It’s no secret that commerce has changed significantly over the past decade. The rise of experiential marketing and social media has transformed retail, granting brands greater access to consumers’ lives, and in doing so, a deeper understanding of the ways in which they make purchases online.
E-commerce has become one of the most fertile and fast-growing industries in the world, transforming the consumer journey into a digital, interactive one. The industry is advancing as rapidly as the technology — and it’s making a major economic and job opportunity impact.
E-commerce Companies to Know
- Amazon
- eBay
- Walmart
- Chewy
- Etsy
- Walgreens
- BigCommerce
In light of the industry’s evolution, it’s no surprise there has been a substantial increase in e-commerce companies. Whether they’re redefining the online grocery experience or making it easier for local businesses to connect with customers, e-commerce companies nationwide are ushering in a new era of online retail.
We’ve rounded up several e-commerce companies to give you a closer look into this fast-growing industry.
E-Commerce Companies to Know
Location: Needham, Massachusetts
Shark Ninja is an e-commerce company that builds and sells home appliances. To date, the company has over 150 products and nearly two-thousand patents. On their brand sites, sharkclean.com and ninjakitchen.com, consumers can register their warranty, discover troubleshooting guides and purchase products with Affirm.
Location: Elmhurst, Illinois
An e-commerce company for industry, McMaster-Carr provides on-demand same or next-day delivery of products and parts for industrial design, building, repair and maintenance. When an architect, contractor or builder needs a specific tool, fastener or component, they request it online from McMaster-Carr and often have it in hand before the end of the workday.
Location: Fully Remote
Vista is an e-commerce company that enables small businesses to create custom marketing materials. Founded in 1995, the company started with only one product line — business cards — but has since expanded into packaging, clothing and more. The company even partnered with Wix to prompt businesses to create a free website through the platform. Vista also offers real-time assistance from design experts.
Location: Oakland, California
Babylist is a registry platform for expecting parents. The platform allows the registry to feature multiple retailers and services, like babysitting or chores, with the goal of making the transition into parenthood simpler. Parents can also buy products and browse editorial content on Babylist.
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Trustpilot’s online platform for posting and searching reviews furthers e-commerce for both consumers and businesses. Potential customers can see ratings on a scale of one to five stars and scroll through feedback to decide which businesses they’ll trust. On the other side, Trustpilot gives businesses tools to help them build and maintain a reputation that’s attractive to consumers.
Location: Bentonville, Arkansas
The Walmart brand is synonymous with retail in the United States. In addition to the flagship site, the retail giant’s e-commerce portfolio also includes furniture site Hayneedle, outdoor gear and apparel seller Moosejaw and women’s clothing brand ELOQUII.
Location: Gardena, California
Ruggable sells two-piece machine washable rug systems made up of an interchangeable rug cover and nonslip rug pad. Its product lineup includes area rugs, runners, bath mats and doormats. To enhance the online shopping experience, the Ruggable platform offers a short quiz that matches shoppers with product recommendations based on their preferences. It also comes with a digital design assistant that uses artificial intelligence to provide users with personalized interior design recommendations.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Klaviyo’s marketing automation solutions are designed to support e-commerce business, using data analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities to enable personalized customer interactions. Brands can use Klaviyo’s mobile push feature, for example, to alert customers about relevant offers or new product releases.
Location: New York, New York
LeafLink has created a wholesale ordering platform for the cannabis industry. The company’s marketplace is designed to help cannabis brands, distributors and retailers optimize ordering, simplify communication and save time. Brands and distributors can use LeafLink to increase brand exposure, manage relationships and oversee the order lifecycle, while retailers can benefit from the platform’s sample request and integrated messaging capabilities.
Location: Denver, Colorado
Cin7 offers an array of solutions for the e-commerce industry, including tools for streamlining inventory management, accounting, point-of-sale operations and warehouse management. Cin7 has served 8,000-plus customers, with its technology supporting upwards of 125 million orders every year.
Location: Austin, Texas
SamCart allows creators to sell digital products and services with their very own e-commerce storefronts. The platform harnesses features like a customizable sales page, custom domains, digital wallets, pre-purchase ordering, cart abandonment and more. SamCart’s mission is to give creators personal freedom and growth without worrying about technical solutions.
Location: Denver, Colorado
TurnCommerce is a web domain market that buys and sells domain names. It operates a collection of e-commerce sites that deal in domains, including DropCatch.com, which buys expiring domain names and transfers them to clients; NameBright.com, a domain registration service; and HugeDomains.com, a marketplace for branded domain names.
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Through Sunday’s website, consumers can purchase lawn care and pest control products that were developed using “cutting edge plant science.” Customers can also provide Sunday with a soil sample so the company is able to conduct a free analysis and set them up with a custom plan along with a subscription for products to support the health of their lawn.
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
By taking one of the more stressful consumer transactions and bringing it to a user-driven platform, CarGurus has made buying or selling a used car as simple as online shopping. Using digital retail solutions, proprietary search algorithms and data analytics, the CarGurus vehicle marketplace targets consumers with vehicles that align with their needs and connects motivated buyers with transparent sellers.
Location: Paris, France
Mirakl offers digital products that are used by brands around the world to facilitate e-commerce across B2B and retail markets. Its solutions include the Mirakl Platform for setting up an online marketplace, Mirakl Payout for secure payments to sellers and Mirakl Target2Sell for personalized product recommendations enabled by artificial intelligence.
Location: 26 offices
Brilliant Earth is an e-commerce company that sells sustainable jewelry by sourcing its diamonds from “ethical mines,” which are meant to protect against human rights abuse, maintain safe labor practices, minimize environmental effects, support communities and avoid funding rebel movements. It also uses blockchain technology to ensure diamonds can be tracked.
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Through Reverb’s website and mobile app, users can buy and sell drums, guitars, audio mixers, amplifiers and other instruments and music equipment. The company offers historic sales data to inform how sellers price their items and ensures they keep more than 90 percent of the profit from the final sale price.
Location: City of Industry, California
Hot Topic is a retail chain that sells merchandise focused on pop culture and music, and it also sells collector items like Funko POPs. Unlike many other major retailers, Hot Topic has an affiliate program for which consumers can apply.
Location: New York, New York
Rokt builds solutions meant to drive online sales and build strong customer relationships. For example, Rokt uses machine learning to personalize the offers and product recommendations displayed to customers during the checkout experience, with the goal of increasing average order values. Rokt’s clients come from industries like travel, retail and entertainment.
Location: Denver, Colorado
Ibotta provides millions of consumers with cash back rewards for their in-store and online purchases. Ibotta users can either deposit their earnings into a bank account or put the money on a gift card. Brands work with Ibotta to offer digital promotions that encourage a vast network of shoppers to buy from them.
Location: Fully remote
AWeber is a marketing tech company that serves small businesses. Its offerings include a solution for creating custom sales pages that can accept payments in a variety of different currencies. AWeber also gives businesses the option of providing their customers with payment plans or subscription-based memberships.
Location: New York, New York
Harry’s, a CPG company, came on the direct-to-consumer market in 2013 with its line of shaving products and accessories. Since then, it’s expanded the Harry’s portfolio to include a number of other DTC brands like Mando and Lume. During the pandemic, the company also launched a cat food and accessories brand, Cat People.
Location: Austin, Texas
BigCommerce aims to ignite a new era of e-commerce with its Open SaaS platform. It enables cross-channel commerce, integrating with top marketplaces like eBay and Google Shopping in addition to helping businesses capture more customers on social channels and keep in-store sales automatically updated with native point-of-sale systems. BigCommerce also allows businesses to offer discounts and promotions to customers who can make purchases using digital wallets such as Apple Pay and PayPal One Touch.
Location: Deerfield, Illinois
Founded over 100 years ago, Walgreens is a retail chain whose e-commerce presence spans a website and a mobile app. The company, well known for its pharmacy and clinic services, also sells photo-finishing products, food, household items and beauty products.
Location: New York, New York
Spot & Tango is reimagining pet health and nutrition for dogs, offering food without artificial additives and cheap preservatives. Through its subscription-based deliveries, the company offers personalized meals to a dog’s weight, activity levels and overall lifestyle. To get started, customers fill out a quiz regarding their dog’s needs.
Location: Fully remote
Lily AI offers an AI-powered product that’s designed to support e-commerce. It applies “customer-centered language” throughout the retail ecosystem to make it easier for consumers to find what they’re looking for, ensuring a smoother online shopping experience. The company has worked with major retail brands such as Bloomingdale’s and J.Crew.
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Zoro offers a marketplace platform for business operations equipment. It lets users search for, order and ship supplies seamlessly and quickly. The e-commerce platform includes a broad selection of products for industries that include machining, offices, schools and safety.
Location: Fully Remote
In a world where connections are limitless, Whatnot brings together like-minded individuals with topic-focused spaces. Customers can navigate online and mobile formats to access the company’s marketplace, which features items like comic books, toys and NFTs. By buying and selling collectibles on Whatnot, consumers can create communities centered around their passions and interests.
Location: New York, New York
Hungryroot offers a delivery service that allows users to get groceries and ready-to-eat meals that align with their dietary preferences, like dairy-free, anti-inflammatory and gluten-free diets. When a customer starts using Hungryroot, they answer questions about their nutrition goals and preferences so they can get their personalized food plan.
Location: New York, New York
Tapestry is a holding company that owns luxury retail brands Coach, Kate Spade New York and Stuart Weitzman. The company implemented various features to elevate the experience of its e-commerce sites. As the resale for Coach bags increased, the Coach (Re)Loved program was established, allowing for used bags to be sold directly from the Coach website.
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Cox Enterprises supports e-commerce in the automotive industry under the umbrella of its Cox Automotive subsidiary, which produces billions of dollars in revenue each year through solutions for manufacturers, dealers, consumers, lenders and fleet operators. Its two major brands for online car buying and selling are Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.
Location: New York, New York
The Farmer’s Dog is a subscription-based dog food service created in partnership with veterinary nutritionists. The company personalizes plans to meet an animal’s individual needs and sends pet parents human-grade food that’s delivered within days of being cooked so that it’s ready to serve.
Location: Seattle, Washington
Amazon is perhaps the most well-known name in the e-commerce sphere. The site sells everything from clothing and electronics to fitness equipment and pet supplies. Free shipping is offered on many orders, especially for Amazon Prime subscribers.
Location: Fully remote
MagicLinks is a social commerce company. Video influencers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok can use MagicLinks' tools to allow their followers to shop for products they feature on their accounts. MagicLinks also works with brands, matching them with creators who can engage with the right target audiences to drive sales.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Rue Gilt Groupe operates three members-only websites for buying designer apparel and other luxury goods at discounted prices: Rue La La, Gilt and Shop Premium Outlets. Its online shoppers have access to thousands of well-known brands, including Christian Louboutin, Stuart Weitzman, Coach, Nike, Adidas and Mulberry.
Location: Fully Remote
With hundreds of themes and templates, Mixbook allows people to edit their photos. The platform also sells photo goods — like photo books, cards, calendars and home decor — for consumers to display their personalized photos. For convenient editing, consumers can access Mixbook through the app too.
Location: San Francisco, California
Instacart operates an online e-commerce platform dedicated to grocery delivery. The company partners with retailers and pharmacies to offer same-day delivery and pickup services while providing consumers access to exclusive deals at their favorite local stores. Instacart currently offers its services in cities across North America, including Chicago, Austin, New York and Atlanta.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts and Dania Beach, Florida
Chewy offers an e-commerce platform for pet products. The company’s marketplace has boasted over 2,000 brands, with a variety of products ranging from food and treats to supplies and medication. Chewy also allows pet parents to have certain products shipped automatically on a monthly basis.
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Provi offers a platform that connects alcohol distributors with retailers. It brings distributors such as Smirnoff or Jack Daniel’s with retailers such as a bar or liquor store to a single place that makes ordering wholesale more like online shopping. The company has partnered with alcohol supply chain company Seven Fifty to form its unified marketplace.
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Fanatics is a sports apparel retailer that sells clothing and accessories emblazoned with the logos of your favorite teams. It’s got an e-commerce shop, and it’s also an official partner of professional athletics organizations including the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.
Location: Denver, Colorado
Artifact Uprising allows people to turn their digital pictures into high-quality photo books, wedding albums, calendars, framed prints, holiday cards, invitations and more. Each item can be customized or chosen from pre-made designs, and the service offers different themes and styles for special occasions.
Location: Austin, Texas
Ooni Pizza Ovens is an e-commerce retailer selling a line of portable wood-fire pizza ovens, accessories and groceries. The unique pizza ovens are built for outdoor settings and can reach 932 degrees fahrenheit, allowing pizzas to cook in just one minute. One percent of Ooni’s annual revenue is donated to social and environmental causes too.
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contentful provides a composable content platform with AI integration solutions that allow both non-technical and technical users to create custom digital experiences across channels. It aims to enhance their clients’ marketing strategies, accelerate their publishing, expand their market reach and enhance their customer experience. The company caters to a variety of industries across transportation, healthcare, construction and retail.
Location: Los Angeles, California
Thrive Market is a membership service for online grocery shopping. In addition to pantry staples, members can also buy supplements, plant-based cleaning supplies, beauty products and organic wine. The goods are delivered on each shopper’s individual schedule, and there are additional savings for having products autoshipped.
Location: Pico Rivera, California
Million Dollar Baby designs and produces furniture for children. With over 30 years of experience, the company works to help parents reimagine nursery designs without compromising a child’s safety. The parent company houses several brands including Babyletto, Da Vinci and Nursery Works. The furniture can be found in retailers like Target, Amazon and Spoil Me Baby.
Location: Austin, Texas
Sysco LABS is the digital innovation arm of Sysco, a wholesale distributor of food and restaurant supplies. The lab is responsible for optimizing the Sysco Shop e-commerce platform that allows customers to order more simply through web and mobile formats.
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that lets users build their own online store. The company describes itself as an “all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow a business.” It offers tools for branding, building an online presence and choosing which products to sell.
Location: Fully Remote
Not everyone is comfortable navigating the healthcare system, so Hims & Hers brings various services to patients in a remote setting. Once someone creates their digital profile, Hims & Hers provides a network of experienced practitioners and convenient delivery of prescriptions. Whether it’s skin care or sexual health, people can gather advice and resources through the Hims & Hers platform.
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Grubhub offers one of the nation’s largest online and mobile food ordering marketplaces. The company’s app allows users to browse local restaurants and nearby chains and grants them access to reviews, coupons, special deals and a 24/7 customer care team. Grubhub has partnered with over 225,000 restaurants across 4,000 U.S. cities.
Location: Munich, Germany
Commercetools’ composable commerce platform features solutions for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and direct-to-consumer brands. The technology gives companies the tools to customize the online shopping experience, while also saving them money and providing the resources for them to expand.
Location: Seattle, Washington
eBay is used by both buyers and sellers of electronics, art, jewelry, clothing, sporting goods and other items in more than 190 markets. Sellers can price and list their items and negotiate with buyers by allowing them to make offers and countering if necessary.
Location: Nantes, France
Akeneo, a product information management company, offers cloud-based software to the e-commerce industry. Its solution manages product data and offers a centralized space where information can be collected, used and enriched. This in turn feeds sales and marketing efforts. The French company focuses specifically on global multilingual commerce.
Location: Bloomington, Minnesota
Jabra Hearing sells audio products, including hearing aids and compatible accessories. People dealing with hearing loss can take an online test to find out if they’re a good candidate for the Enhance Select hearing aids. Customers can also opt for Jabra's premium package to get three years of remote access to continued care from Jabra’s audiology experts.
Location: New York, New York
AB Tasty is dedicated to offering retailers access to customer experience optimization. The company’s AI-driven platform enables organizations to deliver their customers personalized, compelling experiences while providing product teams access to easy-to-use feature flags, progressive rollout features and server-side testing. AB Tasty’s client base has included L’Oreal, USA Today and Ashley HomeStore.
Location: New York, New York
Etsy is an online marketplace where users can sell custom, specialty goods, such as leather accessories, barware, doll making materials, wall decor and party supplies. Small businesses earned nearly $4 billion in 2021 by selling on Etsy.
