Prepping for SEMA 2024: eCommerce Trends, Platform Shifts, and Our Automotive Industry Focus
Ambaum is hosting a happy hour on Wednesday, November 6th at 4 p.m. at the Wynn. If you’re attending SEMA this year, let’s connect in person!
As November approaches, I’m gearing up for my second Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. It was a bit overwhelming the first time and I’m more prepared this year, especially about how to navigate (hint: use the underground tunnels with Teslas!) between the different Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The last couple of years, Ambaum has focused on automotive and parts brands and we are doubling down on that focus in 2025 by attending more industry conferences.
Similar to last year, I decided to use the BuiltWith chrome plugin and find out what eCommerce platforms are the most popular for the exhibitors. Last year, I took a sample of sites to identify popular platforms, but this year I decided to step it up and put them together.
E-Commerce Platform Trends at SEMA
- WordPress Leads, but Losing Ground
WordPress still leads the way but its dominance has fallen from 51.7% of the sites to 47.6%. This doesn’t surprise me as the majority of automotive sites on WordPress aren’t transactional. As more B2B automotive and parts businesses add eCommerce functionality to their sites I expect to see WordPress continue to lose market share. WordPress also has a lot of drama going on at the moment; both Automattic and the hosting company, WP Engine, have filed cease and desist letters against each other. It will be interesting to see how this all gets resolved. - Shopify’s Gradual Increase in Market Share
Shopify nudged up from 18.1% to 18.7% of the SEMA sites. Historically, Shopify has lagged with B2B functionality, but in the last couple Editions (Shopify’s bi-annual feature releases) there has been a renewed focus on B2B functionality in Shopify Plus. Additionally, Shopify is creating a sales team to focus on B2B customers. Next year when I do this comparison, I expect the share of Shopify sites to bump up considerably. - Other Notable Shifts
- Magento (now Adobe Commerce) dropped from 7.4% to 4.1%.
- SAP Commerce fell from 1.3% to 0.3%.
- BigCommerce saw an impressive increase from 0.7% to 2.6%.
- Other platforms collectively rose from 12.8% to 18%. This is more of a catch-all category, so it is difficult to gain too much insight from this increase.
Looking Ahead
Next year, I plan to dive even deeper into these trends, comparing SEMA exhibitor data year-over-year to get a clearer view of platform shifts and emerging patterns.
If you’re attending SEMA this year, I’d love to connect in person! Ambaum is hosting a happy hour on Wednesday, November 6th at 4 p.m. at the Wynn. It’s a great opportunity to talk shop, network, and discuss the future of automotive e-commerce. Hope to see you there!
–Chad Fisher, Founder & CEO @ Ambaum
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