This year’s Cyber Week performance puts retailers in one of two categories: the platform businesses, and the rest. According to Salesforce data, overall ecommerce sales grew by just 5% globally during Cyber Week 2023. But data from marketplace and dropship platforms powered by Mirakl are telling a different story, with Mirakl GMV growing by 41% year-over-year, outperforming ecommerce by a remarkable 8.2x.
In 2023, monthly GMV running through Mirakl’s platform surpassed the $1 billion mark in November, reinforcing the unstoppable growth of platform business models – and demonstrating the scale and flexibility of the Mirakl platform. At the peak of Cyber Week sales, Mirakl handled 65 orders per second and scaled flawlessly, maintaining 100% uptime even as it received 2.5 billion API calls (+56% over 2022) and 34 billion product updates (+48% over 2022).
To dig deeper, we took a close look at Mirakl-powered marketplace and dropship platforms, analyzing the year-over-year performance of retailers that have been operational with Mirakl for 2+ years. The analysis reveals multiple factors behind their outsized growth during Cyber Week (the week ending Monday, November 27th):
- A higher volume of orders, consistent order value
Globally, the number of orders increased by 34% year-over-year, making it the primary driver of increased GMV. By comparison, average order value remained relatively unchanged, keeping pace with inflation and increasing by just 5% year-over-year. Whether in Paris, New York, London, or Los Angeles, growth trends also remained consistent across markets: year-over-year GMV increased by 31% in North America, while European retailers saw an average increase of 43%. - Trusted marketplace sellers & dropship suppliers fuel GMV growth
High-quality sellers and suppliers ensure that your platform feels like a curated, tailored part of your brand – and guarantee better sales as a result. In 2023, retailers using Mirakl Connect generated 30% of their overall Cyber Week sales through its “plug and play” network of 10,000+ pre-vetted sellers and suppliers. For Mirakl Connect seller Pattern, sales on Mirakl-powered marketplaces have grown by an average of 26% month-over-month since last year’s Cyber Week – a trend that continued during this year’s event.
We’re all about accelerating ecommerce for brands, and Mirakl has been an important part of that effort for over a year now. As consumer preferences shift, we know we need to stay nimble to be where customers prefer to shop online. Increasingly, that has meant marketplaces. Plugging our ecommerce acceleration platform into Mirakl Connect has given our partners access to the customer bases of the world’s most trusted retailers, while enriching the digital shelves of retailers within the network with an expanded selection of premium products. We’ve loved how seamless Mirakl has made expansion into new marketplaces in Mirakl Connect.
– George Hatch, Director of Marketplaces, Pattern
- Personalization is key
Consumers shopping during Cyber Week are inundated with offers, with every retailer out there competing for a sale. This year, retailers using Mirakl Target2Sell stood out, using AI-powered personalization to ensure a hyper-tailored experience. Target2Sell provided a significant boost to sales throughout the Cyber Week period: the number of orders containing recommended products was 3.6x greater during Cyber Week than the previous week. - Scalable, profitable growth during peak periods (and beyond)
When consumer demand surges during peak periods, marketplaces and dropship platforms offer retailers greater flexibility and scale than traditional ecommerce models. Platforms make it possible for retailers to give customers more of what they want, while protecting profitability – ensuring that sales beat the market, year after year after year.
Once again, our customers’ marketplace and dropship platforms outperformed overall ecommerce during Cyber Week with sales growing by 41% year-over-year. And with Mirakl GMV surpassing the $1 billion mark in November with a peak at 65 orders per second, let there be no doubt: platforms are the only way to go for retailers looking to grow profitably in today’s competitive landscape.
– Philippe Corrot, co-founder and CEO, Mirakl
