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Can you tell me the average shopping cart size for automotive e-commerce stores?
Hello! Thank you for your request for the average shopping cart size for automotive e-commerce stores in the United States. The short answer is despite extensively reviewing academic databases, corporate websites, industry reports, and trusted media sites, my colleagues and I have determined that information about the average ticket size for the top players in the automotive parts e-commerce market in the United States is not publicly available. However, we have identified some additional information which may be of interest to you, as well as considerations for further research. The major players in the e-commerce automotive parts market are Amazon, eBay, Advance Auto Parts, AutoZone, O'Reilly Auto Parts, and US Auto Parts. The online automotive parts industry boasted sales of $7.6 billion in 2016, and the industry is projected to earn $8.9 billion to $11 billion in sales in 2017. Below you will find a deep dive of our findings.
METHODOLOGY
In order to gain a broad overview of existing trends and topics of interest pertaining to shopping cart size in the e-commerce market in the United States, my colleagues and I reviewed information in academic databases, corporate websites, industry reports, and trusted media sites. Having gained relevant background information, we then refined our search to identify the major players in the automotive e-commerce market, to ensure we were providing pertinent information on average shopping cart size.
Finally, we attempted to identify the average shopping cart size of the major players in the automotive industry specifically, first by attempting to locate corporate statistics published by each company, which would have been the most reliable source of data. Our findings revealed this information is not publicly available from any of the major players in the e-commerce automotive parts industry. Next, we attempted to calculate estimates of the average shopping size by reviewing each company's online revenue from automotive parts sales and average ticket size. Unfortunately, while we were able to identify revenue figures for online automotive parts sales, none of the major players in this industry publish average ticket values and/or transaction counts. Without this information, we were unable to calculate estimated shopping cart sizes. However, you will find a discussion of the information we did obtain about this industry, as well as considerations for future research, below.
OVERVIEW
Our findings indicate that the e-commerce industry is extremely strong in the United States, with 51% of Americans preferring to shop online. In fact, nearly 96% of Americans have made at least one online purchase in their lifetime, with 80% of Americans making an online purchase within the last month. The overall e-commerce industry is expanding 23% year-over-year, and it is expected to be valued at $523 billion by 2020.
The automotive parts e-commerce industry is particularly strong, with forecasts of continued, steady growth. The industry surpassed initial forecasts of $7.4 billion in sales in 2016, eventually amassing $7.6 billion in online sales. Automotive parts was the second-fastest growing portion of the overall e-commerce market, with growth of 29.6% from 2015 to 2016. The automotive parts e-commerce market is expected to reach sales of $8.9 billion to $11 billion in 2017, with annual growth of approximately 15% anticipated from 2017 to 2018. Aftermarket parts are increasingly gaining a larger share of the automotive parts e-commerce market, as an aging fleet of vehicles in the United States has heightened demand for aftermarket parts. It is estimated that mobile shopping will account for $4 billion in online automotive sales in 2017.
MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE INDUSTRY
Our research indicated that Amazon is currently the largest online retailer of automotive parts. In fact, the overall automotive e-commerce industry surpassed forecasts of growth in 2016 due to Amazon's extremely strong sales. The second largest online retailer of automotive parts is eBay, and together with Amazon, these retailers have cornered 70% of total online automotive parts sales, for an estimated total of $7 billion to $7.5 billion. Other major competitors in the automotive parts e-commerce industry include Advance Auto Parts, AutoZone, O'Reilly Auto Parts, and US Auto Parts. While Amazon and eBay are entirely online marketplaces, our findings indicated that online sales now account for 20% of automotive parts sales for these traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.
AVERAGE SHOPPING CART SIZE
Unfortunately, despite extensively searching through corporate websites, annual reports, financial statements, and industry databases, my colleagues and I were unable to locate publicly available data from any of the top automotive e-commerce retailers on average shopping cart size for automotive parts sold online. None of the major players in this industry publish statistics pertaining to average shopping cart size for online automotive parts sales. While we can roughly estimate the total online revenue for automotive parts of brick-and-mortar stores based on the finding that 20% of overall revenues are now online sales of parts, we cannot calculate average shopping cart size without further information on annual transaction counts, ticket sizes, etc. A review of several of O'Reilly Auto Parts's earnings calls indicate that while this company does track annual ticket averages and transaction counts, this data is not publicly available.
We were able to roughly estimate the average shopping cart size for Amazon's overall sales at $135.99, based on Amazon fulfilling approximately 1 billion orders in 2016 and earning $135.99 billion in revenue. However, Amazon does not publish data on the number of transactions that were specific to online automotive parts sales, so this information may be of scant use for your purposes. Additionally, there are concerns that Amazon's statistics would skew the overall estimate for "average" shopping cart size in the automotive parts e-commerce industry. Amazon's automotive parts are priced significantly lower than other retailers, which may mean they are not representative of industry averages. For example, a RedTop Optima battery priced at $216 online at AutoZone is merely $166 on Amazon, and these prices do not reflect Amazon's potentially significant discounts on shipping.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
There is ample information available addressing a variety of major challenges that general e-commerce stores, including online automotive parts retailers, should address in order to improve shopping cart size. These issues include identifying which components of the shopping experience are problematic for sales (i.e. the credit card entry stage or processing the order), the speed of both the webpage and shopping cart experience, effectively targeting audiences to improve conversion rates, remedying shopping cart abandonment, and re-engaging customers to ensure completed sales. In the case of online automotive parts retailer, Auto Anything, reducing the load time of the shopping cart by 50% resulted in a 13% sales increase. As an avenue of further research, strategies for improving shopping cart size among online automotive parts retailers could be researched, even if actual estimates for shopping cart size cannot be provided from publicly available data.
CONCLUSION
In summary, the major players in the e-commerce automotive parts market are Amazon, eBay, Advance Auto Parts, AutoZone, O'Reilly Auto Parts, and US Auto Parts, but unfortunately statistics necessary to calculate average shopping cart size are not publicly available from any of these companies. However, our research revealed that the online automotive parts industry boasted sales of $7.6 billion in 2016, and the industry is projected to earn $8.9 billion to $11 billion in sales in 2017.
Thank you for your request, and if you would like any additional information on this topic or another, please do not hesitate to ask Wonder!