eCommerce Statistics

Somewhere between 2019 and now, online shopping stopped being an alternative and became the default. The ecommerce statistics for 2026 tell that story in numbers: trillions in global sales, billions of shoppers, and a retail landscape that looks nothing like it did a decade ago. Behind every one of those figures is a shift in how people actually live and buy.

This guide breaks down the data that matters most right now. You’ll find numbers on market size, mobile shopping, social commerce, AI adoption, and the friction points still costing merchants sales. Whether you’re building a strategy or just curious where the industry stands, these ecommerce statistics offer a clear, current snapshot worth understanding.

Key Takeaways

Global ecommerce sales reached $6.42 trillion in 2025 and are projected to hit $7.41 trillion in 2026. Online retail’s share of total global retail was 20.5% in 2025 and hasn’t peaked.

Cart abandonment sits at 70% across 48 studies. Unexpected costs at checkout, cited by 39–47% of abandoning shoppers, remain the single largest fixable cause. Browsing intent accounts for 43–60% and cannot be changed.

Social commerce is projected to reach $2.9 trillion by 2026. TikTok Shop alone is on track for $23.41 billion in U.S. ecommerce sales that year, a 48% year-over-year increase, putting it ahead of Target, Costco, Best Buy, and Kroger in U.S. ecommerce.

99% of shoppers read reviews before buying; 96% specifically seek out negative ones. A brand with no reviews loses a substantial share of potential customers before anyone reaches the cart.

AI agents are expected to mediate $3–5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030. 93% of ecommerce businesses already treat AI agents as a competitive advantage, and 34% of Amazon sellers use AI for product listing optimization.

The online return rate has more than doubled since 2019, from 8.1% to 19.3% of all online purchases. 63% of U.S. shoppers won’t buy from a store where they can’t find the return policy.

Mobile generated $2.51 trillion in ecommerce sales in 2025, 59% of worldwide ecommerce. Despite that volume, mobile conversion rates (2.1–2.3%) still trail desktop (2.8–3.5%), which is where the optimization gap sits.

Global Ecommerce Market Size

These figures establish the scale of the industry and how fast the share of retail is shifting online. The headline number is not the story — the rate of structural shift from physical to digital retail is. How many people use ecommerce is just as telling as the dollar figures, since shopper growth and retail share are moving in lockstep. 

• Global retail ecommerce sales reached $6.42 trillion in 2025, up from $3.3 trillion in 2019. (Inriver)
• Online sales accounted for 20.5% of all global retail in 2025 and are projected to reach 21.1% in 2026 — ecommerce percentage of retail sales that keeps climbing year after year.
•  (Inriver)
• Global ecommerce sales are projected to reach $7.41 trillion in 2026, an 8% year-over-year increase. (SellersCommerce)
• The market is forecast to exceed $8 trillion by 2027. (SellersCommerce)
• Ecommerce’s share of global retail is forecast to hit 22.6% by 2027, up from 19.5% in 2023. (Hostinger)
• An estimated 2.77 billion people shopped online globally in 2025, growing to 2.86 billion in 2026 — 33% of the world’s population. (SellersCommerce)
• As of September 2024, 2.71 billion people were shopping online, up 2.7% from the year prior. (Hostinger)
• The global ecommerce ecosystem now comprises over 28 million ecommerce sites as of 2026, a 2.9% increase from 2024. (SellersCommerce)

Year	Global Ecommerce Sales	Online Share of Retail
2019	$3.3 trillion	—
2021	$4.98 trillion	18.8%
2023	—	19.5%
2024	$6.3 trillion	20.1%
2025	$6.42–$6.86 trillion	20.5%
2026	$6.88–$7.41 trillion	21.1–21.8%
2027	$7.9–$8+ trillion	22.6%

Sources: Inriver, SellersCommerce, Forbes, Hostinger

United States Ecommerce

The U.S. is the world’s second-largest ecommerce market and still growing at rates that outpace its physical retail sector. Amazon’s dominance in both market share and search behavior has no equivalent anywhere else.

• U.S. ecommerce hit a record high of $1.19 trillion in 2025, a 300.67% increase from $297 billion in 2014. (SellersCommerce)
• U.S. ecommerce sales in Q1 2026 reached $326.7 billion, a 9.8% increase from Q1 2025. (Ecommercetrix)
• Online shopping accounted for 16.9% of all U.S. retail sales in Q1 2026. (Ecommercetrix)
• U.S. ecommerce is forecast to reach $1.72 trillion by 2027. (SellersCommerce)
• U.S. ecommerce is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 7.8% from 2023 to 2027. (Ecommercetrix)
• The U.S. has 295.4 million active online buyers. (SellersCommerce)
• 56.1% of internet users aged 16–64 shop online weekly. (DiviFlash)
• In 2023, U.S. consumers spent an average of $2,700 per year online, compared to a global average of $1,109. (DiviFlash)
• 80% of Americans shop online; 96% have made an online purchase in their lifetime. (Instapage)

Where U.S. shoppers search first:

• 56% of U.S. shoppers begin product searches directly on Amazon. (Ecommercetrix)
• 42% start on traditional search engines like Google. (Ecommercetrix)
• 29% begin on Walmart.com. (Ecommercetrix)

U.S. ecommerce market share by retailer (2026):

Retailer	U.S. Ecommerce Market Share
Amazon	37.6–40.4%
Walmart	6.4%
Apple	3.6%
eBay	3.0%
Target	1.9%

Source: SellersCommerce, Forbes

Top Countries and Regions

China is the largest ecommerce market by every volume measure, and Asia leads every region in online shopping growth statistics. The UK leads Europe in online share of retail. 

China:

• Chinese online retail sales were approximately $2.2–$2.4 trillion in 2025. (Ecommercetrix)
• China has 958 million online shoppers — expected to reach 1.33 billion by 2027. (Ecommercetrix)
• 46.3% of all retail sales in China occur online — the highest ecommerce penetration rate in the world, a figure that puts China’s ecommerce penetration rate well ahead of every other major market.  (Ecommercetrix)
• China’s B2C ecommerce sector is forecast to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.3% from 2020 to 2027. (Ecommercetrix)

Asia:

• Six of the world’s ten fastest-growing ecommerce markets are in Asia: Philippines (24.1% growth), India (22.3%), Indonesia (20%). (Ecommercetrix)

United Kingdom:

• Online sales are expected to account for more than 28% of all UK retail sales in 2026, rising to nearly 30% by 2030. (Ecommercetrix)

Cross-border shopping:

• 52% of online shoppers report ordering from both local and international websites. (Forbes)
• Mexico has the highest cross-border shopping rate at 72%. (SellersCommerce)
• 63% of U.S. and UK shoppers prefer purchasing from local websites. (SellersCommerce)

Ecommerce Platforms and Marketplaces

Platform choice affects everything from fulfillment options to SEO performance. These e-commerce statistics show Shopify and WooCommerce dominate. Amazon’s monthly traffic lead over every other marketplace is not close.

Platform market share:

• Among the world’s top 1 million websites, Shopify leads ecommerce platform usage at 27.5%. (Ecommercetrix)
• Squarespace accounts for 14.75% of global ecommerce sites. (Ecommercetrix)
• In the U.S., Shopify holds 28.34% of the platform market among the top 1 million ecommerce sites. (Ecommercetrix)
• WooCommerce has over 4.5 million active stores globally as of 2025. (Elementor)
• The global headless commerce market is estimated at $1.74 billion in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 22.4%. (Elementor)

Shopify Average Order Value (AOV) benchmarks:

• Typical Shopify store AOV: $85
• Top 20% of Shopify merchants: $192
• Top 10% of Shopify stores: $311

Source: Ecommercetrix

Marketplace dominance:

• Alibaba has 903 million active customers — nearly three times Amazon’s 310 million. (Ecommercetrix)
• Amazon receives 2.84 billion average monthly visits — more than five times eBay’s 543 million. (SellersCommerce)
• AliExpress saw a 44% growth in website visits year-over-year; Flipkart saw 90%; Lazada nearly 200%. (SellersCommerce)

Mobile Commerce

Mobile is now the default shopping device. Desktop still leads on conversion rate and order value, but traffic and purchase volume are firmly on mobile.

Traffic and reach:

• Mobile accounts for 71% of all ecommerce site traffic. (Ecommercetrix)
• 91% of people make online purchases using their smartphone. (Forbes)
• 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase using their phone in the last six months. (Elementor)
• 69.6% of shoppers prefer using smartphones for online purchases; 22.8% use a desktop or laptop. (Hostinger)
• 75% of female shoppers prefer mobile for online purchases, compared to 63% of men. (Hostinger)
• 66% of online orders are placed via smartphones. (DiviFlash)
• Customers spend almost 60% of their online shopping time on a mobile device. (Instapage)

Revenue:

• Global mobile ecommerce totaled $2.51 trillion in 2025, up 21.3% year-over-year — 59% of worldwide ecommerce sales. (Inriver)
• Global mobile ecommerce is projected to reach $2.74 trillion in 2026 and $3.02 trillion by 2027. (SellersCommerce)
• The global mobile share is projected to reach 67% by 2030. (Inriver)
• U.S. mobile retail ecommerce sales: $511 billion in 2023, up from $220 billion in 2019. (Hostinger)
• 65% of U.S. ecommerce sales are mobile-driven. (Ecommercetrix)

Mobile vs. desktop performance:

Metric	Mobile	Desktop	Tablet
Conversion rate	2.1–2.3%	2.8–3.5%	3.1%
Average order value	$112	$155	—
Share of traffic	71%	~27–29%	declining

Sources: Elementor, SellersCommerce

Mobile UX and friction:

• 46% of mobile users abandon carts because typing in card information is inconvenient. (Elementor)
• 84% of shoppers would install and shop through a mobile app if it offered access to better sales or pricing. (SellersCommerce)
• 66% of consumers say mobile app transactions boost their likelihood of making repeat purchases. (Inriver)
• 70% of shoppers say mobile commerce is time-saving and convenient for buying on the go. (Hostinger)

Voice commerce:

• Revenue from voice-activated shopping exceeded $164 billion in 2025. (Ecommercetrix)
• 40% of millennials have used voice search before making a purchase online. (Instapage)
• Of those who own a virtual assistant, almost 60% have used it to make a purchase. (Instapage)

Digital Wallets and Payment Methods

Card-based payments are losing share to digital wallets, and that shift is happening faster in Asia Pacific than anywhere else.

• Digital wallets account for around half of all global online transactions. (Ecommercetrix)
• Digital wallets are expected to dominate 61% of global ecommerce payments by 2026. (Hostinger)
• 48% of online shoppers prioritize secure payment methods and multiple payment options. (Hostinger)

Social Commerce

Social commerce is the fastest-growing channel in ecommerce. TikTok Shop’s trajectory in particular is rewriting what a marketplace can look like inside a social app.

Market size:

• Social commerce is forecast to reach $2.9 trillion by 2026 and $8.5 trillion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 29%. (SellersCommerce)
• The global social commerce market reached $1.2 trillion in 2023 and is growing at 30.7% annually. (Hostinger)
• U.S. social commerce revenues are expected to surpass $100 billion for the first time in 2026. (Inriver)
• The U.S. social commerce Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) was $64.8 billion in 2023, projected to reach nearly $150 billion by 2028 at 18.2% annually. (Hostinger)

Consumer behavior:

• 45% of global consumers have made a purchase directly via a social media app. (Elementor)
• 73% of consumers aged 18 to 34 have made a purchase via social media, compared to ~25% of those aged 65+. (SellersCommerce)
• 82% of consumers expressed satisfaction with their most recent social shopping experience. (DiviFlash)

Platform breakdown (U.S. social commerce shoppers, 2026 projection):

Platform	U.S. Social Commerce Shoppers
Facebook	74 million
Instagram	47.5 million
TikTok	37.8 million
Pinterest	18.1 million

Source: SellersCommerce

TikTok Shop:

• TikTok Shop is projected to reach $23.41 billion in U.S. ecommerce sales in 2026, a 48% year-over-year increase — larger than Target, Costco, Best Buy, or Kroger in U.S. ecommerce. (Inriver)
• TikTok Shop sales grew 150% year-over-year globally. (Elementor)
• TikTok Shop launched in 2023 and achieved a record $61.2 million GMV during Black Friday week. (Hostinger)
• 20.6% of TikTok users say they buy through the app “all the time.” (Ecommercetrix)

Livestream shopping:

• China’s livestream shopping market is expected to surpass 6 trillion yuan in 2025. (Ecommercetrix)
• Douyin saw a 40x increase in transaction value between 2019 and 2022. (Ecommercetrix)
• Over 7 in 10 social media users in Thailand, India, and China have engaged in live commerce shopping. (Forbes)
• 40% of U.S. online shoppers have made at least one purchase via live commerce. (SellersCommerce)

EU Ecommerce: Enterprise Sales

Eurostat’s 2024 enterprise data shows that while EU e-sales adoption is rising, it is highly uneven across countries and sectors. Lithuania leads; Romania trails. Own-website channels generate more than five times the turnover of marketplaces.

Adoption trends:

• The share of EU enterprises conducting e-sales grew from 18.93% in 2014 to 23.59% in 2024. (Europa)
• EU enterprises’ e-sales turnover share grew from 16.43% in 2014 to 19.49% in 2024 — a rise of 3.06 percentage points. (Europa)
• In 2024, 17.99% of EU enterprises conducted e-sales using only websites or apps. (Europa)
• 2.9% used only (Electronic Data Interchange) EDI-type sales; 2.7% used both channels. (Europa)
• EU e-commerce turnover via own websites or apps was more than 5 times higher than via marketplaces. (Europa)

Country range:

• E-sales share ranged from 14.57% in Romania to 43.03% in Lithuania. (Europa)
• After Lithuania, highest e-sales rates: Denmark (38.78%), Sweden (36.72%), Ireland (36.57%). (Europa)
• Total e-sales turnover share ranged from 7.63% in Bulgaria to 38.25% in Ireland. (Europa)
• Ireland had the highest web sales turnover share (25.15%); France recorded 4.05%. (Europa)
• Denmark led EDI-type sales turnover (24.92%), followed by Finland (21.07%). (Europa)

By channel:

• 85.65% of EU enterprises with web sales used their own websites or apps; 45% used a marketplace. (Europa)
• Own-website usage was highest in Estonia (97.28%), Denmark (96.2%), Slovakia (95.97%); lowest in Lithuania (46.9%). (Europa)
• Marketplace usage was highest in Lithuania (86.55%), Italy (65.06%), Poland (63.62%). (Europa)

B2B vs. B2C web sales:

• Of the 8.39% of EU turnover from web sales, 4.34% was B2B/G and 4.04% was B2C. (Europa)
• Ireland had the highest B2B/G web sales turnover share (18.77%); France recorded 1.96%. (Europa)
• B2C web sales ranged from 1.58% in Slovenia to 7.08% in Cyprus. (Europa)

By sector:

• Accommodation and food services: highest web sales turnover at 20.4%. (Europa)
• Information and communication: 16.97% from web sales. (Europa)
• Manufacturing: highest EDI-type sales turnover at 17.86%. (Europa)
• Wholesale and retail trade: 10.51% from EDI-type sales. (Europa)
• 99.05% of accommodation and food service enterprises making e-sales received orders via websites or apps. (Europa)

EU Ecommerce: Individual Shoppers 

Eurostat’s 2025 individual data shows 78% of EU internet users now buy online — up 16 percentage points over a decade. The 25–34 age group is the highest-participation bracket; pensioners and low-education groups show the widest growth opportunity.

Adoption:

• 78% of those internet users had bought or ordered goods or services online. (Europa)
• The share of EU internet users buying online grew from 62% in 2015 to 78% in 2025 — 16 percentage points over 10 years. (Europa)
• 15% of EU internet users had never bought online in 2025. (Europa)
• Ireland (87%) and the Netherlands (86%) had the highest rates of recent online purchases (within 3 months). (Europa)

By age:

Age Group	Share Buying Online
25–34	90% (12 pp above EU average)
35–44	87%
16–24	84%
45–54	80%
55–64	69%
65–74	55%

Source: Europa

By employment and education:

• 85% of employed EU individuals bought online in 2025, compared to 83% of students, 69% of unemployed, and 60% of pensioners. (Europa)
• Those in professional/scientific/technical roles: 96% shopped online. (Europa)
• High formal education: 89%+ shopped online; medium education: 77%; low education: 59%. (Europa)

Shopping frequency:

• 34% of EU online buyers purchased 1–2 times in the previous 12 months. (Europa)
• 33% purchased 3–5 times. (Europa)
• 62% had purchased within the last 3 months before the 2025 survey. (Europa)

What EU individuals bought online (2025):

• 27% bought transport services from enterprises. (Europa)
• 29% bought event tickets. (Europa)
• 33% subscribed to film, series, or sport streaming. (Europa)
• 13% purchased insurance policies online. (Europa)

Problems encountered:

• 63% of EU e-shoppers reported no problems when purchasing online in 2025. (Europa)
• 20% cited slower-than-expected delivery as their primary problem. (Europa)
• 12% encountered a website that was difficult to use. (Europa)
• 10% received a wrong or damaged item. (Europa)
• 4% reported fraud-related issues. (Europa)

Shopping Behavior and Purchase Drivers

Understanding where shoppers start, what motivates them, and when they buy is where margins are made. Free shipping consistently outranks price as the stated top purchase driver.

Where shoppers start their journey:

• 48.8% of customers started at general retailer websites or apps (Walmart, Amazon) in early-to-mid 2024. (Hostinger)
• 23.2% used search engines as their starting point. (Hostinger)
• 18% went directly to a brand’s website; 4.8% started on social media. (Hostinger)

Top reasons consumers shop online:

• Lower prices (29%), convenience (21%), and free shipping (14%) account for 64% of consumer choices collectively. (DiviFlash)
• Product availability (7%) and good customer service (7%) round out the top five. (DiviFlash)
• 79% of U.S. consumers say free shipping would make them more likely to shop online. (Instapage)

Top purchase motivators:

• Free delivery: 50.6%
• Coupons and discounts: 39.3%
• Easy return policy: 33.2%
• Simple checkout: 30.6%
• Customer reviews: 30.5%
• Next-day delivery: 30.4%

Source: SellersCommerce

• 53% of U.S. online shoppers won’t purchase a product if they don’t know when it will arrive. (Instapage)
• Just 15% of U.S. consumers say businesses meet their delivery speed expectations; 30% say Amazon does. (Instapage)
• 54% of U.S. consumers under age 25 say same-day shipping is their number one purchase driver. (Instapage)

Pre-purchase research:

• 81% of online shoppers conduct research before buying; 60% start on a search engine. (SellersCommerce)
• 66% conduct pre-purchase research on a PC or laptop; 15% on mobile. (SellersCommerce)
• 75% of shoppers cross-check multiple sources to verify product information. (Inriver)
• For 1 in 3 consumers, lack of knowledge about a product or category is a key barrier to purchase. (Inriver)
• 55% of consumers rank search engines as their top pre-purchase information source; Amazon is second at 35%. (Inriver)

Shopping frequency:

• 34% of shoppers make a purchase at least once a week; 82% at least once a month. (SellersCommerce)

Top online purchase categories (last six months):

• Personal care: 65.6%
• Groceries: 65.2%
• Apparel: 63.6%
• Health products: 59.2%
• Accessories: 54.8%
• Home products: 40.4%
• Consumer electronics: 36.4%
• Furniture: 20.8%

Source: Hostinger

Top ecommerce categories by estimated 2026 spending:

Category	Estimated 2026 Spend
Consumer electronics	$976 billion
Fashion	$957 billion
Food and beverages	$905 billion
DIY and hardware	$395 billion
Furniture	$280 billion
Media	$257 billion
Beauty and personal care	$251 billion

Source: SellersCommerce

Peak shopping hours:

• 40.8% of purchases happen in the afternoon (12 PM–6 PM). (Hostinger)
• 35.6% in the evening (6 PM–12 AM). (Hostinger)
• 20% in the morning (6 AM–12 PM). (Hostinger)
• 3.6% overnight. (Hostinger)

B2B buyer behavior:

B2B buyer behavior is where the biggest checks get written. These b2b ecommerce statistics show buyers are just as comfortable online as consumers are, and reordering has largely gone digital.

• 79% of B2B buyers prefer to place reorders online. (DiviFlash)
• 15% of B2B buyers are willing to make online purchases exceeding $1 million. (DiviFlash)
• Over 30% are comfortable spending over $500,000 online. (DiviFlash)
• Almost half of U.S. B2B businesses offer their entire product line online. (Instapage)

Customer support preferences:

• Phone support: 21.6%; email support: 14%; self-service portal: 10%. (Hostinger)
• 51% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases from sites that offer live chat support. (Hostinger)
• 83% of U.S. consumers expect regular communication about their purchases. (Instapage)

Cart Abandonment

Seven in ten shoppers leave without buying. The reasons are well-documented and largely fixable. 

• The average global cart abandonment rate is approximately 70%, based on an average across 48 studies. (Forbes)
• Inriver and Ecommercetrix both put the rate at exactly 70.22%. (Inriver)
• Only 2.27–2.86% of ecommerce website visits convert into a purchase on average. (Hostinger, Instapage)

Why shoppers abandon:

Reason	Cited By
Just browsing / not ready to buy	43–60% of shoppers
Extra costs (shipping, taxes, fees)	39–47%
Found a better price elsewhere	26%
Changed mind	23%
Slow delivery	21–24%
Didn’t trust the site with payment info	19%
Required account creation	19–25%
Checkout too long or complicated	18%
Couldn’t see full order cost upfront	14%
Inconvenient return policy	16%
Wanted additional payment options	10%

Sources: Ecommercetrix, Forbes, SellersCommerce, Hostinger

By generation:

• High prices drive abandonment for 45% of Gen Z, 34% of Millennials, and 32% of Gen X and Boomers. (Hostinger)
• High shipping costs are the second most common cause for 20% of Gen Z, 17% of Millennials, and 18% of Gen X and Boomers. (Hostinger)
• Product quality concerns affect 25% of Gen X and Boomers, 16% of Millennials, and 15% of Gen Z. (Hostinger)

Checkout friction:

• The average ecommerce checkout process spans 5.08 steps, contributing to a 22% cart abandonment rate. (SellersCommerce)
• 23% of shoppers will abandon if they have to create a new user account. (Instapage)

Recovery:

• 54% of shoppers will purchase products they left in their cart if the price is later lowered. (Instapage)
• Purchase confidence is 3.2x higher among shoppers who found relevant product information. (Inriver)
• Consumers who are highly confident at point of purchase are 18x more likely to recommend the brand than those with low confidence. (Inriver)
• 88% of online shoppers say detailed product information is important to their purchasing decisions. (Instapage)

Online Reviews and Trust

Almost every online shopper reads reviews before buying. Negative reviews are specifically sought out. A business with no reviews loses nearly half its potential customers before they even reach the cart.

• 99% of online shoppers check reviews before making a purchase. (SellersCommerce)
• 96% specifically look for negative reviews. (SellersCommerce)
• 54.7% read at least four reviews before buying; 44% read up to three. (Hostinger)
• 59% of online shoppers use Google to find product reviews, followed by Amazon at 57%. (Hostinger)
• 97% of buyers who read reviews look for responses from the online store. (Hostinger)
• 62% avoid brands that censor online reviews. (Hostinger)
• When dissatisfied, 55% of online shoppers will tell friends and family. (Instapage)

Personalization and AI

AI adoption in ecommerce is moving from pilot to production. AI agents, chatbots, and personalization engines are now standard infrastructure for high-performing stores, not experimental features.

Market size:

• The AI-enabled ecommerce market is valued at $8.65 billion in 2025, expected to more than double by 2032. (Elementor)
• The AI-powered ecommerce tools market is projected to reach nearly $17 billion by 2030. (Ecommercetrix)
• AI agents could mediate $3 trillion to $5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030. (Inriver)
• The U.S. B2C retail market alone represents an AI-commerce opportunity of $900 billion to $1 trillion. (Inriver)

AI adoption:

• By 2030, AI is forecast to handle approximately 80% of customer interactions in ecommerce. (Ecommercetrix)
• 93% of ecommerce businesses see AI agents as a competitive advantage. (Elementor)
• 72% of successful ecommerce companies already use automation in parts of their workflows. (SellersCommerce)
• Ecommerce businesses saw an 80% boost in lead generation and a 45% increase in Return On Investment (ROI) after implementing automation. (SellersCommerce)
• 34% of Amazon sellers use AI for writing and optimizing product listings; 14% use it for marketing content. (Elementor)
• In 2025, 34% of U.S. customers were comfortable with agentic ecommerce — letting AI shop on their behalf. (Ecommercetrix)

Personalization:

• 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. (Elementor)
• AI-driven product recommendations can increase revenue by up to 300% and conversions by 150%. (Elementor)
• 46% would continue shopping with a brand that provided a personalized website experience. (Inriver)

Customer Retention, Subscriptions, and Repeat Purchases 

• The average online retailer has a repeat customer rate of 28.2%. (Elementor)
• 30% of consumers would rather return to a website they’ve previously purchased from. (Instapage)

Omnichannel:

• U.S. click-and-collect (But Online Pick Up In Store – BOPIS) sales will total $154.3 billion in 2025. (Elementor)
• 85% of BOPIS shoppers have made an additional unplanned purchase when picking up their order in-store. (Elementor)

What drives repeat purchases:

• More than 55% of U.S. consumers feel more connected to brands when shopping on their own websites. (Inriver)

Subscriptions:

• The subscription ecommerce sector is expected to surpass $450 billion in 2026, up from $15 billion in 2019. (SellersCommerce)
• 13% of monthly subscribers churn involuntarily, rising to 28% for annual plans. (Elementor)

Ecommerce Fraud

Fraud losses compound with scale: for every $100 in fraudulent orders, merchants lose $207 once the total cost of chargebacks and operations is factored in. Detection and prevention spending is rising in direct proportion.

• Global ecommerce fraud losses: $41 billion in 2022, $48 billion in 2023. (SellersCommerce)
• Total fraud losses between 2023 and 2027 are forecast to exceed $343 billion. (SellersCommerce)
• Global fraud losses are projected to exceed $48 billion in 2026. (Ecommercetrix)
• For every $100 in fraudulent orders, merchants lose $207 when total costs are included. (Ecommercetrix)
• The average monetary loss in an ecommerce scam is $101, up from $96 the prior year. (Forbes)
• 29.8% of ecommerce fraud attacks involve account takeovers. (Ecommercetrix)
• 24.1% come from bot-driven activity. (Ecommercetrix)
• The ecommerce fraud detection and prevention market was worth $36.7 billion in 2021, estimated to exceed $100 billion by 2027. (Forbes)
• Around 60% of merchants now use payment tokenization. (Ecommercetrix)

Regional fraud rates:

Region	Revenue Lost to Ecommerce Payment Fraud
Latin America	4.2%
Europe	3.1%
Asia Pacific	2.9%
North America	2.4%

Source: SellersCommerce

Returns and Reverse Logistics

Returns remain one of ecommerce’s biggest margin pressures. The return rate for online purchases is now more than double what it was in 2019, and unclear return policies still stop shoppers before checkout. 

• An estimated 19.3% of all online sales are returned — more than double the 8.1% rate in 2019. (Inriver)
• 63% of U.S. online shoppers won’t make a purchase if they can’t find the return policy. (Instapage)
• 82% of consumers say free returns are an important consideration when deciding where to shop. (Inriver)
• Almost 70% of U.S. online shoppers say their most recent return experience was “easy” or “very easy.” (Instapage)
• 96% of that group say they would buy from that retailer again based on that experience. (Instapage)
• 41% of U.S. online shoppers report bracketing behavior. (Instapage)
• 59% of U.S. online shoppers want notifications about the status of their refund. (Instapage)

Seasonal Shopping Events

Holiday season and Black Friday / Cyber Monday drive the largest spikes in ecommerce volume. Black Friday 2023 alone generated $9.8 billion online. The growth rates from 2019–2020 were pandemic-distorted; 2023’s 4.9% growth is the more representative post-pandemic benchmark.

• Online shoppers spent $9.8 billion on Black Friday 2023, a 7.5% year-over-year increase. (Forbes)
• Cyber Monday 2023: $12.4 billion, a 9.6% year-over-year increase. (Forbes)
• Holiday online sales between November and December 2023 totaled $222.1 billion. (Forbes)
  • Electronics: $50.8 billion
  • Apparel: $41.5 billion
  • Furniture: $27.3 billion
  • Grocery: $19.1 billion
• Online holiday sales increased 4.9% year-over-year in 2023, compared to 32.1% between 2019 and 2020. (Forbes)

Shopping event breakdown by activity share:

Event	Share of Online Shopping Activity
Christmas / holiday season	24.4%
Black Friday & Cyber Monday	20.4%
Amazon Prime Day	17.6%
General seasonal shopping	17.6%
Back-to-school season	4.8%

Source: Hostinger

• 10% of online shoppers say none of the major shopping events affect their purchasing behavior. (Hostinger)

Niche Segments

Dropshipping, print-on-demand, and subscriptions are each multi-hundred-billion-dollar categories with distinct growth trajectories and margin profiles.

Dropshipping:

• The global dropshipping market was valued at $372.47 billion in 2025, expected to reach $476.10 billion in 2026. (Ecommercetrix)
• Average dropshipping profit margins fall between 15% and 20%. (Ecommercetrix)
• Around 27% of online retailers use dropshipping in some form. (Ecommercetrix)
• Dropshipping app support: Shopify (865 apps), WordPress (213), Wix (48), BigCommerce (31). (Ecommercetrix)

Print-on-demand:

• The global print-on-demand market is estimated at $13–$15 billion in 2026, with forecasts suggesting it could exceed $45 billion by 2031. (Ecommercetrix)

Conclusion

The numbers make one thing clear: ecommerce isn’t slowing down, it’s maturing. Mobile dominates traffic, AI is reshaping how people shop, and social platforms have become real sales channels rather than discovery tools. At the same time, old challenges like cart abandonment and returns haven’t disappeared, they’ve just evolved alongside everything else.

That’s what makes these ecommerce statistics worth revisiting regularly. Trends shift fast, and what worked last year may already be outdated. Whether you’re running a small store or shaping strategy for a larger brand, staying close to the data gives you an edge. With the right approach, these numbers become less about tracking the industry and more about anticipating where it’s headed next.