In 2024, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated ************ U.S. dollars. Projections indicate a ** percent growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to come close to ************** dollars by 2028. World players Among the key players on the world stage, the American marketplace giant Amazon holds the title of the largest e-commerce player globally, with a gross merchandise value of nearly *********** U.S. dollars in 2024. Amazon was also the most valuable retail brand globally, followed by mostly American competitors such as Walmart and the Home Depot. Leading e-tailing regions E-commerce is a dormant channel globally, but nowhere has it been as successful as in Asia. In 2024, the e-commerce revenue in that continent alone was measured at nearly ************ U.S. dollars, outperforming the Americas and Europe. That year, the up-and-coming e-commerce markets also 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 ** percent.

In 2024, the in-store or brick-and-mortar retail channel was forecast to account for 83.8 percent of total retail sales in the United States. By 2028, e-commerce is expected to make up 20 percent of all retail sales.

In the first quarter 2025, the share of e-commerce in total U.S. retail sales stood at **** percent, up from the previous quarter. From January to March 2025, retail e-commerce sales in the United States hit over *** billion U.S. dollars, the highest quarterly revenue in history. How e-commerce measures up in total U.S. retail In 2024, the reported total value of retail e-commerce sales in the United States amounted to over ****trillion U.S. dollars—impressive, but the figure pales compared to the total annual retail trade value of ******trillion U.S. dollars. 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 ** 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 ** percent of the overall online spending in the United States.

In a February 2022 survey, the ability to shop at any time was the most mentioned benefit of e-commerce among consumers worldwide. Almost half of respondents preferred this channel because of its flexibility. Better prices was the second main advantage of shopping online, with almost **** in *** of the answers.

According to estimates, Amazon claimed the top spot among online retailers in the United States in 2023, capturing 37.6 percent of the market. Second place was occupied by the e-commerce site of the retail chain Walmart, with a 6.4 percent market share, followed in third place by Apple, with 3.6 percent.

Amazon’s continued success

Amazon has long dominated the e-commerce market as the world’s favorite online marketplace. In 2022, company hit over half a trillion U.S. dollars in net sales. The United States is by far Amazon’s most profitable market, as the U.S. branch generated over 356 billion U.S. dollars in sales in 2022. Germany ranked second, with 33 billion dollars, followed closely by the United Kingdom with 30 billion dollars.

Online shopping on the rise

Online shopping has grown significantly over the past decade, with more people turning to the internet for their shopping needs. The proof is in the numbers: the U.S. e-commerce industry was worth almost a trillion dollars in 2023. By 2027, forecasts show that the online market will grow to more than 50 percent. U.S. online shoppers purchase fashion and food and beverages the most via the internet.

According to a survey carried out in Canada, Mexico, and the United States in 2022, ** percent of shoppers considered brands' sustainable business practices an important aspect in their online shopping experience. In turn, only ** percent of respondents from North America considered sustainable products very or somewhat important. A similar gap in the perception of business practices versus products was observed in Europe. On the contrary, respondents from Middle Eastern countries were much more interested in the sustainability of products, when shopping online from a brand.

In 2025, the number of annual online shoppers in India was estimated to be approximately 280 million. This was a significant increase compared to the previous year. The number of shoppers is likely to increase to around 500 by 2030.

Cart abandonment rates have been climbing steadily since 2014, after reaching an all-time high in 2013. In 2023, the share of online shopping carts that is being abandoned reached 70 percent for the first time since 2013. This is an increase of more than 10 percentage points compared to the start of the time period considered here. Mobiles vs. desktops When global consumers shop online, they spend considerably more when doing so on desktop computers. In December 2023, the average value of e-commerce purchases made through desktops was approximately 159 U.S. dollars. Purchases completed on mobiles and tablets were of comparable values, ranging between 100 and 105 U.S. dollars. Even though consumers spent more when conducting their shopping on computers, they were more inclined to add products to their shopping carts when using mobile devices. Ultimately, mobile devices provide a convenient and more accessible way to shop, but desktop computers remain the preferred choice for more expensive purchases. Where do consumers shop online? Across the globe, digital marketplaces are shoppers’ number-one online shopping destination. As of April 2024, some 29 percent of consumers voted marketplaces as their favorite e-commerce channel, followed by physical stores and retailer sites. Looking at which retailers’ global shoppers prefer to shop at, amazon.com emerged as the world's most popular online marketplace, based on share of visits. The U.S. portal accounted for around one-fifth of the global online marketplace's traffic in December 2023. Amazon's German and Japanese portal sites ranked third and fifth among the leading online marketplaces, further demonstrating Amazon's dominance over the market.

As of January 2022, mobile commerce accounted for nearly ********** (**** percent) of all global e-commerce retail sales. Asia Pacific exceeded this proportion, where mobile sales represented about ***** out of every ten digital sales. As can be seen in this graph, the use of mobile devices for online shopping was more prevalent in regions of the global south.

The number of online shoppers in Indonesia was forecasted to increase to ** million by 2022, from ** million in 2017. Indonesia, with a total population of more than *** million inhabitants, is one of the biggest online markets in the world.

From messenger groups to online shopping apps

Online shopping in Indonesia has changed significantly since its nascent days. In 2013, most online shoppers purchased items through messaging services such as Blackberry Messenger groups. Today, it has shifted to website and apps-based online shopping channels. Tokobagus.com, the most popular shopping website in 2014, was nowhere to be found on the 2019 most-popular list. As of 2019, the Indonesian brand Tokopedia ranked first among the most clicked e-commerce sites in Indonesia, followed by Shopee and Bukalapak , while Lazada, Shopee, and Tokopedia were the most popular mobile shopping apps respectively.

Quality and duration

Electronics and its accessories, fashion items, and groceries were the most popular products that were bought online in Indonesia. ** percent of the total e-commerce expenditure was contributed by online shoppers between the ages of 30 to 39 years. Most of the Indonesian online shoppers believed that doing an online transaction in Indonesia was safe. Their biggest concern was rather about the quality or the description of the product. The second most popular concern about shopping online was falling prey to scammers. According to a survey in 2018, the time taken to deliver an item is one of the main reasons to be unsatisfied with the service of some online marketplaces in Indonesia. It seems that logistics is one of the biggest challenges for the Indonesian market.

Indonesia’s e-commerce in the future

To encourage and educate the public about the convenience of online shopping, Indonesia introduced an annual National Online Shopping Day (HarBolNas) in 2012 that falls on December 12. This event was initiated by e-commerce companies in Indonesia and is expected to have an impact on the Indonesian e-commerce penetration in the near future.

In 2022, the number of e-commerce users in Vietnam recorded around ** million, indicating a year-on-year growth since 2018. That year, Vietnam's e-commerce market value reached approximately **** billion U.S. dollars.

After a shift in shopping behavior in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, in-store shopping was set to pick up steam in the following years. According to a survey, in both 2021 and 2022, about ** percent of U.S. consumers intended to shop online during the holiday season. In contrast, ** percent of shoppers in the North American country planned to go to stores.

One of the reasons behind AI-powered customer service is the preference for conversational AI over phone calls. In 2024, 82 percent of consumers stated they would use a chatbot instead of waiting for a customer representative to take their call. An outstanding 96 percent of surveyed shoppers believed that more companies should opt for chatbots over traditional customer support services.

This statistic presents the number of online shoppers in Saudi Arabia from 2016 to 2018, with estimates from 2019 to 2022. In 2018, the number of online shoppers amounted to **** million, compared to **** million in the previous year. It was estimated that the number of online shoppers would experience a vast increase by 2022, reaching **** million.

In the first quarter of 2025, smartphones accounted for ******************** of retail site visits in the United States and generated roughly ********** of online shopping orders. Desktop computers generated just ** percent of retail website traffic but represented ** 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 *** 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 ** 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 ** million downloads, the Temu app was the most downloaded in the country in 2024. The fast-fashion SHEIN app followed with roughly ** million downloads that year.

The average value of U.S. online shopping orders is generally higher on desktop than mobile devices. In the second quarter of 2022, online orders placed from a desktop computer had an average value of 155.75 U.S. dollars, up from about 143 dollars in the same period of the previous year. In turn, orders fulfilled from cellphones were worth just over 112 dollars on average, while tablet orders had the lowest value, at less than 100 dollars.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has sped up the shift to online shopping in China. According to a survey on online shopping behavior in China conducted by Rakuten Insight in June 2022, about ** percent of the female respondents said they had made online purchases at least once a week. Rise of the She-economy Along with an increasing income and progress towards gender equality, women in China have become a significant driver of the country’s consumption and economic development. China has nearly *** million female consumers aged between 20 and 60 years, and they are responsible for the majority of household purchasing decisions. Female mobile shoppers Mobile shopping has become the norm for Chinese female internet users. As of February 2020, China recorded nearly *** million female mobile shoppers. Compared to male shoppers, female consumers are more willing to participate in online shopping events and embracing new features like social commerce and live streaming commerce.

It is clear that both in-store and online shopping have different advantages. In Q4 2022, around ** percent of respondents in Germany said that in terms of comparing prices and saving time, shopping online was better. In contrast, ** percent of respondents felt that shopping in-store led to better social interaction. Interestingly, although in many categories shopping online performs better, ** percent of respondents still felt that the better overall shopping experience took place in-store.

As of 2022, online shopping was more common among younger consumers in South Africa, with the largest share taken up by the ** to 34-year-old age group. The products of preference are varied in this age range. However, the largest proportion of respondents selected cars as an interest, with ** percent.

Between 2003 and 2022, the online shopping penetration rate has gradually increased in Austria. In 2022, approximately **** percent of the Austrian population used the internet for online shopping, up from the previous year.