Share of e-commerce sales in total U.S. retail sales 2010-2021

In the first quarter of 2021, the share of e-commerce in total U.S. retail sales was 13.6 percent, up from 11.4 percent from the corresponding quarter in the previous year. As of that quarter, retail e-commerce sales in the United States amounted to over 215 billion U.S. dollars.

Retail e-commerce in the United States

In 2019, the reported total value of retail trade e-commerce sales in the United States amounted to 578 billion U.S. dollars – impressive, but a figure which paled in comparison to the total annual retail trade value of 5.27 trillion U.S. dollars. In 2018, e-commerce accounted for 9.9 percent of total retail sales in the United States, up from 9.1 percent during the previous year. Online shopping is utilized among all age groups. According to May 2020 data, digital purchases were most common among Millennial internet users with a penetration rate of 86.2 percent. Mobile commerce is also growing in popularity with consumers increasingly turning to their smartphone for mobile shopping activities and using mobile shopping apps. During a February 2019 survey, 57 percent of respondents stated that they had used a mobile retail app to look for more information about a product or a service.