40 Ecommerce Statistics and Trends for 2026

Global online retail sales are forecast to reach $6.88 trillion in 2026, about 21% of all retail spending.

In the US, ecommerce took 17.1% of retail sales in the second quarter of 2026 and grew almost twice as fast as retail overall.

Growth now comes from mobile checkouts, automated email and SMS, and AI shopping assistants, while returns and cart abandonment still cost stores the most.

Below are 40 ecommerce statistics for 2026, each from a 2025 or 2026 source, grouped by market size, the US, top companies, mobile, returns, marketing, AI and reviews.

Key Ecommerce Statistics for 2026

Metric	Latest figure
Global retail ecommerce sales (2026 forecast)	$6.88 trillion
Share of global retail sold online (2026)	21.1%
US ecommerce share of retail (Q2 2026)	17.1%
US ecommerce growth vs total retail (Q2 2026, YoY)	12.2% vs 6.7%
US online holiday spending (2025)	$257.8 billion
Amazon net sales (2025)	$716.9 billion
Average cart abandonment rate	70.22%
Online sales returned (2025)	19.3%
Email revenue from automated flows	41%
Growth in AI-referred US retail traffic (2025 holidays)	693%

How Big Is Ecommerce in 2026?

Online retail keeps growing faster than retail overall, but the pace has settled into single digits.

1. Global retail ecommerce sales are forecast to reach $6.88 trillion in 2026, up 7.2% from $6.42 trillion in 2025.
2. 21.1% of all retail sales worldwide will happen online in 2026.
3. Online’s share of global retail is forecast to reach 22.5% by 2028, when sales hit $7.89 trillion.
4. China, the US and Western Europe together accounted for 80.5% of global ecommerce sales in 2025.

Growth of around 7% a year means competition for each shopper keeps rising, so conversion matters more than traffic.

US Ecommerce Statistics

US ecommerce is growing almost twice as fast as total retail.

5. US retail ecommerce sales were $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted.
6. Ecommerce accounted for 17.1% of total US retail sales in the second quarter of 2026.
7. US ecommerce sales grew 12.2% year over year in Q2 2026, while total retail grew 6.7%.
8. US shoppers spent a record $257.8 billion online during the 2025 holiday season, up 6.8%.
9. Cyber Week brought in $44.2 billion online in 2025, up 7.7%, and Cyber Monday alone drove $14.25 billion.
10. Shoppers spent more than $4 billion online on 25 separate days in the 2025 holidays, up from 18 days in 2024.

For peak-season detail, see our Black Friday stats and Cyber Monday stats.

Biggest Ecommerce Companies

Amazon still leads, while Shopify’s merchants are growing far faster.

11. Amazon’s net sales reached $716.9 billion in 2025, up 12% from $638.0 billion in 2024.
12. Amazon’s North America segment alone brought in $426.3 billion in 2025.
13. Merchants on Shopify sold $378.4 billion worth of goods in 2025, up 29% from $292.3 billion.
14. Amazon’s Rufus shopping assistant has 300 million users and added about $12 billion in annualized sales.

Independent stores on Shopify grew more than twice as fast as Amazon in 2025, which shows direct-to-consumer brands still have room to win.

Mobile and Payment Statistics

Phones now carry most online spending, and flexible payments keep growing.

15. 56% of 2025 US holiday online spending happened on smartphones, up from 54.5% the year before.
16. Mobile accounted for just 40% of holiday online spending as recently as 2020.
17. Buy now, pay later drove $20 billion in US holiday online spending in 2025, up 9.8%.

If your checkout is slow or cramped on a phone, you are losing more than half your buyers. Our guide to mobile conversion rate optimization covers the fixes.

Cart Abandonment and Returns Statistics

Most carts are left behind, and about one in five online orders comes back.

18. The average online cart abandonment rate is 70.22%.
19. US retailers expected $849.9 billion in returns in 2025, 15.8% of annual sales.
20. 19.3% of online sales were expected to be returned in 2025, more than the overall rate.
21. 82% of shoppers say free returns are a major factor when buying, up from 76%.
22. 71% of shoppers are less likely to buy from a retailer again after a poor return experience.
23. Holiday returns fell 1.2% in the 2025 season.

More detail is in our cart abandonment stats.

Generous return rules also invite abuse. Refund and policy abuse is now the most common attack on online stores, as these 2026 ecommerce fraud statistics show.

Ecommerce Marketing Statistics

Automated email and SMS earn a large share of revenue from a small share of sends.

24. Automated email flows are 5.3% of email sends but drive 41% of email revenue.
25. Flow emails get a 5.58% click rate and a 2.11% order rate, versus 1.69% and 0.16% for campaigns.
26. SMS flows are 7.6% of SMS sends but earn 45% of SMS revenue.
27. Email automations earn $2.87 per send, compared with $0.18 for one-off campaigns.
28. Cart recovery and welcome emails produce 76% of all orders from email automations.
29. Email marketing returns $76 for every $1 spent.
30. Apple accounts for 62.26% of email opens, which makes open rates an unreliable metric.

Start with a welcome series and a cart recovery flow. See more in our marketing automation stats.

AI and Ecommerce Statistics

AI assistants went from a curiosity to a real source of shoppers in one year.

31. Traffic to US retail sites from AI tools grew 693.4% during the 2025 holiday season.
32. Shoppers referred by AI converted 31% better, and revenue per visit was 254% higher.
33. AI-referred retail traffic was up 138% year over year in May 2026 and converted 54% better than other traffic.
34. AI and shopping agents influenced $262 billion of 2025 holiday spending.
35. 33% of shoppers planned to use generative AI while holiday shopping in 2025, double the prior year, rising to 43% of Gen Z.
36. Retail product pages average only 66% machine readability, which limits how well AI tools can read them.

Clear product data, specs and reviews help AI tools recommend your products.

Reviews and Social Proof Statistics

Shoppers and AI tools both lean on reviews before a purchase.

37. 97% of consumers read reviews before choosing a business.
38. 85% of consumers say positive reviews make them more likely to buy.
39. 93% of consumers have made a purchase after reading reviews.
40. 57% of AI citations for branded questions point to reviews and social proof.

Showing recent purchases and reviews on product pages turns that trust into sales. For shopper behavior in depth, see our online shopping stats and these consumer behaviour trends.

Ecommerce Trends to Watch in 2026

• AI shopping assistants: traffic from ChatGPT, Rufus and similar tools is small but converts well.
• Mobile-first checkout: more than half of peak-season spending now happens on phones.
• Automation over campaigns: flows earn far more per message than one-off sends.
• Returns as a loyalty test: free, fast returns shape whether shoppers come back.
• Proof on the page: reviews and live activity build trust for both shoppers and AI.

Wrap Up

Ecommerce keeps taking a bigger share of retail each year, but the easy growth is over.

Stores that win now fix mobile checkout, automate their follow-ups and give shoppers clear reasons to trust them.

Sources

US Census Bureau | Adobe Digital Insights | Amazon | Shopify | NRF | Baymard Institute | BrightLocal | EMARKETER | Klaviyo | Omnisend | Litmus | Salesforce | Deloitte | Omniscient Digital