Top Ecommerce Statistics [2023]

As an ecommerce business owner, you need to look at the latest ecommerce statistics before taking the next step in your business plan.

Ecommerce statistics lets you take a data-backed business decision that will be useful for the growth of your ecommerce business.

What is Ecommerce?

Today everything is going digital. We all want to buy food, clothing, and electronics online and save some bucks. Millions of people use the internet to purchase commodities right in the comfort of their homes. 

Marketers and small business owners need to know where to find potential customers and adjust their online stores to attract them. Ecommerce has become a norm today, with every business looking for a better way to make it online. But what exactly is ecommerce?

Ecommerce is using the internet to buy and sell goods and services. It can also refer to the exchange of money via the internet. Well, according to Shopify, in 2020, we can expect the total ecommerce sales to hit USD 27 Trillion. (Also see: the best ecommerce platforms in India and the top B2B ecommerce platforms).

Additionally, according to Nasdaq (2017), we can expect people and businesses to make 95% of their purchases online in the coming years. The data shows you how vital ecommerce is for the future of SMEs and large corporations. 

In this article, we highlight some of the useful ecommerce statistics about ecommerce that are worth your attention this year.

Latest Ecommerce Statistics

• In the United States, online sales account for only 8.0% of the total sales (Smartinsights, 2017). This shows the tremendous opportunity ecommerce stores have in the future.
• The totals global sales that people and businesses will make through ecommerce is expected to reach $4.9 Trillion by the end of 2021 (Shopify Plus, 2019).
• In the US, there has been a stable growth in online consumer expenditure. Consumers spent at least 14.9% more money in 2019 compared to the previous year (Digital Commerce 360, 2020).
• The annual online consumer expenditure is $1,600 in the UK and $1,800 in the US on average. The estimates show how much consumers are willing and able to spend on various ecommerce platforms (Statista, 2017).
• According to Kinsta.com (2020), at least 20% of online shoppers purchase while in their bathroom or car. Also, 43% buy while in bed, and 23.0% do so while working in their office. People can just buy online wherever they are.
• At least 42.0% of all online shoppers have regretted buying online while 21.0% of online shoppers have bought items that they never planned for (Kinsta.com, 2020).
• China has the largest ecommerce share accounting to at least $675 Billion, followed by the USA at $340 Billion. However, most people still believe that the USA has the largest ecommerce market in the world (Kinsta.com, 2020).
• We can expect ecommerce retail sales in the US to grow by 15.0% every year. It is currently at 10.0 and is expected to double by 2021 (Kinsta.com, 2020).
• The total B2B ecommerce sales are estimated to reach at least $12 Trillion by 2020 (FS Online Store, 2014).
• Alibaba is one of the leading ecommerce platforms accounting for 9.30% of the global B2B ecommerce in 2015 (Statista, 2017).
• Professor Gerald Zaltman from the Harvard Business School reports that most online shoppers make their purchase decisions in the subconscious mind (Adobe, 2019).
• In 2019, Americans spent at least $87 Billion during Black Fridays to make online purchases. In 2018, the number of online shoppers spent was $3.0 Billion more than that reported in 2019 (Finder, 2019).
• The majority of adults in the US believe that they should not be saving their financial information online when making online purchases. However, 64.0 percent of them see no harm in doing that (Bankrate, 2019).
• At least 61.0% of online shoppers have information about brands that can assure them the best mobile experience when they go online to shop (Status Labs, 2018).
• Approximately 30.0 of online shoppers are likely to abandon their order baskets in the middle of shopping if they find out that the website is not mobile-friendly for them (Status Labs, 2018).
• In the UK, every month online shoppers leave shopping baskets worth £29.37 (SaleCycle, 2017).
• Americans spend at least 36.0% of their shopping budget online and 64.0 in-store (Entrepreneur, 2017).
• Also, according to Entrepreneur (2017), offline sales in the US are ten times more than online sales.
• Almost 56.0% of USA Gen Xers and 67.0% of USA millennials prefer shopping online. The total number of people that prefer online shopping in the USA is 51.0% of the population (Entrepreneur, 2017).
• According to CTA (2018), at least 1 in every four online shoppers prefers using voice assistance when buying online in the USA.
• In 2021, the total amount of online shopping will amount to at least $4.48 Trillion showing a steadfast increase from the previous years (Spocket, 2018).
• At least 46.0% of online shoppers prefer online sites with more product comparison charts before they can buy any product online (BigCommerce, 2017).

Statistics on Ecommerce Platforms Market Share 

• Shopify was the biggest ecommerce platform in the USA accounting to at least 30.0% of the total market share as of April 2020 (Statista, 2020).
• By 2019, Shopify was already hosting over 800,000 online stores (Similar Tech, 2019).
• Amazon is the world’s leading online retailer of books, electronics, and clothing. The company’s net revenue from online sales increased from $177.86 Billion in 2017 to $280.50 Billion in the last reported year (Statista, 2020).
• Oberlo has sold over 85.0 Million products through its merchants since its establishment in 2015. This makes it one of the most trusted online sales platforms (Oberlo, 2020).
• According to Alidropship (2019), the company had over 50,000 registered customers by 2019.
• Over 33,000 online retailers trust Spocket to fulfill their orders for EU and US-based products (Spocket, 2019).
• Gumroad is the most preferred online ecommerce platform for selling digital products, with at least 40,000 creators selling their products on this platform (Gumroad, 2019).
• Doba has the highest online product inventory that online retailers can drop ship globally. It has over 2 Million products in their catalog (Doba, 2019).
• Podia is the most trusted platform for selling online courses, memberships, and digital downloads. The platform has over 17,000 creators (Podia, 2019).
• Since its establishment in 2012, Printful has been able to fulfill more than 8.350 Million orders worldwide (Printful, 2019).
•  CustomCat is one of the most trusted on-demand fulfillment ecommerce platforms with over 12,000 active ecommerce brands on its platform (CustomCat, 2019).
• Printify has over 300,000 active clients, which makes it one of the largest ecommerce platforms (Printify, 2019).
• The total retail sales on ecommerce platforms globally have risen by at least 50.0% in the last three years and are expected to rise even further (Oberlo, 2020).
• For every $100 that consumers spent when shopping, at least $10.0 was spent online in 2017. The online market share increased to at least 10.40 percent that year (Oberlo, 2020).
• In 2020, the online share of the total retail market in the world amounts to $ 4.206 Trillion, representing at least 16.10 percent. By 2023, we can expect the overall ecommerce share of the retail market to stand at 22.0 percent (Oberlo, 2030).
• In the USA, the total ecommerce share of the retail market was 8.90% in 2017. We expect it to rise to 16.20 percent in the next two years as more Americans continue to shop online than before (Oberlo, 2020).
• By 2019, WooCommerce was boasting off the most number of online stores. The company, which is powered by WordPress, has registered at least 0.840Million stores worldwide (SimilarTech, 2019).
• By the end of 2019, Ecwid claimed to have facilitated the opening of over 70,000 online stores globally (Ecwid, 2019).

Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Statistics 

• Not everyone trusts marketing content. According to Nielsen (2017), only 47.0% of people trust the commercial marketing content that they see on TV, newspapers, and other forms of mass media.  
• The conversion rates in most of the ecommerce platforms vary from 3.0-4.0%. However, this variation depends on the industry the platform operates (Monetate, 2017).
• Most people will rely on their family and friends reviews of a product before they can buy online. Nearly 92.0% of people will decide to buy if they get a positive review from family or friends (Nielsen, 2012).
•  Most online businesses find it hard to get an expert copywriter to design their site landing page and optimize it for the target customers. Wordstream reports that at least 75% have had issues with getting a copywriter for their landing pages (Wordstream, 2017).
• Most online businesses spend a lot on acquiring customers but less on converting them to buyers. A company will spend a dollar on customer conversion and $92.0 for acquiring them (Econsultancy, 2016).
• Most companies strive to make their site landing pages more responsive to customers. At least 61.0% of online companies run less than five tests for their landing pages every month (Wordstream, 2017).
• Video content increases traffic and conversion rate of a website. By using video on your ecommerce site landing page, you can increase the customer conversion rate by at least 86.0 percent (Unbounce, 2018).
• In 2020, we can expect video content to account for at least 79.0% of the global internet traffic (Cisco, 2015).
• In a survey by Econsultancy, only 22.0% of all online stores are satisfied with their current conversion rates. This means that most companies are looking forward to investing more money in building better landing pages (Econsultancy, 2016)
• Although the average conversion rate stands at 2.350% for most websites, the majority of the top 10% of companies witness five times higher conversion rates. That means they have a higher potential to reach more online customers and even lure them into purchasing (Wordstream, 2017).
• Most online shoppers prefer lighter and highly responsive websites. Wordstream reports that a second delay in the loading time of a page may reduce the customer conversion rate by at least 7.0% (Wordstream, 2017).
• Most websites prefer having an average of 11 forms filed on a landing page. However, by reducing the number of fields from 11 to 4, a website can increase its conversion rate to 120 percent (Wordstream, 2017).

Ecommerce Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Statistics

• At least 43.0% of all the ecommerce traffic comes from Google’s organic traffic (Wolfgang Digital, 2016).
• The majority of people search the internet for more information, According to Think With Google, at least 51.0 percent of people using the internet have found out about a new product or company online (Think With Google, 2018).
• Most search engines use location in feeding results to their users. At least 30.0 percent of all results you get on a search engine depends directly on your location (Think With Google, 2018).
• Think With Google reports that keywords with ‘near me’ phrase are likely to increase conversions. At least 28.0% of all searches for a product or service nearby will result in a purchase (Think With Google, 2016).
• Google Images, Google Maps, and Google search account for at least 92.96% of the global organic traffic (Sparktoro, 2020).
• Search engines play a crucial role in any ecommerce platform growth. At least 68.0% of all online searches begin on a search engine (BrightEdge, 2020).
• Only 0.78% of Google users will click search results on a second page. That means every company should strive to optimize their landing pages and appear on the top of every search page (Backlinko, 2020).
• Only 25.02% of the best-ranking pages do not have a meta description on them (Ahrefs, 2020).
• Publishing a guest post is very expensive for most online businesses with the average cost being $77.80 (Ahrefs, 2020).
• Most people use their mobile phones to browse the internet. According to Statista, nearly 52.2 percent of global website traffic comes from mobile devices (Statista, 2020).
• Only 48.0% of people use voice search when finding general information on the internet (Search Engine Land, 2020).

Social Media and Ecommerce Statistics 

• According to Smartinsights.com, at least 87.0% of people believe that social media can help them make the right decisions when shopping online (Smart insights, 2020).
• At least 86.0% of women shopping online will turn to social media before they can purchase (Alist Daily, 2016).
• The number of people using social media as of 2019 was around 3.5 Billion. The number grows at a rate of 9.0 percent every month (Smart insights, 2020).
• At least 5.0% of adult internet users trust the information they get from various social media platforms (Pew Research Center, 2016).
• The word has over 4.4 billion active internet users and 5.1 billion mobile phone users (Smart insights, 2020).
• Facebook is the most dominant social media platform. At least 1 in every four online business is selling through Facebook (Smart insights, 2020).
• Facebook has a paid ad service for online business. It is estimated that at least 4 million businesses pay for Facebook Ads (Forbes, 2018).
• In 2018. Facebook generated $21.57 Billion in the US ad revenue, making it one of the most successful social media platforms that year (Sproutsocila, 2018).
• Internet users spend at least 30.0% of their online time on social media (GlobalWebIndex, 2017).
• While 83.0% of people do not trust adverts, most of them trust online reviews and recommendations they find online (Status Labs, 2018).
• At least 40.0% of online merchants use various social media platforms to generate sales (Smart insights, 2020).
• Most people depend on social media to make their online purchase decisions. Status Lab estimates that 80.0% of online shoppers depend on advice from social media before they can buy a product or service (Status Labs, 2018).
• At least 30.0% of social media users believe that they can buy a product or service through a social media platform (Smart insights, 2020).
• Nearly half of people on Instagram follow brands, which makes it the best platform to promote your business brand (Bandwatch, 2017).

Ecommerce Customer Care Service Statistics 

• Most online businesses strive to improve their service as a way of increasing their customer acquisition rates. At least 72.0 percent of businesses admit that they mainly focus on improving customer experience (Forrester, 2018).
• Every month, 1 in every 6 Americans is likely to reach out to a customer care representative through social media, text, email, or live chat (Statista, 2018).
• Zendesk estimates that at least 84.0% of customers depend on customer experience as the main determinant when buying a product or service from a company (Zendesk, 2019).
• Customer care is crucial in improving customer brand loyalty. At least 60% of customers shift to a rival brand because of poor customer care services. Also, 95.0% of customers believe customer service is vital for ensuring brand loyalty.
• When it comes to customer service, most customers still prefer physical and personal interactions. In a study, 75.0% of participants admitted that they would prefer to interact with a real person when contacting customer care (PwC, 2018).
• Poor customer care experience can drive away customers. Almost 92.0% of consumers believe that they can stop purchasing from a brand after three bad customer care experiences (Hubspot 2019).
• 33.0% of customers want their issues resolved with a single interaction they make with a company (Statista, 2018).
• An automated telephone system is the most scaring thing to customers that would want a real person to attend to their needs. 56.0% of customers say that automated telephone is more frustrating than other forms of customer care communications aids (Zendesk, 2019).
• According to Temkin Group, companies with an average earning of $1 Billion can boost their potential earnings by at least $700 in 3years if they invest in quality customer care service (Superoffice, 2020).
• Customers want a customer care desk to serve them better when they visit any company. In fact, 86% of all customers are willing to pay more for a product or service if the customer care is great. PwC found out that customers are more willing to pay even more if the price of an item is high as long as the company’s customer care service is on point (PwC, 2019).
• By the end of 2020, great customer service will overtake product and price in brand differentiation (Walker, 2019).
• By 2019, 2 in every 3 companies were already competing based on the level of their customer care (Gartner, 2019).
• Most customers or at least 51.0 of customers will not do any business with a company after a bad customer care experience (NewVoiceMedia, 2016).

Ecommerce Email Marketing Statistics

• Email marketing is one of the most successful digital marketing tools for ecommerce platforms. According to DMS a dollar investment in email marketing results to at least $32.0 in ROI (Salecycle, 2020).
• The first ten days of the month are the best to send open, click, and order emails to customers (Omisend, 2020).
• The overall unsubscribe rate for email marketing is 0.21% while the average open rate stands at 22.86% in 2020 (Salecycle, 2020).
• While the average click-through rates are 2.41%, most utility emails have the highest CTR rates at 4.76% (Salecycle, 2020).
• The email subject is important in determining a recipient’s opening. Only 35.0% of email recipients will open an email based on its subject heading (Marketing Pros, 2014).
• Email marketing is 40X more efficient in customer acquisition compared to social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook (McKinskey, 2017).
• Those buying products marketed on emails are likely to spend 138% more than those who do not receive email offers from companies (Marketing Profs, 2014).
• At least 91.0% of American online shoppers want to receive promotional emails from companies they have had dealing with (Statista, 2016).
• The most active period for recipients to open their emails is from 2-5 pm. Most people will open and read their emails in the afternoon (Lead Fuze, 2019).
•  At least 54.0% of people are willing to provide their email addresses to companies if they are going to offer lower prices.

Conclusion 

The future of ecommerce seems bright in the coming years. With the statics we have shared here from different sources, you can always plan your online business and make informed decisions to drive traffic and increase your customer conversion rates.