2024 Ecommerce Statistics Report by Groove

From where you’re standing, it can be difficult to gauge where the world of Ecommerce is heading.

In 2020, we saw a sea change in how people made their purchases online. Ecommerce came to the forefront as people increased social distancing habits. Yet even with these quick changes, it’s difficult to sit down, calculate the differences, and find out just where Ecommerce is headed.

But a few yardsticks might help.

To that end, we’ve assembled some of the most relevant statistics in Ecommerce over the past few years. This roundup includes statistics that encompass 2021 and estimates for 2022, while others might go into the future, projecting where we might end up in the year 2040.

In 2020, U.S. Ecommerce sales grew by 40%. It was an unprecedented year in more than one way, and if we’re going to make sense of what happened, we’re going to have to get our mathematical bearings around us. 

Here’s the 2022 Ecommerce Statistics Report by Groove which should help you put into context everything we just experienced over the past year. We’ve also attached some information along with each statistic to help you better understand what to look for—along with what each statistic means in context.

Ecommerce Statistics Roundup

Ecommerce is looking to grow by leaps and bounds, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down so much of the world in 2020. After companies and countries across the world changed to a remote, socially distanced way of doing things, Ecommerce helped plug in the gaps for consumers. 

However, after vaccines were introduced across the world, has that led to more people moving directly to retail, or are many of the new Ecommerce habits fully engrained by now? Let’s look at some of the general statistics to explain where the industry is in 2022:

• The estimated global value of Retail Ecommerce, according to Statista, could be $4 trillion or more. That’s expected to continue to grow to the point where the total value of Ecommerce in 2024 could eclipse the $6 trillion mark.
• Meanwhile, the overall value of Ecommerce in total eclipsed $10 trillion in 2020. Estimates put the numbers by 2027 at a massive $27 trillion if current growth rates continue; however, this doesn’t include the possibility of economic downturns.
• According to Nasdaq, the world is increasingly focused on Ecommerce. That means that by the year 2040, all of Ecommerce would comprise 95% of purchases across the world. Says Nasdaq: “If these transactions are happening on mobile devices, companies will need to be ready to meet the demand and to step up their mobile sales efforts.”
• According to OptinMonster, over 90% of all people have purchased products online. That includes users from all over the globe.
• China represents by far the largest market for Ecommerce in the world. The United States clocks in at number two, followed by the United Kingdom and Japan.
• Credit cards remain the top preferred payment system for all online shoppers, edging out digital payment systems. Debit cards clocked in at number three across the globe.
• In America, preferences for Ecommerce over traditional retail have climbed over the 50% mark, just edging it at 51%. However, the rates of Ecommerce growth in the United States and across the globe help support the Nasdaq view that there could eventually be a complete dominance of Ecommerce in buyer preferences.
• All markets saw double-digit percentage growth over the past year. By this, we’re referring to different global segments such as Latin America, North America, and Western Europe. Even divided into these various slices, there was a wide range of growth across the globe.
• Of all online sales, about 60%+ occur in East Asia. Retailers who ignore east Asia do so at their own peril, ignoring the world’s largest population sector, where increased demand over the past few decades has resulted in a tremendous amount of economic growth. We’re seeing evidence of that growth in Ecommerce, including future projections beyond 2021. 
• Remarkably, about 46% of all American small businesses still don’t have a website, suggesting that for many small businesses, digital retail and Ecommerce are not priorities. This has the potential to create a tremendous advantage for some small businesses.

What do the recent statistics across the globe tell us? That Ecommerce is a freight train. It’s not slowing down, and if anything, problems like the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic have only made it more preferable for customers in the long run.

Statistics for Specific Ecommerce Companies

What happens if we zoom in on individual companies and ask how they performed over the last year? A quick glance at the stock market will show you just how many companies were able to succeed in spite of the pandemic—many of them used the opportunity to grab market share. That’s particularly true of big-box retailers and large Ecommerce platforms, which used the pandemic to help people adjust to the new normal.

• Amazon increased its net profit by about 80% throughout 2020. This is in comparison to the year before, which demonstrates just what a unique year 2020 was. The revenue increases for Amazon came in at about 38%, which is a monstrous number for a company the size of Amazon.
• Over half of people reported leaving a review on Amazon, suggesting a high level of customer engagement. It also points to just how important Amazon reviews are becoming to customers—even those who may buy off of a platform on Amazon may use it as a research tool. Below, we highlighted just how many customers are using multiple channels to complete a purchase, a full 75%.
• In the United States alone, there are over 95 million Prime members, a monstrous number that hints at the domination of Amazon. This is especially true given the U.S. population (328 million) and the fact that in many cases, individuals may share prime membership. Extrapolating those numbers suggests that hundreds of millions of people enjoy Amazon prime delivery and other benefits in one country alone.
• In 2019, about 55% of people were happy to go outside Amazon to get their products, suggesting that while Amazon is tremendously popular, there’s still plenty of sentiment that’s favorable toward other sellers.
• Shopify grew its revenue by over 85%. While Shopify doesn’t have the same global impact as Amazon might, its popularity as an Ecommerce platform is continuing to fuel future shops and businesses. That may be why it boosted its revenue so much more than many of the larger companies—it’s showing legs for future growth, as well.
• In China, about 59% of the market is controlled by Alibaba, which suggests that although the giant is definitely a major player in global Ecommerce, there is room for competition in east Asia, as well.
• Woocommerce and Shopify are the most trusted Ecommerce platforms, though Wix stores have a 13% market share. This comes from statistics that compare the top Ecommerce shop builders against each other.

Although Amazon dominates the landscape, there is enough interest on third-party sellers on Amazon to show just how open the average customer is willing to be when they buy products. Statistics suggest that today’s Ecommerce buyer is flexible and willing to try new things—however, the ease of buying on a big retailer like Amazon tends to mean that will be the first place they look for a new product.

Statistics in 2022 Ecommerce Marketing

As Ecommerce habits change, marketers have to keep up. It’s not enough to convince people where they need to go. Effective marketers can pinpoint where the energy is moving, and quickly change course to get their products in front of more users. Let’s look at some of the most relevant emerging trends in Ecommerce marketing.

• The average cart abandonment rate is about 70% across all industries. This statistic helps you better understand just what a good average cart abandonment rate is—as well as the importance of using retargeting tools to bring back shoppers who might have abandoned a cart. It’s normal that only about 30% of all shoppers end up buying something that they put in their cart.
• According to SalesCycle, the global cart abandonment rate was even higher, 80%, than other reports. If true, this would put an exclamation point on the previous bullet: those who optimize for abandoned carts stand a much higher chance of converting customers.
• When looking at cart abandonment rates, researchers also found that the primary reason was the cost. An individual might like an item, but they weren’t sure they could swing the price. This also suggests that users might add an item to a cart to “save” it for later, possibly going to competing sites to compare prices first.
• Conversion rates average about 2.85%-3.15%, depending on which quarter you’re looking at. This can serve as an important global benchmark for Ecommerce marketers to use as they compare conversion rates across different channels.
• Before making a purchase, about 77% of people will read a product review first. This suggests a tight link between how many people use multiple channels before purchasing and how many people read online reviews before purchasing the product. Both numbers come in at about three-quarters of all customers.
• In one survey, they found that 61% of all customers, a healthy majority, had messaged a company at least once in the three months preceding the survey. This suggests a high level of engagement that could pave the way for more SMS marketing in the future.
• 95% of customers read reviews, but 92% are hesitant to buy if there are no reviews available on your website. For this reason, it’s important to make sure that your products do have reviews available on your website—but not if no one has ever stepped up and left a review. This, to customers, may suggest a lack of popularity. It also hints at an important element: that people turn to reviews to confirm their social proof when buying a product online.

Ecommerce marketing is perhaps the category that’s evolving the most over the past few years. Some statistics have held out for quite a while—for instance, just how many people read online reviews before making a purchase. 

Consumer Behavior Statistics in 2022

How are consumers behaving? This question is more pertinent than ever. Given that 2020 had the potential to unleash an entirely new set of consumer habits, it’s clear that Ecommerce marketers and shops need to watch these behavior trends if they’re going to stay competitive in an ever-evolving marketplace.

• Customers are generally swayed by free shipping, with it playing one of the largest roles in consumer decisions. In 2022, we’ve seen plenty of memes pointing out how customers often prefer to pay $25 with “free shipping” rather than $20.01 and $4.99 in shipping costs. It’s a unique quirk of consumer behavior, but the statistics seem to bear it out.
• 61% of people have made a purchase recommendation based on something they read on a blog, highlighting the ongoing need to have effective content marketing in place. As many people surf multiple channels for product information, well-trusted blogs will have an important place in swaying customers’ minds.
• Three out of four customers say that they use mobile browsing because it saves time. This is an important insight for marketers who need to understand that mobile browsing isn’t necessarily because of the user experience—although it can be. It suggests that convenience and low-friction buying is still on the forefront of consumers’ minds. 
• 39% of customers go online for information now, including news. While this statistic may seem small in the big scheme of things, the category of the survey was broad. How many more customers are going directly online if they want to research Ecommerce products and product reviews?
• Shoppers are increasingly happy to shop internationally, especially if shipping rates are favorable. Generally, people buy the most from China and the U.K., according to statistics.
• There was a 62% dip in how many customers were willing to visit retail stores, according to Statista. For this, we can blame COVID-19. However, it’s important for marketers and shops to pay attention to how many of these customers end up returning to physical stores. One possibility is that while many will return for in-person shopping, COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for a conversion to online shopping. 
• If a customer has to wait over three seconds for your page to load, they may abandon your site at a rate of about 57%. However, this number was still less important to customers than how quickly they could find what they were looking for, as the lack of a search function on your website deterred customers at a rate of about 60%.
• In 2020, Adobe found, customers spent over $34 billion during Cyber week. This created a year-over-year increase of about 20%, suggesting that the week after Black Monday has legs as one of the most powerful times to move products on the calendar year.
• Three-quarters of consumers will check out multiple channels before they make a purchase. This says a lot about how consumers conduct research, as surveys indicate that consumers will browse multiple channels even for the same product. 
• Over 50% of customers used mobile shopping. The move to mobile commerce is not news to anyone, but the significance of the share is a development that could have reverberations into the future. As more and more customers switch to mobile shopping, stores that are optimized for a mobile experience may stand to benefit. Amazon, it was reported, was also the most downloaded Ecommerce app, potentially helping fuel Amazon’s revenue by over 1/3rd.
• More than half of people are paying bills and invoices on mobile now. Not only are people buying products, but this statistic—available before 2020—highlights just how much consumer behavior has changed. Many customers are looking for mobile features for anything related to finance and purchases.
• More people report that they’re ready for advanced technology. For instance, 34% of people report that they’re ready for driverless cars, while the same number believed they would express interest in cars with automated braking procedures and hazard detection.
• 53% of people reported that they were planning on buying online and picking up in a store. This hints at the changes we saw in 2020, where so many people were suddenly forced to make these arrangements in the interest of social distancing. It suggests a strong possibility that these customer preferences have staying power, even after social distancing rules are completely done away with.
• Only about a quarter of all respondents reported that they were using ad blockers on their mobile devices. For mobile marketers, this means that there may be even more opportunities to make sales on mobile, especially with the increases in mobile usage we’ve seen over the years.
• All customer minutes spent looking at retail were mostly on a desktop (45%), but that just edged out mobile browsing, at 44%. The conclusion: mobile browsing is still about as high as desktop browsing, but both were by far the largest categories for consumers looking to buy online.

Consumer behavior has adapted quickly to the technology that serves it. Most prominent and obvious is the evolution to making buying decisions on mobile. But customers are also showing flexibility when it comes to Ecommerce; they’re willing to buy online and make an in-store pickup. 

Ecommerce and Customer Service Statistics

Not everyone is having a good time with Ecommerce. Those companies who struggle with effective customer service might find that moving online has been a problem. However, the statistics indicate that good customer service can create a tremendous amount of loyalty among customers. That’s particularly true for customers who are migrating over from old buying habits, such as buying retail in person.

• In the United States, a poor customer service experience means that an individual will tell about 15 other people about that experience over their lifetime. This number may even increase over time, but not because of consumer behavior. Instead, that number may increase as more people talk about their customer service experiences online—reviews and online posts that other people can read along the way.
• Companies in the United States lose over $60 billion annually thanks to poor customer service experiences. Given how many people are sharing information about their bad customer service experiences, it’s a wonder this number isn’t even higher.
• For a company with about $1 billion in revenue, according to some estimates, effective customer service can create an over $800 billion increase in the next three years.
• When shoppers hear about a bad return policy, it can deter purchases from as many as 80% of shoppers. Note that this statistic doesn’t suggest how many sales a good return policy can help make, or even how few consumers even take companies up on these returns. The number of shoppers who avoid a product altogether because they’re worried about a bad return policy can have an impact on the company’s bottom line.
• One study found that about 29% of people have used live chat features to make a purchase. This suggests an increasing role for automation in the future, especially as customers get acclimated to AI suggestions and other machine learning features for making purchases.

The state of Ecommerce in 2022 is fast-evolving. So fast, in fact, that it can be hard to keep up. As we saw in some of these statistics, for example, cart abandonment rates are extraordinarily high—and may even be higher, depending on who you ask.

Increasingly, customers are happy to work with chatbots and customer support to simulate the retail experience, especially when shopping online. This, combined with the fact that so many customers have moved online for their shopping experience, suggests that there will be an influx of customers relying on these methods in the future.

As the world digitizes, Ecommerce statistics move with them. The statistics are pointing to an increasingly Ecommerce world—and one in which adaptable companies with good customer support may rule the roost.