Ecommerce Statistics You Should Know

Ecommerce exploded in 2020. US online shopping saw a more than 30% increase in the first two quarters. Online shoppers may be motivated by the pandemic. However, ecommerce statistics show there’s more to understanding online shoppers.

You might be starting an eCommerce business or expanding your business online. See our eCommerce stats for more.

Ecommerce Market Statistics

First e commerce statistics show us the size of the ecommerce industry. Ecommerce stats also project it is one of the fastest-growing industries. Here are some key stats:

• Global ecommerce retail sales are expected to touch $6.542 trillion by 2023 (eMarketer)
• The global growth of the ecommerce market from 2020 to 2027 will be 14.7% (Grand View Research)

The ecommerce market is also growing in the United States. eMarketer reports these US online retail growth trends:

• Retail ecommerce sales in the US is projected to hit $859.28 billion in 2022
• Ecommerce sales is expected to reach 15.5% of total retail sales in 2022

Retail ecommerce sales reached $200.7 billion by the second quarter of 2020, U.S. Census Bureau figures show . Others showed enthusiasm toward the ecommerce industry. For example, 49% of shoppers expected great deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Adobe reported.

Many small business statistics suggest online selling will increase revenue. And businesses can lower overhead too.

Consumer Ecommerce Statistics

When setting up your ecommerce website, consider these stats about us online shoppers from Invesp:

• 62% of US consumers with Internet access buy products online at least one time during a month.
• 80% of online consumers are more likely to buy a product if the product comes with free delivery.
• 64% of customers are more likely to make a purchase online if it has a free return on exchange.

Grow ecommerce sales through gift coupons and competitive pricing to take your business to the next level, say stats from the same source in Invesp:

• 36% of shoppers spend time online to find out which eStore offers their desired product at the lowest price.
• 33% of online shoppers use gift coupons provided by eStores to make a purchase.

What’s more, 51% of American consumers prefer shopping for products online, according to Entrepreneur. However, a study by Invesp says 20% of these consumers returned items because of damage.

The reputation of ecommerce businesses also sways shoppers. For example, 59% of customers use Google to research products, according to a report from Think with Google.

Excellent products, quality customer service and customer experience help online retailers earn positive reviews and ratings.

Look at the following stats to understand why review comments and ratings are essential to boost conversion rates of an e commerce website:

• Displaying reviews can increase conversion rates by 270%. (Spiegel Research)
• 56% of shoppers read at least four reviews before making a purchase decision. (Bizrate Insights)
• Negative reviews affect the conversion rate. 94% of shoppers say that negative reviews have made them avoid a business. (ReviewTrackers)

These review and rating stats prove that companies should amp up their customer service department to solicit reviews and address customers’ concerns. Google is often the first place where people research any product. So you should make sure that your business has a clean presence on Google Search.

Every new online retail business owner faces challenges in creating a loyal fan base. Are you wondering what drives new brand purchases?

McKinsey & Company has found the following reasons why US buyers tried a new brand:

• Availability (48%)
• Convenience (34%)
• Better prices and promotions (30%)
• Better value (25%)

Any discussion about online consumer behavior is incomplete without talking about social media. 54% of millennials use social channels to research products before making buying decisions, according to Salesforce.

Following see these more specific ecommerce social media statistics:

• Social media can nudge people to buy things. 71% of customers are more likely to purchase when referred by social media. (HubSpot)
• 87% of online shoppers believe social media helps them make a shopping decision. (Smart Insights)
• More than 1 in 3 people on Facebook in the US use Marketplace each month to buy and sell things. (Facebook)
• 70% of shoppers turn to Instagram for product discovery. (Facebook)

Social media channels drive traffic to online retailers. In fact, referral traffic from social media to e-commerce websites has grown 110% in two years, reports eMarketer. More ecommerce traffic simply means more sales.

Do businesses use social media to increase sales? Yes, they do. 40% of ecommerce businesses say they use social media to generate sales, reports Smart Insights.

Being an online retail owner, you cannot ignore the power of social networks to drive e commerce traffic to your website and grow sales.

B2B Ecommerce Statistics

If you plan to start your B2B ecommerce business, we have collected useful statistics to help you craft better ecommerce strategies. These B2B ecommerce stats include global market size, US market size, B2B buyer behavior, and more.

According to Grand View Research:

• B2B ecommerce market size was valued at $ 5.7 trillion in 2019.
• The market is expected to grow by 17.5% (CAGR) by 2027.

You can understand from the above numbers that the global ecommerce market is flourishing. And the US is also witnessing the same growth trend.

In the US, B2B ecommerce reached $ 1.3 trillion in 2019, reported Digital Commerce360.

What does the future hold for B2B ecommerce in the US?

Forrester states:

• US ecommerce will touch $1.8 trillion by 2023.
• B2B ecommerce sales will account for 17% of total B2B sales in the US by 2023.

The future numbers from Forrester look achievable. Be it B2B or B2C, buyers have been increasingly adopting the online shopping method ever since COVID-19 broke. And most statistics suggest that the trend is going to stay after the pandemic as well.

For those businesses foraying into B2B ecommerce, understanding B2B consumer behavior can come in handy in crafting better marketing strategies.

But who are these B2B buyers?

They are millennials.  In fact, 73% of millennials are involved in B2B purchasing decisions, according to Forrester.

That being said, you should consider the millennial mindset to tap this tech-savvy generation.

Here are some interesting stats on millennial behaviors from The Millennial Shopping Report, which are relevant to B2B ecommerce sales:

• 60% of millennials do the majority of their shopping online.
• From product searches to product checkout, 39% of millennials are interested in a wholly digital shopping experience.
• Businesses’ online reputation matters and can influence a buying decision. 73% of millennials search the Internet before purchasing any product.

It is true that B2B ecommerce empowers businesses to quickly make purchases. But the B2B buying process is not so quick.

For example, B2B buyers spend up to 20 hours researching via Google and other channels before reaching out to a sales rep, notes a Showpad study. And it is understandable that the costlier the product, the more time buyers will spend on research.

Here are some other key findings from the Showpad study:

• 60% of C-suite executives prefer online reviews over all other kinds of research.
• Businesses need to provide all the relevant product information as a lack of product-specific information often slows down purchases. 37% of buyers say that they can’t find the information they need to make the purchase.

When it comes to content, quality wins over quantity. 86% of B2B buyers feel overwhelmed when they are provided with more than 10 pieces of sales content, reports the Showpad study. So you should focus on creating useful content that can help customers make the right decisions.

What features should a B2B eCommerce website include? Following are web features B2B buyers want in a B2B ecommerce website, according to the Showpad study:

• Personalized portal content (45%)
• ROI calculator (44%)
• Augmented reality (38%)
• Video chats (33%)
• Instant messaging with sales reps (22%)

Adding the above features to an ecommerce website will certainly help boost the conversion rate. Also, make sure that your ecommerce store offers a top-class customer experience across all devices.

Mobile eCommerce Statistics

Mobile ecommerce is the next big thing. According to an ecommerce statistic from Business Insider, m-commerce will be 45% of the total US ecommerce market by 2024. As someone who wants to accelerate ecommerce sales, you cannot ignore customers who love using mobile devices for shopping.

We have collected key mobile ecommerce statistics here to help you craft better ecommerce strategies to grow.

Let’s dive in.

According to Pew Research,

• 81% of Americans now own mobile devices with internet access.
• Of those 81%, the highest concentration is between the ages of 18 and 29.
• Roughly one in five American adults are smartphone-only internet users.

A study done by Rescue Time suggests that users with internet enabled mobile devices spend 5.4 hours daily on their phones. The same study also finds that 66% of smartphone users are addicted to their mobile devices.

Obviously, people are spending a significant amount of time on their mobile devices. Does this affect the buying habits of people? Yes, it does.

According to BrizFeel:

• A mobile device is the top platforms used for online shopping, followed by PCs and tablets.
• Consumers are more likely to redeem a mobile offer as compared to a print offer. 71% of consumers redeem a mobile offer, while only 8% of consumers make use of a print offer.
• Mobile Apps are the preferred shopping method for shoppers. 93% of buyers prefer using mobile apps over mobile websites to buy online.

As you see from the above stats, more and more smartphone owners are using their smartphones to buy things online.

The following data from eMarketer also suggests that m-commerce is headed for growth:

• 61% of Americans (aged 18-34) have used a retail app on their mobile device to buy a product or service online in the past month.
• US smartphone retail mobile commerce sales is expected to reach $432.24 billion by 2022.
• 29% of US smartphone owners (aged 18-22) rated the brand’s mobile app as the top channel to buy a product.

Are you wondering how much m-commerce will account for all e-commerce sales by 2021? The answer is more than half. By the end of 2021, mobile commerce is expected to reach 53.9% of total ecommerce sales as stated by CBRE.

With the incremental use of smartphones to buy things online, people now want a quicker digital experience. That being said, a poor mobile experience can affect the engagement rate on any online business website.

In fact, 62% of shoppers are less likely to buy from a business if they have a negative mobile experience, according to a report from Google. Even a one second delay in mobile load times of an ecommerce website can affect mobile conversion rate by 20%, finds the same Google report.

Having a slow site means losing customers. As the mobile page download time of a site goes to 1 to 5 seconds, the probability of users leaving the site increases by 106%, finds another Google report.

So it becomes of paramount importance that your mobile site loads faster. Only then will your mobile site increase its conversion rate.

You can use Google PageSpeed Insights to improve the speed of your online business website.

Shopping Cart Statistics

When people add products to shopping carts, it’s reasonable to understand that they are interested in buying the products. The next step is for them to make the payment. However, it doesn’t always work like that.

An abandoned cart is a real thing. People add products to their shopping carts and leave the websites of ecommerce businesses without completing the transactions.

Why do online shoppers abandon shopping carts? Which part of the checkout process makes people abandon shopping carts? How can you target those abandoned shopping consumers? To answer these questions, we have assembled these critical shopping cart statistics.

Consider the following data.

Shopping cart abandonment rates are not the same across all industries. Baymard Institute collected data from 41 different shopping cart abandonment studies and found that the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.57%.

Why do consumers abandon shopping carts?

Here are the reasons for shopping cart abandonment, according to Baymard Institute:

• Extra costs like shipping, taxes, and fees (50%)
• Requirement to create an account (28%)
• Too long/complicated checkout process (21%)
• Not able to calculate the actual cost upfront (18%)

image: Surefire LocalThe above stats prove that the checkout process plays a critical role in online shopping. The long, complicated checkout process is a big turn off for online shoppers. But still, the average US checkout flow includes 23.48 form elements displayed to users by default, finds the Baymard Institute.

Can you improve checkout flow? Yes, you can.

Baymard’s research mentions that it can be as short as 12-14 form elements.

Sometimes, shoppers just browse ecommerce websites with no intention of buying anything. Ignoring the ‘just browsing’ segment, ecommerce store owners can address all the other abandoned cart issues.

If you’re curious about the mobile ecommerce abandonment rate, you will be surprised to note that the mobile shopping cart abandonment rate is higher than on tablets and desktops. According to Barilliance research, the mobile ecommerce abandonment rate is 85.65%.

How can you target online shoppers who abandon your shopping carts? An effective way to target those customers is by leveraging the power of retargeting ads.

Following are some stats from Invesp to explain the power of retargeting ads:

• 3 out of 4 customers see retargeting ads.
• 46% of marketers say that retargeting is the most underused online marketing technique.
• The average click-through rate of retargeting ads is .7%, while the average click-through rate of display ads is 0.07%.

How effective are retargeting ads? The answer is super effective. According to Wishpond:

• 70% of website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are more likely to get converted.
• Retargeting ads boost CTA by 140%.
• 26% of customers who abandoned shopping carts return to the website and complete the transaction if the company uses retargeting ads.

What’s more, retargeting ads can increase branded search. Wishpond reports that companies using retargeting ads witness a 1046% increase in branded search.

Other than retargeting ads, online retailers can also use email marketing to win back people who left shopping carts without completing transactions.

How effective can an abandoned cart email marketing strategy be?

Look at the following stats from Barilliance to find the answer:

• Cart abandonment email open rate is quite high. In fact, the average open rate has hovered around 43.3% since 2016.
• Email marketing can really help you retrieve those lost customers because abandoned cart email marketing has a conversion rate of 8.24%.

Bottom line: abandoned cart email marketing brings in sales. So you should always have some tools in place to build an email address list of abandoned shopping consumers. Only then can you design email marketing campaigns to target those customers.

While a shopping cart is a module you add to a website in order to sell online, some small businesses opt for an all-in-one platform instead. The platform includes a built-in shopping cart. See: Best Platform to Sell Online.

Payment and Shipping Statistics

Which payment method do online shoppers prefer to make online payments? Or Should your eStore accept payment via digital wallets? To answer questions like these, we have collected critical ecommerce payment statistics.

According to the JP Morgan report, cards dominate among various ecommerce payment methods in the US. In fact, 47% of ecommerce transactions are done through cards.

Here are other payment methods:

• Digital wallet (28%)
• Bank transfer (9%)
• Cash (7%)

Of course, it’s important to know about the preferred payment method globally. An ecommerce statistic from WorldPay research suggests that 36% of commerce transactions are conducted through digital wallets. If you combine credit card and debit card usages, card payments dominate across all countries. Some additional stats on global ecommerce payment methods from WorldPay are:

• Credit cards (22.6%)
• Debit cards (19.6%)

When it comes to making payments for purchased items, customers want flexibility. And your ecommerce website can lose sales if you don’t offer flexible payment methods to customers.

In addition to flexible payment methods, customers also want fast, free shipping of their purchased items.

According to an ecommerce statistic from HubSpot, 24% of customers are willing to spend more to qualify for free shipping. So offering free shipping over certain order values can be an excellent strategy for online retailers to increase the average order value.

Following are some useful shipping statistics form Convey to improve customer service:

• Poor delivery can cost online stores dearly. 84% of customers are unlikely to buy from a company after a poor last mile delivery experience.
• Online retailers must improve the product delivery experience to create a big fan base. 98.1% of customers say that product delivery experience impacts their brand loyalty.

Though online shoppers want an unparalleled last mile delivery experience, they don’t want to pay for it. According to an ecommerce statistic from NRF, 74% of consumers expect free shipping even on orders below $50.

Top 3 E-Commerce FAQs

Starting an ecommerce store requires lots of planning and execution. And needless to say, you will have to compete with many small business owners along with ecommerce giant Amazon. In the process of growing your online store, you will off and on need dependable advice.

Here are some most commonly asked ecommerce questions:

How many people shop online?

An estimated 256 million people shop online in the U.S.

The number of online shoppers represents 78% of the adult population in the US. Here are the most popular online stores in the US, according to Statista:

• Amazon.com
• Walmart.com
• Apple.com
• Homedepot.com

How many ecommerce sites are there?

There are 1.8 million ecommerce sites in the U.S. alone.

Customers are increasingly using online shopping in the US. This has encouraged more and more retailers to build ecommerce websites for their stores. There is no surprise that online sales make up 10 percent of all retail sales industry-wide, reports NRF.

What are the top-selling products on ecommerce sites?

The top-selling products on ecommerce sites include books, music and video making up 62.7% of all products for sale online, computer and consumer electronics making up 49.5% of all products for sale online, toys and hobbies making up 47.8%% of all products, and apparel and accessories making up 36.7 % of all products for sale online (eMarketer)

If you are searching for things to make and sell from home, here is a list of small business wholesale suppliers to source products and supplies. This list can save you lots of time that you will otherwise spend doing research on google.

Go to the Next Step in Ecommerce

Now that you’ve seen the numbers about the power of eCommerce, isn’t it time to take your business to the next level? If you’re completely new to selling online, perhaps you could start with learning how to create a Redbubble store. Or if you create handmade items perhaps check out how to start an Etsy shop.

Get a few tips for how to start an eBay store. If Amazon is your thing, then check out how to source products to sell on Amazon.

Image: Depositphotos

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