In 2023, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars. Projections indicate a 39 percent growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to surpass eight trillion dollars by 2027.

World players Among the key players on the world stage, the Chinese retail giant Alibaba holds the title of the largest e-commerce retailer globally, accounting for a 23 percent market share. Nevertheless, forecasts suggest that by 2027, Seattle-based e-commerce powerhouse Amazon will surpass Alibaba in estimated sales, reaching a staggering 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars in online sales.

Leading e-tailing countries The Chinese e-commerce market was the biggest worldwide in 2023, as internet sales constituted almost half of the country's retail transactions. Indonesia ranked second with the highest share of retail sales online (32 percent), closely trailed by the United Kingdom and South Korea, exceeding the 30 percent mark. That year, the up-and-coming e-commerce markets centered around Asia. The Philippines and India stood out as the swiftest-growing e-commerce markets based on online sales, anticipating a growth rate surpassing 20 percent.

The revenue in the e-commerce market in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 657.8 billion U.S. dollars (+53.79 percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 1.9 trillion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the revenue of the e-commerce market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find other key market indicators concerning the average revenue per user (ARPU) and number of users. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented increase in e-commerce sales in the United States. According to forecasts, by 2020, web sales in the U.S. will have grown by 40.3 percent over the previous year. In addition, online retail sales in the North American country were set to exceed the trillion-dollar mark by 2022.

In 2023, retail e-commerce sales in the United States reached an estimated 275 million U.S. dollars, up from 142 million dollars in 2019. E-commerce's growth trajectory Driven by the escalating integration of technology into daily life, e-commerce has witnessed a remarkable surge in popularity. Projections indicate a significant uptick in e-commerce users in the United States, rising from 254 million in 2023 to over 316 million by 2028. As of the outset of 2023, apparel and accessories ranked as the most sought-after e-commerce product category, comprising over 18 percent of all retail sales in the U.S. This trend persists despite inflationary pressures, positioning this category among the e-commerce segments experiencing the most significant year-on-year price changes. M-commerce users demographic While the demand for the convenience of purchasing from the palm of one's hand is also rapidly increasing, various demographic factors influence mobile commerce usage. There's a higher proportion of male online shoppers than females, with a split of 53 percent versus 47 percent. Age is another determinant. Younger consumers exhibit a greater inclination towards m-commerce, with 46 percent of mobile shoppers falling within the 18 to 24 age bracket. Furthermore, income levels also shape mobile shopping habits, with individuals earning less than 25,000 U.S. dollars annually showing the highest propensity for mobile-based purchases.

In 2022, global e-commerce sales grew by 6.5 percent compared to the previous year. In that period, e-commerce accounted for approximately 19 percent of all retail sales worldwide.

Asian countries lead the way

According to a forecast, China and South Korea ranked first and third respectively on the list of countries with the greatest share of retail sales projected to take place online in 2022. Following the same trend, estimates also revealed that the four fastest-growing retail e-commerce countries in the world are all in Asia.

Amazon on top

When looking at the leading e-commerce companies worldwide, as opposed to the leading e-commerce countries, Amazon is the clear market leader with a market cap of over one trillion U.S. dollars as of June 2022. Not only that, but the Seattle-based multinational company is also by far the most visited online marketplace in the world, with approximately 5.7 billion monthly visits.

Best Buy’s sales growth has decreased the last fiscal year, from 10.3 in FY 2023 to 7.1 in FY 2024. The growth in Best Buy’s sales is mainly driven by online/e-commerce sales with the segment seeing 144.4 percent comparable online sales growth in FY 2021, up from the 17 percent in FY 2020. Best Buy’s rising online sales     The strong growth of Best Buy’s e-commerce sales in the last few years has led to an increase in the segment’s share of the company’s overall revenue. In the most recent financial year online sales made up about 33 percent of Best Buy’s revenue, a share that the company is looking to increase further in the upcoming years with the goal of gaining a higher overall market share in the U.S. e-commerce market. Today Best Buy still generates the majority of its sales from brick and mortar store sales. Best Buy stores    With over 1,000 stores in operation throughout the United States, the country is home to the majority of Best Buy stores. In line with the general decline in international stores over time , the number of Best Buy’s domestic stores has decreased, as well as their overall square footage of outlets. Closures of Best Buy’s Mobile stand-alone stores have also contributed to the company’s decreasing store count.

From July to September 2024, U.S. retail e-commerce sales amounted to roughly 300 billion U.S. dollars, marking an increase compared to the previous quarter. Overall, retail e-commerce sales outdid the quarterly sales records registered in 2020. E-commerce in the post-pandemic era During the second quarter of 2020, as COVID-19 spread across the globe, the U.S.'s quarterly e-commerce revenue reached 200 billion for the first time in history. In 2021, online retail sales account for ten percent of total retail in the United States. Clothing and accessories, including footwear, is one of the largest B2C e-commerce merchandise categories. Retail e-commerce sales in the United States are estimated from samples used for the Monthly Retail Trade Survey and exclude online travel services, ticket sales agencies, and financial brokers. Latest trend? Quick commerce Shoppers expect fast delivery of their purchases, especially when it comes to grocery products. This segment of the e-commerce industry goes under quick commerce and is expected to generate increasing revenue in the next years. Major quick commerce companies like Instacart or Uber Eat operate in the United States, where the quick commerce market is forecast to hit nearly 40 billion U.S. dollars by 2027.

Automobile and auto parts was the e-commerce category with the highest expected year-over-year growth between 2021 and 2022. As of February 2022, car and auto parts retail e-commerce sales were forecast to increase over 30 percent compared to the previous year. Food and beverage was the second fastest growing segment, at around 21 percent. The average retail e-commerce growth across all categories would reach 14 percent.

Forecasts indicate significant growth in the e-commerce sectors of Asia and America in 2023. Topping the list are Mexico and the Philippines, poised for a surge of approximately 25 percent and 24 percent in online sales, respectively. Following closely behind, Malaysia secures the third spot with an 18 percent growth rate. Meanwhile, Argentina and Brazil were expected to outpace other nations, with e-retail sales forecast to grow by over 15 percent.

A growing global e-retail market Partly fueled by a rapid increase in internet users worldwide over recent years, along with mobility constraints and the shutdown of physical stores during the COVID-19 pandemic, the global e-commerce retail market expanded fourfold from 2014 to 2022. Central to this growth has been the widespread adoption of mobile commerce, which entails online shopping through smartphones, particularly prominent in various regions of the global South. Forecasts suggested that m-commerce sales in Argentina are poised to surge by around 2.4 times between 2022 and 2026.

Fast-growing markets fueled by local players While online retail giants Amazon and Alibaba Group wield global dominance in the e-commerce landscape, they do not hold the top positions in many of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets. Based on monthly website traffic, Singaporean e-retailer Shopee is the leading e-commerce site in Singapore by a significant margin. This trend is even more pronounced in Argentina, where Mercado Libre garners nearly 50 times the traffic witnessed on Amazon's Spanish page, amazon.es.

In 2024, e-commerce in Brazil was forecast to generate approximately 41.2 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, a 16.6 percent increase from the 35.3 billion dollars recorded a year earlier. While  Mexico ranked second in Latin America and the Caribbean, with over 34 billion dollars in online sales revenue projected for 2024, Colombia would reach close to 7.8 billion dollars that year – roughly 10 percent more than the seven billion dollar revenue estimated for 2023.

A fragile position Brazil may be the leading e-commerce market in Latin America, but its position atop the leaderboard grows fragile as Mexico continues to gain traction. While the share of consumers using e-commerce is higher in Brazil than in Mexico, the latter experienced remarkable growth in retail e-commerce revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. That led the North American country to grab an even larger portion of the pie, reinforcing Mexico's potential to lead e-commerce in the region.

Homegrown e-commerce: Brazil vs. Mexico Still, Brazil is home to several of the region’s leading e-commerce companies. As a matter of fact, in terms of total sales, three of the top four online retail companies in Latin America were founded there. In Mexico, several homegrown players are among the most popular e-commerce websites in the country, but unlike their Brazilian counterparts, much of their influence has yet to reach the greater Latin American region.

Internet sales have played an increasingly significant role in retailing. In 2024, e-commerce accounted for over 17 percent of retail sales worldwide. Forecasts indicate that by 2029, the online segment will make up close to over 21 percent of total global retail sales. Retail e-commerce Online shopping has grown steadily in popularity in recent years. In 2024, global e-commerce sales amounted to over seven trillion U.S. dollars, a figure expected to exceed 10.4 trillion U.S. dollars by 2028. Digital development in Latin America boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, generating unprecedented e-commerce growth in various economies across the region. So much so that Brazil and Argentina appear to lead the world's fastest-growing online retail markets. This trend correlates strongly with the constantly improving online access, especially in "mobile-first" online communities, which have long struggled with traditioe-comernal fixed broadband connections due to financial or infrastructure constraints but enjoy the advantages of cheap mobile broadband connections. M-commerce on the rise The average order value of online shopping via smartphones and tablets still lags traditional e-commerce via desktop computers. However, e-retailers around the world have caught up in mobile e-commerce sales. Online shopping via smartphones is particularly prominent in Asia. By the end of 2021, Malaysia was the top digital market based on the percentage of the population that had purchased something by phone, with nearly 45 percent having made a weekly mobile purchase. South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines completed the top of the ranking.

In 2020, retail e-commerce sales in Latin America were estimated to amount to approximately 85 billion U.S. dollars, nearly 35 percent more than reported in the previous year before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to forecasts, this figure is expected to rise to about 160 billion dollars by 2025.

Major markets in the region Based on estimates from the Statista Digital Market Outlook, Brazil and Mexico would together account for about 60 percent of the e-commerce market in Latin America in 2020. In fact, forecasts for that same year indicated that retail e-commerce would represent approximately 5.5 percent of Mexico's total retail sales and 4.5 percent of Brazil’s.

COVID-19's boost to e-commerce The unexpected outbreak of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 quickly impacted online commerce in Latin America. Confined to their homes, many consumers found in the web a safe way to make purchases and payments. While e-commerce revenues rose across the region, Peru stood out with an unprecedented 900 percent growth. It was foreseen that after such a boost, online sales in the Andean country would reach 3.6 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2021.

In 2024, Walmart U.S. had eCommerce sales amounting to 65.4 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of about 22 percent in comparison to 2023's figure. WalmartWalmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton when he and his brother James “Bud” Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas. Since then, Walmart has grown to become the largest publicly-owned retail company in the world. In the United States, the company includes Walmart discount stores, supercenters, neighborhood markets, and Sam’s Club warehouse membership clubs. The company also has many international operations, operating through three distinct business segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club. Walmart’s strongest segment, in terms of revenue, is Walmart U.S., which operates retail stores in all 50 states in the United States, and Puerto Rico and as of 2023 counted 4,717 locations Brand and e-commerce According to a survey conducted by Statista in 2023, 93 percent of consumers were familiar with the Walmart brand and 65 percent appeared to use it for their grocery purchases. The company also operates a successful e-commerce site, which is particularly popular at the start of the holiday season and which in December 2023, reached close to 497 million visits.

In 2023, the online channels' share of total retail sales reached 15.4 percent in the United States. This represented an increase compared to 2022, when it was 14.6 percent.

Apple was estimated to be the fastest growing online retailer in the United States in 2021. Sales through the technology company's website were forecast to grow by almost 26 percent that year. This is ahead of Chewy and even e-commerce giant Amazon.

In the United States, holiday season online retail sales grew by 8.8 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year. Forecasts suggested that this growth would increase in 2024 to 9.5 percent. The new normal in holiday shopping In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many U.S. consumers to do their holiday shopping online. A year later, although the situation once again allows for physical shopping, e-commerce is still gaining relevance. According to estimates, holiday season online retail sales in the United States were to reach new heights in 2023, amounting to 254 billion dollars. As in previous years, Cyber Monday and Black Friday would remain the most relevant holiday shopping days in 2023, expected to generate approximately 12 billion and 9.6 billion U.S. dollars in sales, respectively. A preference for online With Cyber Monday expected to generate 2.4 billion dollars more than Black Friday in 2023, it comes as no surprise that most holiday shoppers reported that their preferred type of retailer for holiday gifts were online-only retailers. Over six in ten consumers prefered to buy holiday gifts from e-commerce only merchants, while department stores only only preferred by about 24 percent of seasonal shoppers.

The ecommerce sales growth (CAGR) between 2019 and 2022 in Saudi Arabia was expected to reach 39.3 percent. The United Arab Emirates came second in the MENA region at 38.3 percent. The global average ecommerce sales growth reached 16.6 percent for the same time period.

In 2023, e-commerce sales in the United Kingdom had a growth of 4.8 percent, much higher than the negative 7.2 percent seen in the previous year. In 2028, e-commerce sales are expected to grow by 3.8 percent.

In the second quarter 2024, the share of e-commerce in total U.S. retail sales stood at 16 percent, up from the previous quarter. From April to June 2024, retail e-commerce sales in the United States hit over 291 billion U.S. dollars, the highest quarterly revenue in history. How e-commerce measures up in total U.S. retail In 2023, the reported total value of retail e-commerce sales in the United States amounted to over one trillion U.S. dollars—impressive, but the figure pales compared to the total annual retail trade value of seven trillion U.S. dollars. E-commerce still accounts for a mere 15.4 percent of total retail sales in the United States. Rising e-commerce segments Online shopping is popular among all age groups, though digital purchases are most common among Millennial internet users. In 2022, around 55 percent of Millennials purchased items via the internet. Mobile commerce is also growing in popularity, as consumers increasingly rely on their smartphones and mobile apps for shopping activities. In the fourth quarter of 2022, m-commerce spending made up 38 percent of the overall online spending in the United States.

Since 2017, the e-commerce sales of U.S. grocery retailer Kroger have steadily increased, reaching 12.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. Although store-based revenues remain Kroger's core business, by 2027, the e-commerce channel is expected to grow further and generate 23.8 billion dollars in annual net sales.