Ecommerce Share of Retail Sales (2020–2025)
With the rising dominance of online shopping, it’s no surprise that the ecommerce share of retail sales has been on the increase in recent years.
The numbers surrounding the growth of online shopping say it all. Two years ago, the online retail market share was at 17.9 percent. That is to say that of every $100 spent by consumers, $17.90 was online.
In 2022, this figure is expected to grow to 20.3 percent to total $5.5 trillion in global ecommerce sales. This is a 2.4 percentage percent increase in the ecommerce market share in a matter of two years. The growth is set to continue and reach 23.6 percent by 2025—a 5.7 percentage point increase in just over half a decade.
The growing ecommerce market share should come as no surprise, given the increased accessibility and affordability of mobile devices, as well as increased internet access worldwide.
Ecommerce Market Share in the US
Zooming in on one of the world’s largest ecommerce markets, let’s take a look at the percentage of the total US retail sales that take place online.
In 2022, the ecommerce market share in the US is expected at 17.3 percent, a slight two-percentage-point increase from 2021’s 15.3 percent.
This figure is set to continue rising over the next few years. In 2023, the US ecommerce market share is forecast at 19.3 percent. By 2025, this will have increased to 23.6 percent.
This is impressive growth, especially considering that as recently as 2019, the ecommerce share of retail sales in the US was at 11.0 percent.
The growing adoption of ecommerce in the past two years is the result of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced consumers to stay home and purchase products online. In fact, US consumers spent 18 percent more on ecommerce in 2020, while expenditure in brick-and-mortar shops fell 14.0 percent.
The majority of this growth in the US ecommerce market share will come from the top online retailers, particularly those with efficient delivery and click-and-collect services. Analysts say the ten biggest online retailers in the US increased their market share from 58.2 percent to 60.1 percent in 2020.