99+ Ecommerce Statistics to Help Boost Your Sales in [2025]

About 26% of global retail sales now happen online, up from just 18% in 2017. 

For business owners, this shift is both an opportunity and a challenge. Your success as an eCommerce business now depends on your understanding of the market. 

How large is the eCommerce opportunity? Which products drive the most sales? What marketing strategies deliver the best ROI? How much are businesses losing to fraud? 

This comprehensive collection of eCommerce statistics answers these critical questions so you can avoid costly mistakes and position your online store for maximum growth.

General eCommerce statistics

If you have yet to enter the eCommerce market, you’re missing out on a lot. To put that into perspective, 26% of all global retail sales now happen online. 

Almost a decade ago, in 2017, eCommerce was responsible for just 18% of retail sales worldwide. In 2027, we’ll see eCommerce take a share of 41% of global retail sales.

Revenue-wise, how’s the eCommerce market?

The latest eCommerce statistics show that this market will generate $4.32 trillion in 2025. And by 2029, hit a projected market volume of US$5.89 trillion.

China has the largest eCommerce market share and is estimated to generate $1.38 trillion by 2025.

Biggest eCommerce markets by sales

How many people shop online?

About 2.71 billion people in the world now shop online. By 2029, that number will rise to 3.6 billion people.

eCommerce user penetration will be 42.4% in 2025 and is expected to hit 49.1% by 2029.

And how much will eCommerce businesses earn from each shopper on average?

Statista says the average revenue per user (ARPU) will be $1.56k.

Who's shopping online? Breaking down eCommerce by age

Online shopping habits are consistent across all age groups:

• Baby Boomers & Seniors: 27%
• Generation X: 25%
• Millennials: 26%
• Generation Z: 23%

What are people buying online?

According to data from Pymnts, travel is the most frequently purchased category online across all age groups.

For online retail shopping, the numbers are relatively balanced. 

Millennials account for 26.4% of online retail purchases. Interestingly, Baby Boomers & Seniors (26.5%) shop online for retail slightly more than Gen X (24.5%) and Gen Z (23.1%).

For restaurant orders, Baby Boomers & Seniors are the least likely to participate (11.1%), while Millennials (21.9%) lead this category, followed by Gen Z (19.0%) and Gen X (13.1%).

Online grocery shopping remains the least common category. Millennials (15.8%) lead in this space, while Baby Boomers & Seniors (9.2%) are the least likely to buy groceries online.

eCommerce marketing and advertising statistics

The big players are not living their marketing to chance:

• Amazon spent approximately $20.6 billion on advertising in 2022. In 2024, they increased spending to 21.4 billion U.S. dollars
• Alibaba Group invested 88.22 billion yuan in 2024
• Mercado Libre in Latin America spent around $1.3 billion. They pushed their budget to $1.7 billion in 2023

What about your eCommerce business? How much should you spend? 

Data shows that 43% of the top eCommerce sites invest over $5K per month in social advertising alone.

As you can see, eCommerce businesses take online visibility seriously. If you want shoppers to click on your ads instead of competitors, the quality of those ads matters.

Which ads work best? 

We’ve found enriched catalog ads to be some of the best ads for eCommerce businesses. For example, when one of Cropink's electronics clients upgraded to enriched catalog ads, they saw:

• 3× higher conversion rates
• 9× higher ROAS
• 4× higher average order value (AOV)

Creating these high-performing ads doesn't require a massive budget. You can start for free with Cropink.

eCommerce ads benchmarks

If you're wondering how your ads stack up against industry standards, here's what you should aim for in your eCommerce campaigns:

Where are eCommerce businesses marketing their products?

eCommerce businesses focus their marketing on 3 key areas. Websites are the most used (88%), while social publishing/advertising (83%) and email (82%) continue to be essential channels for connecting with customers.

Live shopping statistics and trends

China is the king of the live shopping market. The country currently owns 78% of the global live shopping market. For Chinese live shoppers, Taobao is their platform of choice.

The Chinese live shopping market is so large that it generated almost ¥5 trillion (approximately $688 billion) in 2023. 

These figures are not surprising when you consider that 60% of Chinese online shoppers participated in live commerce, and the number of users is expected to exceed 430 million by 2026.

On the other side of the world, U.S. livestream e-commerce sales reached $50 billion in 2023. According to projections, this number will increase by 36% over the next three years. 

When that happens, live streaming will make up 5% of all eCommerce sales in the US. By then, the estimated revenue will be $55 billion.

What about Europe?

Europe lags behind, with only 25% of French respondents having used live commerce in 2023.

But when European shoppers buy online, these are their most popular categories: 

• Clothing – Purchased by 40% of respondents
• Electronic devices – Bought by 29% of shoppers
• Hair care products – Also, 29% of respondents
• Fashion and beauty accessories – Another popular category

Where’s live shopping happening?

Facebook and Instagram are the most popular platforms for sellers and shoppers. But, almost one-third of sellers are running livestream shopping on their own websites or apps.

On average, retailers stream live shopping on about four platforms, while consumers use two to three platforms to watch.

Which gender and age group engages most in live shopping? 

Millennials (58%) make up the largest group of live shopping participants. Overall, 44% of people aged 18-45 have bought an item via live shopping.

American men buy more via live shopping than women by a 6% margin:

• 48% of male shoppers have used livestream shopping
• 42% of female shoppers have used livestream shopping

Is live shopping common among consumers?

About 12% of consumers shop via live shopping monthly, while 11% do so multiple times a week.

Should you invest in live shopping for your eCommerce business?

I say yes because 46% of respondents are interested in live-stream shopping events, according to a survey by Agora of 1000 consumers.

• 40% say convenience and ease of shopping are the main reasons they participate.
• 36% value product demonstrations to see items in action.
• 15% engage because of influencers.
• 9% enjoy interacting with other shoppers.

This consumer interest, combined with the growth rates in markets like China and the US, shows there’s a huge opportunity for eCommerce businesses looking to engage customers in new ways.

Cross-border eCommerce statistics

Our eCommerce statistics show that shoppers don’t always buy from their country. This is especially the case for the B2C market, which now accounts for 80% of cross-border eCommerce activity.

We found that cross-border eCommerce generated $791,542.2 million in 2024 and will expand at a CAGR of 30.50% from 2024 to 2031. 

Which country attracts the most cross-border shoppers? It’s US, as it currently holds 40% of global revenue.

 

Clothing, electronics, books, and entertainment media are the most shopped categories for this market vertical. 

Cart abandonment statistics

One of the biggest challenges for any eCommerce business is cart abandonment. Here's what the data tells us about this costly problem.

Cart abandonment rates have climbed steadily over the years:

• 59.8% in 2006
• 71.98% in 2012
• 73.9% in 2023 (highest since 2012)
• 70.19% in 2024
• Projected to remain in the 70% range through 2025

Interestingly, consumers tend to browse more on desktops but are more likely to add products to their cart when shopping on mobile devices. However, mobile users are also the more likely culprits for abandonment, with Barilliance data showing mobile cart abandonment rates of 85.65%, compared to tablets at 80.74% and desktops at 73.07%.

Luxury and jewelry categories have the highest cart abandonment rates (81.4%), while pet care and veterinary services have the lowest average at 56.1%.

Why do shoppers abandon carts?

To summarize, consumers hate hidden costs and anything that requires them to create an account.

According to Baymard, you can improve conversion rates by 35.26% if you create a better checkout design. That would keep 22% of shoppers abandoning their carts due to a poor checkout experience. 

How much money do merchants lose when shoppers abandon carts?

Business Insider reports that merchants lose a potential $4.6 trillion annually from abandoned carts.

D2C eCommerce statistics

More brands are skipping the middleman and going straight to consumers. Here's what the eCommerce statistics tell us:

North America leads the D2C movement with 77% of all digital-only D2C brands worldwide. Europe follows at just 13%, while Asian markets account for only 6.5%.

When it comes to revenue, established brands still dominate the D2C space. In 2023, they pulled in $135 billion in eCommerce sales, compared to digitally native brands' $35 billion. By 2025, these numbers are expected to climb to $187 billion and $40 billion, respectively.

Consumers are noticing, too. D2C sites now rank as the #3rd most popular online shopping channel, right behind marketplaces and supermarkets.

Why? Shoppers cite better pricing and free, fast delivery as the main draws.

Like the rest of the eCommerce market, clothes and accessories are the top items bought, followed by electronics. Food and beverages perform worst for this eCommerce market vertical.

Among public D2C companies, Lululemon Athletica tops the charts with over $9 billion in 2024 revenue. Crocs follows at $3.9 billion, with Carter's rounding out the top three at $2.9 billion.

eCommerce fraud statistics 

Online fraud is costing businesses big money. For example, eCommerce businesses lost $41 million to fraud in 2022, with North America bearing the brunt (42% of all cases). In Europe, Germany faces the highest fraud rates. In 2023, losses rose to $48 billion. 

Unfortunately, fraud will continue to be an issue and hit an estimated crescendo of $107 billion in 2029.

Synthetic identity fraud alone will cost businesses $14 billion by 2025.

However, the market for fraud detection solutions is keeping pace, growing from $57.51 billion in 2024 to an expected $186.82 billion by 2030.

How are store owners responding? 

They're investing heavily, with merchants typically allocating 11% of yearly revenue to fraud prevention. That investment is necessary. Signifyd found that for every $100 in fraudulent orders, businesses actually lose $207 when all costs are factored in.

Phishing schemes are the most prevalent, as they target 43% of global merchants. Close behind is ‘friendly fraud,’ where customers dispute legitimate credit card charges. It affects 34% of online sellers.

FAQs

What is the success rate of e-commerce?

Most online businesses(80% to 90%) fail within their first 4 months. Most crash and burn because they do not have a proper marketing strategy, but more commonly, because sellers fail to understand market needs.

What is the number #1 eCommerce platform?

Amazon is the undisputed king of eCommerce. It experienced 6.1 billion direct visits to Amazon.com in 2023 and $491.65 billion in US sales in 2024. They're on track to hit $83.1 billion in gross merchandise volume by 2025.

What is the most common fraud in eCommerce?

Phishing scams are hitting 43% of online merchants, making them the biggest fraud threat. Right behind is ‘friendly fraud,’ where customers buy products and then dispute legitimate charges on their credit cards.

Which niche is best for eCommerce?

Clothing and accessories consistently perform best across most eCommerce segments, followed by electronics. Food and beverages consistently struggle to gain traction, especially in D2C.

Summary

The eCommerce market has massive opportunities for businesses ready to capitalize on digital retail trends. With these eCommerce statistics as your guide, you can position your store to capture market share in what will soon be a $5.89 trillion global marketplace.

And when you're ready to create scroll-stopping ads, Cropink's innovative catalog ad solutions can deliver the performance boost you need.

Sources

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