforts are evident in the rich data included in the 352-page 2015 Top 500 Guide®published late last month. The web sales of the 154 store chains ranked in the 2015 Top 500 Guide® grew 16.5% last year, more than a full percentage point faster than the growth of all e-commerce in the U.S. and more than five times the growth rate of sales at retail stores. And while that growth rate was topped by the 18.1% growth of the 193 web-only merchants in the 2015 Top 500 Guide®, a closer look at individual e-retailers shows major chains implementing aggressive web strategies are growing faster than the overall market and even faster than the pure plays. "Retail chains have at last discovered that the big payoff from new investments in retailing is on the web, not in the store," says Jack Love, publisher of Internet Retailer. "And for the chains, investment in the web helps drive traffic to the stores." Here's the evidence:

[Top 5] Fastest-Growing Retail Chains Retailer Growth Top 500 Rank The Men's Wearhouse 252% Buy To See Pier 1 Imports 194% Buy To See Uniqlo USA 100% Buy To See HHGregg Appliances 90% Buy To See Hudson's Bay 87% Buy To See

The continued growth of the chains in e-retailing is but one factor producing dramatic changes in the competitive landscape of e-commerce. The following facts from the 2015 Top 500 Guide® shine a spotlight on other massive shifts underway in the competitive make-up of America's burgeoning e-commerce market. Trading Places: 486 web merchants changed their ranking this year—109 moved up, 335 moved down and 42 entered the Top 500 for the first time, a record number of newcomers. Movers in the Middle: In prior years, the 100 largest e-retailers grew faster than the 400 merchants below them. Not this year. The fastest-growing quintile is the highly targeted niche e-retailers that rank between 301 and 400. That group grew 18.5%; the Top 100 grew 15.7%. Top 500 Impact: America's 500 largest e-retailers grew their U.S. sales by 16.2%, better than five times the 3% growth rate achieved by retail stores. Since the Top 500 control 81% of e-commerce in the U.S., their growth drove the web's total share of American retailing to 9.7%, one full percentage point from e-retailing's share in 2013. Shifting Merchandise Patterns: The fastest-growing merchandise category in the Top 500 consists of the hardware/home improvement web sites, which grew sales 24.2% last year. The slowest-growing category was office supply sites, which grew 7.3%. Not that long ago, those two groups were on the very opposite ends of the growth spectrum.