Share of e-commerce sales in total U.S. retail sales 2010-2019

In the fourth quarter of 2019, the share of e-commerce in total U.S. retail sales was 11.4 percent, up from 10.1 percent from the corresponding quarter in the previous year. As of that quarter, retail e-commerce sales in the United States amounted to over 158 billion U.S. dollars.

Retail e-commerce in the United States

In 2017, the reported total value of retail trade e-commerce sales in the United States amounted to 461 billion U.S. dollars – impressive, but a figure which paled in comparison to the total annual retail trade value of 5.04 trillion U.S. dollars. In 2016, e-commerce accounted for 8 percent of total retail sales in the United States, up from 7.2 percent during the previous year. Online shopping is utilized among all age groups. According to January 2019 data, digital purchases were most common among Millennial internet users with a penetration rate of 84.8 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.