The Hottest Ecommerce Businesses to Start in 2014 (Infographic)

A look at the areas in ecommerce where the little guys have the most potential to make a big splash.

learn more about Catherine Clifford

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Being the big guy has its moments. Football, for example, tends to favor the larger fellows. But on the digital playing field, being little - as long as you're fast and nimble - can be a win.

If you are looking for blockbuster ecommerce business ideas that favor the small, check out this infographic (below) from Austin, Texas-based ecommerce platform-making company Bigcommerce. Analyzing data provided by 50,000 of its own clients for the past year, Bigcommerce determined that auto, jewelry, toys and games and pet care are fast-growing areas where one-of-a-kind merchants are outperforming their big-box or chain store peers.

For example, auto e-tailers are beating the pants off the likes of AutoZone, independent sporting goods e-tailers are growing faster than REI and Cabela and ecommerce craft stores are hopscotching over big names like Jo-Ann and Hobby Lobby. By the same token, Toys-R-US and American Girl web stores are not growing as quickly as their smaller toy ecommerce counterparts, Bigcommerce data shows.

Here is the infographic with more granular data breaking down growth of revenue per store, size of order and number of stores in various online industries.

Click to Enlarge+

The Hottest Ecommerce Businesses to Start in 2014 (Infographic)

Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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