As global e-commerce jumps to $26.7 trillion, one of the world’s leading Retail Operating Systems is launching its search for the ‘Lightning 50,’ a league table of America’s fastest growing e-commerce businesses of the last twelve months.

With Brightpearl research suggesting four in ten (39%) of American consumers will only shop online in the next five years, the Lightning 50 aims to celebrate the fastest-growing online retailers in the United States. Brightpearl works with brands such as Puma, Holland Cooper and Shopify, and is inviting businesses who have seen huge growth over the past year to register to be in for a chance of inclusion. 

Despite loosened restrictions, the pandemic has seemingly altered our shopping habits forever.  The boom in online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic has seen many of us become increasingly more comfortable shopping online, with global e-commerce jumping to $26.7 trillion.

New data from Brightpearl, a popular operating system for retailers, reveals the embedded nature of our new buying habits, with four in ten (39%) American consumers claiming they will only shop online in the next five years.

A search is now underway to recognize those US-based e-commerce businesses that have thrived during the last year. Entries are now open for the ‘Lightning 50,’ a definitive list of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in the US.

Brightpearl, which provides retail operations solutions for some of the world’s biggest retail brands, such as Puma, Lovepop and Shopify, is launching the search to celebrate e-tailers which have grown the most during the past 12 months.  Online businesses who have seen huge growth over the past year are being invited to register to be in for a chance of inclusion in the final list.

Firms can enter here: Lightning 50 - Brightpearl. Entries close on August 12th, 2022.

The first annual Lightning 50, launched in Fall 2021, was specific to UK brands only. The Lightning 50 researchers tracked growth rates for hundreds of companies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Wales-based premium drink brand, Au Vodka, was revealed as the UK’s fastest growing online company, with an incredible YOY growth rate of 10,000%.

This year alone, online retailers have been seeing year-on-year sales increases of upwards of 700%, according to internal research from Brightpearl's 3,000 strong customer base, the majority of which are US-based. Brightpearl is now seeking to reveal the definitive league table of the fastest growing online retailers for 2022 – both in the UK and the US.

The Lightning 50 is free for businesses to enter, and open to e-commerce businesses with annual turnovers from $1M-$250M. Firms must submit two full years of revenue data for 2020 and 2021 to be eligible for the Lightning 50 which is set to be revealed later this year. 

“It’s truly the Hyper-Scalable Era of e-commerce – our data shows many online retailers reporting incredible growth rates and having huge success over the past 12 months,” said Brightpearl CMO Sara Arthrell. “There has been a big shift to online shopping since the onset of the pandemic, and online deliveries have been one of the consistent highlights for people, even as Covid-restrictions have ebbed and flowed. We want to use the Lightning 50 to celebrate and shine a light on some of the incredible work online firms have been doing throughout the pandemic.

“The Lightning 50 only takes into account one metric when scoring businesses – growth,” added Sara Arthrell. “We encourage any high growth brand to enter so they can get the recognition they deserve.”

“Winning the Lightning 50 has given us the chance to step back for a brief moment and see that we’ve achieved something that’s pretty awesome,” said Jordan Major, Head of E-Commerce, Au Vodka, speaking on winning the Lightning 50 last year, and what it meant to the business.

Entries are now open for the 2022 edition of the ‘Lightning 50’ here.

Brightpearl works with thousands of retailers introducing software that puts orders, inventory, financials, POS (point of sale) and CRM (customer relationship management) in one place.