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What Percentage Of Retail Sales Are Online? [2023]

By Matthew Zane
Jan. 12, 2023
Fact Checked
Cite This Webpage Zippia. "What Percentage Of Retail Sales Are Online? [2023]" Zippia.com. Jan. 12, 2023, https://www.zippia.com/advice/what-percentage-of-retail-sales-are-online/

14.8% of retail sales are online in the United States, as of 2022. That’s up 12% from a dip of 13.2% in 2021. However, this is still a decrease from the height of the pandemic in Q2 of 2020, when 15.7% of U.S. retail sales were online.

share of retail sales online in the united states 2012-2021

What Was the Total Online Retail Sales in 2022?

The total online retail sales in 2022 reached $1.07 trillion. That’s a 21.7% increase from 2021’s total online retail sales in the United States. This is an even faster rate than we saw during the pandemic, which reached 17.9% through 2020.

Year Total Retail Sales (in trillions) Ecommerce Sales (in billions) Percent Retail Sales Online
2022 N/A $1.07T 14.8%
2021 $6.6T $870.8B 13.2%
2020 $5.6T $757.5B 13.6%
2019 $5.41T $578.5B 10.7%
2018 $5.25T $506.1B 9.6%
2017 $5.04T $443.2B 8.8%
2016 $4.85T $383.5B 7.9%
2015 $4.73T $338.2B 7.2%
2014 $4.64T $298B 6.4%
2013 $4.46T $261.6B 5.9%
2012 $4.3T $232.2B 5.4%

Online Retail Sales in the United States FAQ

  1. How much has ecommerce grown in the past decade?

    Ecommerce has grown by 275% in the past decade. In 2012, annual ecommerce sales in the U.S. stood at $232.2 billion; in 2021, $870.8 billion of sales in the U.S. were online.

    total ecommerce sales in the united states 2012-2021

    During the same period, total retail sales in the United States have grown by 53.5%. Clearly, online sales are slowly starting to catch up with sales from traditional retail establishments.

  2. What percentage of ecommerce is Amazon?

    Roughly 37% of the United States’ ecommerce market is controlled by Amazon. This year, that percentage is expected to increase significantly, with some projections revealing that the online shopping giant will account for as much as 50% of the ecommerce market.

    Online marketplaces, like Amazon and its international competitor Alibaba, are the global leaders of ecommerce. In terms of traffic, Amazon is the top ecommerce site, averaging 2.45 billion monthly visitors and recording as many as 5.2 billion unique visitors in June 2020.

  3. Will ecommerce continue to grow?

    Yes, ecommerce will continue to grow, just at a slower rate than it did during the pandemic. For example, 2022 marked the slowest YoY growth since 2009, and yet, ecommcerce sales have surpassed $1 trillion for the first time.

    In this way, we can expect an end to ecommerce’s booming growth as in-person businesses continue to re-open and deregulate. However, ecommerce will still continue growing at a slow and steady pace.

References

  1. U.S. Census Bureau. “Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales 4th Quarter 2021.” Accessed on March 6, 2022.

  2. Zippia. “Ecommerce Statistics.” Accessed on March 6, 2022.

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Author

Matthew Zane

Matthew Zane is the lead editor of Zippia's How To Get A Job Guides. He is a teacher, writer, and world-traveler that wants to help people at every stage of the career life cycle. He completed his masters in American Literature from Trinity College Dublin and BA in English from the University of Connecticut.

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