New results are in from February 2025 activity in the Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index. Following a positive start to the year, ecommerce stocks fell 6.8% during the month from their January finish. Consumer spending showed signs of slowing as tariffs took effect and uncertainty weighed down the index and international companies showed the strongest gains.
Beyond and Wayfair both suffered setbacks in February, highlighting headwinds for retailers. In the meantime, ecommerce technology companies also saw setbacks, with Global-E Online and VTEX share prices each declining more than 20%.
February takeaways from the Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index
- The Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index declined 6.8% in February, underperforming the S&P.
- Beyond (down 23%) and Wayfair (down 18%) were among the retailers hit hardest amid new tariffs and consumer spending concerns.
- Companies outside the U.S. saw some of the biggest improvements, with Alibaba up 34% and MercadoLibre up 10%.
- Online Marketplaces
- Online Retail
- Ecommerce Technology
- International Companies
Readers should note that this index complements insights from Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000 data. That database specifically tracks North American online retailers and their web sales. The Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index, meanwhile, covers both B2C retail and B2B ecommerce companies, in addition to the technology vendors that serve them, with a broader focus on global activity. All commentary and reporting is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be financial advice.
Read January’s ecommerce stock index results here.
February ecommerce stock index results
“The Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index declined in February following what had been a good start to the year for the index,” said Colin Sebastian, Baird’s managing director and senior research analyst covering internet/ecommerce. “Overall, the index declined 6.8% for the month (after increasing 10.1% in January) and underperformed the S&P, which was also down for the month.”
The declines came as the impact of tariffs on ecommerce became evident, spilling over into March as well.
“Thus far in March, ecommerce stocks are down another 5.3%, on average, with increasing evidence of slowing consumer spending, fears of looming recession, geo-political instability and tariffs each contributing to negative GDP forecast revisions in the U.S.,” Sebastian explained.
Outside of the U.S., other ecommerce companies saw some of February’s strongest results in East Asia and South America.
“With respect to sub-sectors of ecommerce in the index, shares of International ecommerce were the lone bright spot in February, with Alibaba increasing 34% buoyed by stabilizing marketplace trends and cloud-based AI momentum, and MercadoLibre was up 10% after a positive earnings report,” Sebastian said.
Online retailers and technology companies suffer
In other areas, companies were not so fortunate.
“While there was broad-based weakness among other ecommerce sub-sectors, the hardest hit was Ecommerce Technology (-14% as a group), including logistics provider [Global-E] GLBE (-29% for the month) and technology platform VTEX (-28%), although [BigCommerce] BIGC was a positive outlier (+16%),” Sebastian noted. “Other weak performers after quarterly earnings included Beyond (-23%), PayPal (-20%) and Wayfair (-18%). Online marketplaces fared somewhat better for the month (down 5% as a group), most notably [Airbnb] ABNB (+6%) and [DoorDash] DASH (+5%).”
Questions linger about how long new tariffs will remain in place. Initial rollouts in the U.S. were followed by counter-measures from countries including Canada, China and Mexico. As trade disputes continue, tariff-related risks mentioned in numerous earnings reports from recent months now seem to be shaping markets as well. Nevertheless, the year is still in its first quarter.
“Baird views the overall February index performance as reflecting increasing uncertainty around the economy including investor concerns about a broader U.S. economic downturn, driven in part by tariffs,” Sebastian stated. “At this point, we continue to expect positive ecommerce growth this year.”
Stocks leading the index in February
In the index and among other International Companies, Alibaba’s performance in February proved to be exceptional. Its share price benefited from Alibaba’s Q3 earnings results. In that report, the company recorded an 8% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue to $38.4 billion. That growth was made possible by a 32% year-over-year revenue increase for its international B2B ecommerce segment, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC).
“This quarter’s results demonstrated substantial progress in our ‘user-first, AI-driven’ strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses,” said Eddie Wu, CEO of Alibaba Group, sharing the quarter’s numbers.
Alibaba owns the world’s two largest online marketplaces by gross merchandise value (GMV), Taobao and Tmall. Taobao ranks No. 1 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest such marketplaces by GMV. Tmall ranks No. 2. Both platforms operate in China and primarily serve the Chinese market. Among Alibaba’s other marketplaces is the global B2B marketplace Alibaba.com.
In technology, BigCommerce revenue, which was up 8% in its full fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2024, helped the company to outperform others in its Ecommerce Technology cohort. BigCommerce initiated a major change in October, bringing in new CEO Travis Hess to replace Brent Bellm as its top executive.
“We’re realigning our strategy, structure, and messaging to reflect the full power of BigCommerce,” Hess said as the company posted Q4 and full-year results. “Our progress so far gives me confidence in our ability to lead the future of modern commerce.”
Notably, BigCommerce’s quarterly revenue increased 3% year-over-year for the period to $87 million. In addition, it shrank its net loss to $2.4 million. That was an improvement of more than $3.2 million from a year earlier.
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.
Favorite