June 2013 ChannelAdvisor Same Store Sales (SSS) for eBay, Amazon, Search and CSE

Note: This is a monthly feature published by ChannelAdvisor highlighting the Same Store Sales (SSS) across our wide range of thousands of retailers and billions in GMV.  Details on the SSS including background, methodology, disclaimers and schedule can be found in this post.

Today we are releasing June 2013 data for Marketplaces (eBay/Amazon), Search and Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE) along with supplemental data.  June is the end of the second quarter and gives us a view on how the Spring shaped up for e-commerce as we head into Summer.  According to comScore, non-travel e-commerce grew 16% in April/May

June 2013 SSS Results 

• Amazon - In June, Amazon came in at 30.6% which is an increase from May's 25.8% and more than double the rate of e-commerce growth (as reported by comScore) 
• eBay -  eBay's SSS for June came in at 17.7% which is an increase from May's 16% . Further in the report we provide eBay internal component details which provide details on the June results.  Note that this is still slightly faster growth than e-commerce.
• CSE - Comparison Shopping came in at a robust 10% y/y   growth for June, an  increase from May's 0.3% - the best SSS showing since December 2012.
• Search - Search came in at 5.1% y/y growth, up considerably from May's -0.8%.  Further in the report we have search details.

Together, these datapoints show that in June, all e-commerce channels performed better than in May.  As mentioned in the May post, overall retail sales were muted due to weather trends, which seem to have dissipated in June.

SSS Chart 

The following chart details the SSS data for June 2012 through June 2013: (click to enlarge)

eBay Details

eBay's 17.7% SSS result for June was just slightly ahead of  e-commerce growth.  To get a feel for what is driving the marketplaces' performance, here are the interior datapoints for the month:

• eBay auctions - Down 17.2% y/y.
• eBay fixed-price - Up 18.9% y/y - Fixed price had a decent showing in June growing faster than e-commerce.  
• eBay Motors  (parts and accessories) - P+A had another strong showing in June  up 27.8% on the heels of May's 29.5% strong showing.  

 Here are the TTM (trailing twelve month) trends on these eBay internals.  (click to enlarge)

Supplemental data for Search

Here are the June Search internals: (click to enlarge)

Search (traditional adwords) was up 5.1% in June  - an increase from May .   Looking at the internal data, we see the cannibalization from PLA/Google Shopping in the clicks metric which was down 7%. Search CR's were up  (7% y/y) to 2.78%. AOV was also up 12% which helped generate a positive outcome even in the face of PLA/GS click cannibalization.

Enhanced Campaigns go live in July and it will be interesting to watch the movement in CPC which should rise as advertisers are no longer able to bid lower for the lower converting mobile ads.

Supplemental data for Google Shopping

In August 2012, we introduced a new set of data around Google Shopping.  Here is the June Google Shopping supplemental data:

In June, we saw a continuing of the Google Shopping CR trend - an improvement of 10.2% which is impressive.  That being said, AOV was down slightly 3.1% y/y where for Jan-March  it had been trending up.  This could be  the start of a bit of plateauing of this program as it gets into its sixth month of full roll out.  Google rolled out the program  in the EU in June so we may see some of the metrics move around as EU retailers  starts and then stabilizes.

Conclusions 

By our numbers, June e-commerce accelerated compared to May.  Marketplaces outperformed e-commerce, search and CSE continued to grow more slowly than e-commerce.  

This blog post was written by Scot Wingo, CEO, ChannelAdvisor. eBay is an investor in ChannelAdvisor.