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E-commerce now accounts for about 23.5% of retail sales in the United States, with a projected peak of 30% by the end of the decade.
The explosive growth of e-commerce during COVID-19 was largely an acceleration of existing trends, not a long-term disruption. Online sales in America, while still strong, are returning to a trajectory more in line with pre-pandemic patterns.
Update as of September 22, 2025
Online shopping in the United States, although it greatly benefited from the pandemic, has entered a maturity phase, returning to the growth trend it would have followed without extraordinary events.
COVID certainly accelerated e-commerce, converting the most reluctant to this channel sooner than they would have in other conditions, and increased dependence on it. But the shift to online selling and shopping would have happened anyway. Consequently, while retail sales in the USA (both offline and online) have skyrocketed since March 2020, the market share of e-commerce has returned to the pre-COVID trajectory.
Some product categories already have market shares above 23.5%, but the average remains at that level.
| Product Category | % Online Consumers |
| Clothing | 43% |
| Shoes | 33% |
| Groceries and Beverages | 26% |
| Cosmetic Products | 24% |
| Pet Products | 22% |
| Books, Movies, Music, Games | 21% |
| Accessories | 19% |
| Pharmacy and Health Products | 18% |
| Consumer Electronics | 16% |
| Toys and Baby Items | 13% |
Update as of March 25, 2025
It's confirmed: online sales and e-commerce penetration in the United States have reached a new record.
Below are the 2024 numbers with the percentage change compared to 2023:
It's important to note that in 2019, one year before the pandemic, e-commerce sales amounted to "only" 571 billion, while today that figure significantly exceeds one trillion dollars (1.192 billion).
[Source: Digital Commerce 360, U.S. Department of Commerce]
The Digital channel is growing and consolidating its position as an integral part of US retail. In the second quarter of 2024, retail sales through e-commerce reached 291.6 billion dollars, marking a 1.3% increase compared to the previous quarter. On an annual basis, the increase was 6.7%, indicating a solid and steady growth trend. This expansion reflects the continued trust of American consumers in digital commerce, which now represents 16% of total retail sales in the country.
The non-seasonally adjusted data shows that online sales totaled 282.3 billion dollars, a +5.3% increase compared to the first quarter of the year. Total retail sales in the second quarter reached 1,826.9 billion dollars, with a modest increase of 0.5% compared to the first, highlighting how e-commerce continues to surpass traditional retail in terms of growth.
Online sales continue to be a driving force in the American market, especially due to the increasingly widespread adoption of digital technologies among older demographic segments.
Update as of March 8, 2024
In 2023, e-commerce constituted 22% of total retail sales in the US market: the highest rate of digital penetration in retail (+0.8% compared to 2022).
At the same time, the sector grew by +7.6% in twelve months, and total retail sales by +3.8%, a figure that somewhat contrasts with the e-commerce boom induced by the pandemic but explains the driving force exerted by digital platforms regarding consumer goods commerce. In 2020, COVID and lockdowns led the online channel and retail sales to grow by +42.8% and +7.8% compared to 2019.
In total, the Internet and mobile devices brought American retail businesses a whopping 1.119 trillion dollars from 1.040 trillion in 2022, while retail commerce today is worth about 5 trillion. Online sales in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone surpassed 320 billion dollars, the highest quarterly revenue in US history.
Update as of February 2, 2023
The performance of digital commerce in the United States has never been so overwhelming. The growth of e-commerce even exceeded expectations with four percentage points more (in October, we predicted an increase of +9.4%). Driving the rise of this sector is mobile, an online sales channel growing twice as fast as desktop sales. In particular, Social Commerce is making headway in the retail world and today represents an essential tool for brands in the United States: views on social media for retail brands in the American market have increased by +407% from 2020 to 2022, highlighting the importance of building a digital presence if you want to expand your business overseas.
Among the consumer categories with the highest revenues for 2022 are:
Update as of October 4, 2022
Total online sales in 2021 in America reached 960.4 billion dollars, an increase of 14.3% compared to 2020 [Source: eMarketer]. This is significantly lower growth than in 2020, which should not be concerning because it represents the highest sales peak ever recorded in the American market. The e-commerce market share in the USA in 2021 was 19.1%; in 2022, it reached 20.6% [Source: Digital Commerce 360 analysis of U.S. Department of Commerce data]. It's worth noting that annual e-commerce sales in the United States have quadrupled from 2011 to today. Additionally, by 2026, more than one in five dollars spent on retail purchases will come from online sales channels.
Regarding mobile commerce, sales in America made through smartphones are estimated at 362 billion dollars and represent 40% of total online sales in the US market.
Update as of February 20, 2020
What follows is an update of the data to 2020. The original article, published on April 18, 2019, can be viewed right after the updates.
Retail sales in America amounted to 759.6 billion dollars in 2020, growing by +33.5% compared to 576.5 billion dollars in 2019, according to the most recent data published by the US Census Bureau. This figure does not include services, only physical goods. Online sales sites accounted for 21.3% of the total retail last year, compared to 15.8% the previous year.
At the beginning of 2021, 73% of procurement office staff were Millennials. They were 50% in 2015. Online purchases of products and services intended for businesses [the so-called B2B] is more difficult to estimate than retail sales, but it is estimated that B2B e-commerce in the USA will reach 1,800 billion by 2023.
In 2020, mobile e-commerce reached 40% of total online sales [we refer to retail sales of physical products excluding services] The data, in our view, is strongly underestimated because if it is true that purchases actually made and paid through a smartphone are estimated at 40% of the total, the percentage of purchases INFLUENCED through the consultation of information provided by a smartphone [especially at the point of sale] is much higher, and we could estimate it around 80%.
Original article published on April 18, 2019
An extraordinary growth in online retail sales is expected in the United States: from $322.17 billion in 2016 to surpassing $485 billion by 2021
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