In March 2024, Amazon.com had approximately 2.2 billion combined web visits, up from 2.1 billion visits in February. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Amazon’s net income amounted to approximately 20 billion U.S. dollars. Online retail in the United States Online retail in the United States is constantly growing. In the third quarter of 2023, e-commerce sales accounted for 15.6 percent of retail sales in the United States. During that quarter, U.S. retail e-commerce sales amounted to over 284 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon is the leading online store in the country, in terms of e-commerce net sales. Amazon.com generated around 130 billion U.S. dollars in online sales in 2022. Walmart ranked as the second-biggest online store, with revenues of 52 billion U.S. dollars. The king of Black Friday In 2023, Amazon ranked as U.S. shoppers' favorite place to go shopping during Black Friday, even surpassing in-store purchasing. Nearly six out of ten consumers chose Amazon as the number one place to go find the best Black Friday deals. Similar findings can be observed in the United Kingdom (UK), where Amazon is also ranked as the preferred Black Friday destination.

Among the top 100 referring websites to Amazon in the United States, the majority of the traffic directed to Amazon came from news and media websites during Amazon Prime Days in 2019 and 2020. While directed traffic from both news and media websites and other sites stayed the same across the last two Amazon Prime Day events, share of traffic coming to Amazon from coupon and rebate websites saw an increase in October 2020 and reached to 16 percent, marking an increase of four percent from July 2019.

YouTube has emerged as the dominant social media platform for driving traffic to Amazon.com, accounting for nearly 60 percent of referrals to the e-commerce platform in December 2023. Facebook.com and Twitter.com followed, contributing about ten and nine percent of social media referrals respectively, while Reddit and WhatsApp rounded out the top five sources. Amazon's dominance Amazon's position as the leading online retailer in the United States is evident in its traffic and sales figures. In December 2023, Amazon still recorded an impressive 2.7 billion combined visits. The company's financial performance remains strong, with a net income of approximately 13.5 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2024, up from the previous quarters. Mobile presence Amazon's mobile presence continues to grow, with its shopping app downloads reaching a nine-year peak in August 2022 at approximately 25 million. As of July 2024, the Amazon Shopping app reached over 18 million downloads across iOS and Android platforms. That month, Amazon’s shopping app was the most popular app published by the e-commerce and tech giant.

Accounting for more than a 80 percent of desktop visits to the Amazon.com website, the United States was the country with the highest traffic to the American online marketplace as of April 2024. Following the United States, with a large difference, was India with only just over one percent.

As of June 2021, Amazon was the most visited e-commerce site in the United States, recording approximately 2.45 billion monthly visits to Amazon.com. eBay ranked second, with more than 885 million visits per month, while Walmart came in third, surpassing 410 million.

Online retail in a nutshell Online retail in the United States is a multi-billion dollar sector of business-to-consumer transactions where goods and services are sold via the internet. There are several business models at play here with the likes of Walmart, Home Depot, or Target based on brick-and-mortar stores whereas others such as Amazon, eBay, or Etsy are designated online marketplaces. It also includes eBay which allows third-party or private sellers to market their goods.

Online retail sites enable customers to browse through a range of products before placing them into an electronic shopping cart. Unlike their retail counterparts, online retail sites are not bound to a physical location or limited by store opening hours, and as such, have proven themselves immensely convenient for consumers. Apparel & accessories and computers & consumer electronics are some of the most popular e-commerce categories in the United States.

Fast-growing retailers In addition to being the most visited retail site in the United States, Amazon also accounts for the vast majority of e-commerce sales. Over the past few years, Amazon’s retail sales in the United States have grown steadily, however, competition in this space is growing strong. Etsy, followed closely by Walmart and Target, are among the companies that recorded the fastest online retail sales growth in 2021.

Amazon Prime Day drives higher online traffic to the marketplace website, at the expenses of other Amazon's competitors. On the occasion of Amazon Prime Day 2021, the traffic to pages of consumer packaged goods (CPG) sold on Amazon grew by 14.4 percent compared to the average traffic of the e-commerce giant. In turn, Walmart saw its online views decrease by 0.1 percent for the same categories of products.

The United States remains by far the most important market for Amazon. In February 2023, its amazon.com domain registered nearly 2.2 billion monthly visits. That is almost four times more than the visits recorded to amazon.co.jp, Amazon's web domain for Japan.

In December 2023, Amazon.com was the leading online shopping website in the United States. During the measured period, the sprawling platform accounted for over 45 percent of desktop traffic in the e-commerce and shopping subcategory. In second place on the list was eBay.com, with 9.22 percent of visitors. Walmart ranked third with a bit less than six percent of web traffic. Why customers browse on Amazon The main reason behind the outstanding online traffic to Amazon is user behavior throughout the customer journey. Amazon serves as a search engine for U.S. consumers, with 73 percent browsing it for inspiration and product discovery. Another 65 percent of U.S. shoppers landed on Amazon to look for products and compare products. In turn, Google is left third in the ranking of most used platforms. Generational differences In the beauty segment, the customer journey is more likely to start on Amazon among senior consumers. In the United States, 44 percent of Baby Boomers started their search of beauty products on the marketplace, while only 35 percent of Gen Z consumers reported doing the same.

During the first quarter 2025, Amazon generated total net sales of nearly 156 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing the 143 billion U.S. dollars in the same quarter of 2024. From books to billions Launched in 1995 in the United States as an online bookshop, Amazon has since grown into an international e-commerce giant. In April 2023 worldwide visits to amazon.com amounted to over two billion considering both desktop and mobile traffic. Prime time in the U.S. Although a global company, Amazon truly thrives in the United States where the company is the leading e-commerce platform by sales value. In the North American country, the number of subscribers using Amazon Prime services has been growing steadily over the last several years and is forecast to reach new heights in 2024.

As of April 2023, Amazon was by far the most popular online marketplace worldwide, averaging about 4.8 billion visits that month. The second most visited shopping site was eBay, with roughly 1.2 billion visits. In addition, both were also the world' s top online retailers in terms of mobile web traffic.

Mobile accounts for approximately half of web traffic worldwide. In the last quarter of 2024, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 62.54 percent of global website traffic. Mobiles and smartphones consistently hoovered around the 50 percent mark since the beginning of 2017, before surpassing it in 2020. Mobile traffic Due to low infrastructure and financial restraints, many emerging digital markets skipped the desktop internet phase entirely and moved straight onto mobile internet via smartphone and tablet devices. India is a prime example of a market with a significant mobile-first online population. Other countries with a significant share of mobile internet traffic include Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. In most African markets, mobile accounts for more than half of the web traffic. By contrast, mobile only makes up around 45.49 percent of online traffic in the United States. Mobile usage The most popular mobile internet activities worldwide include watching movies or videos online, e-mail usage and accessing social media. Apps are a very popular way to watch video on the go and the most-downloaded entertainment apps in the Apple App Store are Netflix, Tencent Video and Amazon Prime Video.

As of April 2023, Amazon was the most visited online marketplace in the United States, with about *** billion visits per month. Second place went to eBay, with approximately *** million visits, followed in third place by Etsy, with close to *** million. U.S.-founded online marketplaces dominate the industry In 2023, Amazon ranked as the online marketplace generating the highest gross merchandise value (GMV) in the United States. That year, its GMV reached over *** billion U.S. dollars. The company is able to maintain its dominant market position due to its broad product offerings, from furniture, home goods and accessories to health and personal care products, gaining a huge chunk of the online market. Another U.S.-founded brand, Walmart, placed second in the ranking, with a GMV of around *** billion U.S. dollars. Chinese shopping apps challenge U.S. retailers Despite the dominance of U.S. retailers, when it comes to shopping apps, two Chinese companies are heading the market. In 2023, Temu was the most downloaded e-commerce app in the U.S., with over *** million downloads, followed by SHEIN with a download count of around ** million. Amazon placed third, with users downloading the app roughly ** million times. Temu was estimated to have over *** million active users on its app in the U.S. alone, almost triplicating the number from January to April in 2023. In July of that year, the company was able to retain almost ** percent of its shoppers within a **-day period, meaning the percentage of customers who continue to purchase from the company over the period, as opposed to leaving or switching to a competitor.

Amazon.com's annual shipping costs showed a steady increase from 2011 to 2023. In the most recently reported fiscal year, Amazon's shipping costs amounted to 89.5 billion U.S. dollars, up from 83.5 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year. Revenue rise and fall
The increasing shipping costs can be explained by Amazon's rapid growth over the past decade. Although, the road to success has not always been smooth. The general trend from 2015 to 2021 shows that Amazon's net income significantly increased. However, its net income plunged to negative values in 2022, resulting in a net loss of approximately 2.7 billion U.S. dollars. The brand value of the e-commerce giant also took a hit the following year, mainly due to the current market recession and challenging times for tech companies. Nonetheless, its revenue continues to climb, reaching almost 170 billion U.S. dollars in the last quarter of 2023, demonstrating resiliency in times of market uncertainty. Herding the online flock In December 2023, amazon.com recorded a whopping 2.7 billion web visits. The website is most often accessed by direct search, but consumers also arrive via other sites. In fact, approximately 370 million users click to amazon.com from social media platforms. Among social sites, YouTube refers the most consumers to amazon.com. In December 2023, nearly 60 percent of all social media traffic referrals came from the popular video-sharing platform. Facebook was the second-highest source of referrals, followed by Twitter and Reddit. Thus, social media can be a useful tool for reaching potential customers.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, online shoppers spent an average of about 2.98 U.S. dollars per visit across all verticals. Electronics is the category in which consumers spent the most money per visit on average, at 3.32 U.S. dollars, followed by luxury apparel at 3.10 dollars. Nickels and dimes Over the past few years, the average order value for e-commerce purchases has increased globally, from around 118 U.S. dollars in September 2022 to around 126 U.S. dollars in the same month of 2023. The average order value also depends heavily on the online traffic source consumers use. In 2023, the value per order value was the highest when navigating directly, averaging around 167 dollars. Direct navigation means searching for a website directly in the browser's address bar, bypassing the use of search engines. Orders placed from social media stores were the lowest in value, with an average of less than 110 dollars. Mobile shopping on the rise Online shoppers have clear preferences when it comes to device type. When comparing gadgets, the average purchase amount has always been the highest for desktops, with an order value of 160 U.S. dollars. This indicates that bigger purchases are made via desktop computers. However, consumers are more likely to complete orders when shopping on mobile devices. Mobile devices were also clearly preferred when browsing retail websites, with around three-fourths of consumers using smartphones instead of desktops or tablets.

In November 2024, Google.com was the most visited website in the United States, with over 25 billion total visits. YouTube.com came in second with 12 billion total visits. Reddit.com and Amazon.com counted approximately 3.12 billion and 2.89 monthly visits each from U.S. online audiences.

In May 2022, antigen rapid tests for COVID-19 were among the five most searched branded product on Amazon in the United States. The brand iHealth outdid On/Go in terms of traffic, as the product page of IiHealth hit over 1.5 million visits, while On/Go equivalent was visited about 586,000 times.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, smartphones accounted for over three-quarters of retail site visits in the United States and generated roughly two-thirds of online shopping orders. Desktop computers generated just 21 percent of retail website traffic but represented 33 percent of all purchases in the country. Mobile commerce here to stay Since 2019, mobile commerce in the United States reached a peak in spending in the last quarter of 2022. That quarter, U.S. shoppers spent a grand total of over 127 billion U.S. dollars on their mobile devices. The importance of mobile commerce has not gone unrecognized by businesses either. When asked about what digital commerce channels they were investing in, nearly 50 percent of B2C (business-to-consumer) organizations in the U.S. reported investing into mobile apps in 2022. America’s favorite shopping apps With mobile shopping as commonplace, there are few things that cannot be purchased with a few taps on a smartphone. From groceries to personal care to fashion, U.S. Americans download different shopping apps every day in order to make their m-commerce purchases. With a total of over 86 million downloads, the Temu app was the most downloaded in the country in 2024. The fast-fashion SHEIN app followed with roughly 36 million downloads that year.

Amazon's global platform 'amazon.com' was the most popular e-commerce and shopping website worldwide, accounting for more than 13 percent of desktop visits to sites in this category in May 2022. Second place went to ebay.com, with 3.18 percent.

Amazon leads the way There is no denying the dominance of Amazon in the e-commerce industry. By 2027, Amazon's worldwide net sales are estimated to exceed one trillion U.S. dollars. In 2022, amazon.com garnered over 3 billion monthly visitors, maintaining its spot as the most popular retail website worldwide. As of May 2022, the leading social media traffic referrers to amazon.com came from YouTube (52 percent), Facebook (20 percent), and WhatsApp (18 percent).

Online shopping As of April 2022, more purchases were made through online marketplaces globally than through any other digital channel. Over a third of people shopped via the internet by using marketplaces. Online marketplaces were also ranked worldwide as the e-commerce channel delivering the best customer experience in 2022. According to shoppers worldwide, the three most important changes that could make their digital shopping experience better were faster delivery (13 percent), free returns (eight percent), and more convenient delivery (six percent).

Online conversion rates of e-commerce sites were the highest in the food & beverage sector, at 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. Beauty & skincare followed, with a three percent conversion rate. For comparison, the average conversion rate of e-commerce sites across all selected sectors stood at just over two percent. How does conversion vary by region and device? The conversion rate, which indicates the proportion of visits to e-commerce websites that result in purchases, varies by country and region. For instance, since at least 2023, e-commerce sites have consistently recorded higher conversion rates among shoppers in Great Britain compared to those in the United States and other global regions. Furthermore, despite the increasing prevalence of mobile shopping worldwide, conversions remain more pronounced on larger screens such as tablets and desktops. Online shopping cart abandonment on the rise Recently, the rate at which consumers abandon their online shopping carts has been gradually rising to more than 70 percent in 2024, showing a higher difficulty for e-commerce sites to convert website traffic into purchases. By the end of that year, food and beverage was one of the product categories with the lowest online cart abandonment rate, confirming the sector’s relatively high conversion rate. In the United States, the primary reason why customers abandoned their shopping carts is that extra costs such as shipping, tax, and service fees were too high at checkout.

Mobile phones dominate global digital commerce website visits and contribute to the largest share of online orders. As of the fourth quarter of 2024, smartphones constituted around 78 percent of retail site traffic globally, responsible for generating 68 percent of online shopping orders. Marketplace momentum Retail e-commerce has significantly increased globally over the past few years. Currently, the leading countries in retail e-commerce growth, such as the Philippines, have seen an increase of up to 24 percent. In 2024, the majority of online purchases worldwide were made on online marketplaces, incurring around a 30 percent share of consumer purchases. The top four retail websites for consumers to visit globally were all marketplaces, with the leading website being Amazon.com. Converting clicks When shopping online, website visits often do not end in purchases. This can be due to having second thoughts when online shopping, or simply due to consumers using the platforms to search for products. In 2024, the conversion rate of online shoppers globally was just over two percent, with food and beverages incurring the highest conversion rate from online purchases. Across the globe, almost 20 percent of all retail sales were conducted online. This figure is forecast to increase to at least 21 percent by 2027.