Statistics

Fascinating Online Shopping Statistics, Facts and Figures 2026

Jitendra Vaswani

Author

Jitendra Vaswani

Last Modified

August 4, 2025
5 min read
Fact Checked

In this post, we will discuss Online Shopping Statistics 2026

According to the most recent data on internet buying, physical store transactions still account for the vast bulk of customer spending, but virtual shopping is gaining ground.

The COVID-19 epidemic has put a burden on in-store buying, leaving many physical retail stores in financial trouble. Simultaneously, a slew of fresh small enterprises is springing up, with e-commerce firms and D2C shops gaining traction.

If you already have or intend to start an online commerce store, the accompanying online shopping data will steer you in the proper way.

Online Shopping Statistics

Fascinating Online Shopping Statistics, Facts, and Trends

  • The worldwide internet retail sector is expected to reach $4 trillion by 2020. Currently, 69 percent of people in the US have done their shopping online, with twenty-five percent doing so a minimum of once a month.
  • The global penetration rate of online shoppers was 47.3 percent in 2018.
  • Globally, a projected 2.14 billion individuals are predicted to shop online in 2021.
  • In 2021, worldwide online commerce sales are estimated to surpass 4,891 trillion dollars.
  • Online buying accounts for 63 percent of all shopping occasions. The Chinese platform Taobao is the largest online marketplace in the world in 2019, with a yearly 3rd party gross merchandise value (GMV) of 515 billion US dollars. With 432 billion dollars & 344 billion dollars, Tmall & Amazon came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
  • An online shopper’s typical per-visit spend is 2.91 dollars globally. 
  • Direct doorstep delivery is seen by 60 percent of online customers as a favorable reason to purchase anything online.
  • Other factors include lower prices, a larger product selection, and 24-hour availability.
  • Easy returns procedures and customer evaluations were highlighted by 35% of online shoppers.

Statistics on Cart Abandonment

  • If a website is ugly, 38 percent of buyers will abandon it.
  • Unexpected expenditures account for 56 percent of total cart abandonments.
  • The average desertion rate is 68 percent, implying that e-commerce companies could lose $3 billion each year.
  • High shipping costs (43 percent) and the requirement to set up an account prior to checking out (23 percent) are two other factors that contribute to cart abandonment.
  • Sending cart abandonment emails, which usually have a 45 percent open rate, is one way to minimize shopping cart abandonment.
  • After opening the email, 21 percent of individuals will click on it & finish their transaction.
  • Another strategy to prevent cart abandonment is to give deals on the things that have been deserted in the shopping cart, as 54 percent of buyers will buy the products after receiving a discount.
  • Approximately 50% of overall online customers have attempted but failed to make a purchase. The most frequent reason cited was that there were several choices.

Stats on Digital Shopping Returns

  • An uncomfortable return policy is a disincentive for 80% of internet customers. Free delivery on returns is most important to 41.2 percent of online customers.
  • The ease with which a return is conducted is most important to 28.1 percent of shoppers.

Statistics on Social Commerce

  • 39 percent of people aged between 18 to 34 in the United States have made a purchase on social networking sites, & 15 percent do so on a regular basis.
  • In the United States, nearly 1/3rd of customers use Facebook & other social networking platforms to find things.
  • 7 out of 10 buyers say social media evaluations and posts affect their purchasing decisions.
  • Between 2019 to 2025, the overall number of social media purchasers in the United States is predicted to expand by more than 75%, from 60.6 million to over 108 million.
  • By the end of 2020, over 50% of online users aged 18 to 35 had made a purchase through Facebook or other social networking channels.
  • 60 percent of adults aged over fifty-five said they don’t want to shop on social media.
  • According to the survey, 55% of people had bought something online after seeing it on social networking sites.
  • Only 11 percent bought it right away, whereas 44 percent waited. 
  • Instagram & Facebook are the most prominent social media networks for online purchasing.

Stats on Mobile Ecommerce

  • Window shopping is something that 67 percent of mobile consumers admit to doing for their leisure.
  • 77 percent of online window shoppers buy something on impulse.
  • 70 percent of online window shoppers will return to their device and make a purchase within the initial hour of viewing a product.
  • People use their cell phones exclusively for shopping, according to 49% of those polled.
  • Mobile is expected to lead online retail sales by the end of 2021, accounting for 54 percent of total retail purchases.
  • When physically shopping at a store, 65 percent of individuals use their mobile phones to compare prices.
  • Digital price comparisons have persuaded 51 percent of buyers to buy from a different brand instead of the one they meant to buy from.
  • Desktop PCs and smartphones accounted for nearly the same number of worldwide e-commerce orders in the fourth quarter of 2018.
  • In terms of retail site traffic over the same time period, smartphones seized the lead & were the most popular device for doing so.
  • On a desktop, the typical order value is 42% larger than on a mobile device. The mobile purchasing experience, according to 9 out of 10 digital customers, might be enhanced.
  • Links & pages which are very small (67 percent), security issues (42 percent), disruptions from messages, applications, and other programmes (36 percent), and difficulties finding what they’re searching for (36 percent) are all considered barriers to the mobile purchasing experience.
  • Consumers favor stores with AR capabilities 61% of the time. 
  • As per eMarketer, mobile shopping rose 41.4 percent in the year 2020 and 15.2 percent in 2021 in the United States, reaching 359.3 billion dollars.

Customer Demographics for Online Shopping

  • As per Invesp, the United States (1,804 dollars), the United Kingdom (1,629 dollars), Sweden (1,446 dollars), France (1,228 dollars), Germany (1,064 dollars), Japan (968 dollars), Spain (849 dollars), China (626 dollars), Russia (396 dollars), & Brazil (350 dollars) have the highest median Ecommerce revenue per shopper.
  • In terms of gender, 72 percent of internet shoppers are women and 68 percent are men.
  • Nowadays, 93 percent of parents think that their Generation Z kid has an impact on their household budget.
  • To look at new items, 85 percent of Generation Z uses social media.
  • As of February 2020, the leading proportion of internet shoppers in the United States (20.2 percent) is millennials.
  • Individuals aged from 35 to 44 have been the 2nd largest category of online customers, accounting for 17.2 percent of all digital purchases in the United States.
  • Monthly payment plans & buy now, pay later solutions like Splitit, Sezzle, Affirm, and Klarna are preferred by 87 percent of younger consumers for online purchases.
  • For 60 percent of men and women internet customers, free shipping is vital.
  • Almost 77 percent of women purchase things that are the most cost-effective.
  • In the United States, 67 percent of millennials shop online.
  • In the United States, 56 percent of Gen-Xers shop online.
  • In the United States, 41 percent of baby boomers shop online.
  • In the United States, 28 percent of seniors shop online.

Purchasing Habits

  • In the United States, 47 percent of internet buyers purchased their maiden product on Amazon.
  • What separates male & female online buyers is their shopping preferences.
  • Men prefer to buy heavy-duty items like computers & furniture, whereas women are more inclined to shop for groceries and clothing online. In the last 12 months, 60 percent of customers used chatbots to seek answers. Chatbots are preferred by millennials as a support route.
  • A digital/mobile wallet is the most preferred payment method when shopping online.
  • Around 44.5 percent of online buyers prefer to shop this way.
  • Credit cards are in 2nd place, and debit cards are in third. 
  • Sixty-two percent of internet shoppers say they buy something minimum once per month.
  • 3 percent of internet buyers claim they shop once a day, while 26% say they shop once a week.
  • For 53 percent of consumers, free shipping could enhance the likelihood of making an online purchase.
  • 74 percent of shoppers do their research online before going to a store.
  • For product searches, 63 percent of internet customers go to Amazon.
  • Before making a purchase, 70 percent of online customers read between 1 to 6 product reviews.
  • Search and navigation are important to 61 percent of internet shoppers.
  • When making a large purchase, 55% of shoppers conduct research online.
  • 70 percent of customers use local small business sites to shop.
  • Among those who shop locally, 57 percent do so to preserve cash in the community, while 38 percent do it to support local artists, 28 percent to support small companies because they provide superior customer service, and 19 percent to support local NGOs.
  • When buying online, 30 percent of internet users in the United States have utilized a voice assistant.
  • 67 percent of buyers in the United States prefer paper and cardboard packaging to other types of packaging.

Facts and Figures on Online Store Shipping and Fulfillment

  • Over 90 percent of internet shoppers find click & collect to be extremely handy.
  • In the United States, click and collect revenues are expected to reach $58 billion by 2020.
  • 46.2 percent of internet shoppers desire shipping alternatives that arrive in 2-3 days.
  • 15.1 percent prefer delivery on the same day or the following day.
  • Consumers choose stores that offer free delivery 40.5 percent of the time.
  • One out of every four internet customers said they would only buy if they could get free shipping.
  • 15.2 percent of individuals mention that they would switch to a different eCommerce site if it offered free shipping.
  • Consumers do not have a choice over shipment times, according to 34 percent of online sellers.
  • Only approximately 20% of customers are unconcerned with shipping costs.
  • Only 33 percent of online merchants always provide free shipping.

Statistics on Online Shopping by Industry

Media, fashion, and electronics are the most common shipping sectors in the United States.

Services in the financial sector

Financial services are purchased online by 47 percent of online customers.

More than 50% of individuals who acquire financial services prefer to do so online. In 2019, in-store financial services sales had been just 20 percent, which was 50 percent less than online money transactions in the same year.

1. Clothing 

  • Clothing has been purchased by 59 percent of online customers in the United States.
  • By 2025, the worldwide fashion e-commerce industry is expected to be worth 759,466 million dollars.
  • The amount of buyers in the clothing industry is expected to reach 3,705.5 million by 2025.

2. Media and Electronics

  • In the United States, 46 percent of internet customers bought TVs & video devices in 2019. 
  • In the electronics & media category, online sales are expected to reach 542.4 billion dollars.
  • 60 percent of customers prefer to buy movies, video games, music, and books online rather than in stores.
  • In 2019, internet purchases accounted for 30 percent of all computer and gadget sales worldwide.

3. Toys, hobbies, and do-it-yourself

  • By the end of 2021, internet purchases in this segment is expected to be worth $590.7 billion.

4. Appliances & furniture

  • In 2021, furniture and appliances are expected to be worth $362.9 billion.

5. Personal Hygiene and Nutrition

  • In Asia, the digital retail grocery market is forecast to rise quickly, reaching $4,084 billion by the end of 2021.
  • 20 percent of consumers purchase groceries online in South Korea.

Statistics Challenges of Online Shopping

Holiday Shopping Statistics on the Internet

Online Shopping Trends for Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Statistics on Online Christmas Shopping

Statistics about Amazon’s Online Store

Statistics on Digital Shopping Fraud

The Effects of the COVID-19 Epidemic on Internet Shopping

  • In March 2020, 42 percent of the Americans purchased groceries online due to the coronavirus, nearly doubling by 22 percent in the year 2018.
  • Over 50% of online grocery buyers think the outbreak has made them more inclined to buy online in the future.
  • During the epidemic, 6 out of 10 online grocery buyers used Amazon for their digital grocery shopping.
  • Orders for food on Amazon have soared by up to 50 times during the outbreak.
  • Online sales of masks, hand sanitizers, and gloves grew by over 800 percent in the first 10 weeks of 2020.
  • Sales of over-the-counter cold, flu & pain medications, as well as toilet paper, increased by 217 percent and 213 percent, respectively, during the same time period.
  • The consumption of workout equipment grew by 55 percent in the first 2 weeks of March 2020.
  • During early March, digital sales of home decor goods in the United States climbed by 13 percent over the prior year.
  • By 2020, 31 percent of consumers will have purposefully shifted to ordering food from hotels online.
  • Because of the epidemic, 9 percent of American consumers have purchased items available on the internet for the 1st time, whereas 59 percent indicated they had done so previously. 
  • In comparison to 25 percent of women, 1/3rd of men stated the epidemic had an impact on how much they spent on items.
  • Demand for face masks surged 5x in two weeks, resulting in a 5x increase in the number of merchants on Etsy.

Statistics on Online Shopping in the Future

FAQ On Online Shopping Statistics

In 2021, what percentage of shopping will be done online?

In Q3 of 2021, e-commerce sales accounted for thirteen percent of overall sales.

In 2021, how many individuals will have purchased something online?

Around 2.14 billion individuals are expected to purchase services and commodities online globally.

Also Read:

Last Thoughts: Online Shopping Statistics 2026

The importance of having an online presence for an efficient retail firm is demonstrated by online shopping data. But it’s far more than a place where you may sell your wares.

When consumers want to learn about new products, compare prices, & read reviews prior to buying, they turn to retail websites & social media. The eCommerce business has exploded as a result of COVID-19, but it appears that the pandemic’s termination will have little impact on its popularity.

Sources:

Jitendra Vaswani

Written by

Jitendra Vaswani

Jitendra Vaswani is a well-known expert in SEO and AI-driven digital marketing. He has spoken at international events and founded Digiexe, a digital marketing agency, and AffiliateBooster, WordPress plugin designed specifically for affiliate marketers. With over 10 years of experience, Jitendra has helped many businesses succeed online. His bestselling book, Inside A Hustler’s Brain: In Pursuit of Financial Freedom, with over 20,000 copies sold globally, underscores his influence and commitment to empowering digital marketers.
View all posts

Keep reading

More from Jitendra Vaswani