The latest results are in from December 2024 activity in the Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index. The index underperformed the S&P 500 for the month, even as it outperformed the S&P for the full year in 2024. December trouble could chiefly be seen in online retail stocks, even as online marketplaces showed more resilience as a category. That said, North America’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, showed up among the index’s best-performing stocks, which also included Xometry, Klaviyo and Global-E.
Though the reasons behind each company’s change in share price varied, December results did highlight how the top performers have set themselves apart.
December takeaways from Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index
- The Baird/Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Stock Index declined in December, down 3.8% from the end of November as the S&P fell 2.7% over the same period.
- Despite December’s results, the index ended 2024 up 27.1% for the full year, managing to outperform the S&P by more than three points.
- December’s top-performing stocks in the index were Xometry, Klaviyo, Global-E and Amazon.
This index is a collaboration between Digital Commerce 360 and the financial advisory, capital markets, asset management and private equity firm Baird. It is intended to provide perspective into how companies and technology providers that power digital commerce are being valued in public markets. The index contains four categories capturing activity extending throughout the Americas and China:
- Online Marketplaces
- Online Retail
- Ecommerce Technology
- International Companies
Readers should note that this index complements insights from Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 data. That database specifically tracks online retailers and their web sales in North America. 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 November’s ecommerce stock index results here.
December ecommerce stock index results
“After a strong November, the Baird/Digital Commerce Ecommerce Stock Index weakened slightly in December, declining 3.8% for the month, and slightly underperforming the 2.7% decline in the broader S&P index,” said Colin Sebastian, Baird’s managing director and senior research analyst covering internet/ecommerce. “For the full year, the ecommerce index increased 27.1%, outperforming the S&P by more than three points.”
Online retailers weighed down the index as a whole, with individual stories playing out during the year’s end, Cyber 5 (the period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) and larger 2024 holiday shopping season. Still, upward movement in other areas showed where investors remained more confident.
“With respect to sub-sectors of ecommerce included in the index, shares of Online Marketplaces were flat month over month, while Online Retail was the weak link, declining 8% compared to the end of November, followed by the International Ecommerce group falling 6% and Ecommerce Technology stocks down 2%,” Sebastian explained.
December’s top individual performers included the digital manufacturing services company Xometry, which showed up in that cohort for a third month in a row. Just behind it were the marketing and automation platform Klaviyo, the cross-border ecommerce platform Global-E and Amazon.
Meanwhile, underscoring end-of-year troubles among select retailers, the index’s largest negative movements in share price were observed at Beyond, Carvana, the ecommerce platform BigCommerce and Latin American marketplace operator Mercado Libre.
Characterizing challenges seen internationally, China-based platforms Pinduoduo, which owns Temu, and Alibaba both ended November down from a month prior.
“Baird views the overall December index performance as reflective of some profit-taking ahead of year-end, uncertainty around ecommerce trends into the new year, and some individual company issues,” Sebastian said. “Overall, we believe secular ecommerce trends remain healthy and Baird’s Internet research team expects another year of solid online growth in 2025.”
Stocks leading the index in December
While Xometry and Klaviyo made return appearances as index leaders in December, both Global-E and Amazon had breakout months.
In Amazon’s case, the retail giant went into the holiday season coming off its second-highest quarterly sales results ever. Third-quarter Amazon sales in North America alone reached $95.5 billion, the company reported on Oct. 31. That was accompanied by another $63.4 billion in sales from its international and AWS business. The company saw an 11% increase in net sales year over year, which was slightly higher than the 10% it recorded in the previous quarter.
Those results preceded a holiday season where Digital Commerce 360 research showed Amazon gaining share of Cyber 5 website traffic while its other major competitors lost share year over year. In the meantime, Amazon prepped for the holidays by securing an NFL game for its Prime Video streaming service, spotlighting one area of entertainment and advertising revenue where other retailers do not compete.
Amazon web sales by year
Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000 Database. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers in North America by annual web sales. Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
As for the index’s lowest performers in December, Carvana and BigCommerce saw their momentum reversed from November results. Elsewhere, Beyond continued what Marcus Lemonis, its executive chairman, characterized in its most recent earnings results as a transformation of its “asset-light business into an affinity and data monetization model with a strong technology focus.”
In practice, Beyond’s efforts included a $25 million deal with Kirkland’s to bring the Bed Bath & Beyond brand back into physical retail spaces. However, Beyond announced in November that a similar $40 million deal with The Container Store was potentially off the table. Weeks later, The Container Store filed for bankruptcy.
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