Ecommerce is one of the biggest industries in the world. In the US alone, it makes up 2.4% of last year’s GDP. That’s a very huge chunk, amounting to over $500 billion.
So, if you’re an online retailer, it pays to know more about the industry you’re in. This will help guide your decisions and strategies around your business.
65 eCommerce Statistics Every Online Retailer Need to Know
Current Trends and General Stats
This group of statistics show you what’s happening now. If you noticed some trends or insights that you aren’t capitalizing on, it’s best to think about how you can take advantage of this.
eCommerce Statistic #1: Millennials and Gen Xers are the biggest online shoppers, with 67% of millennials and 56% of Gen Xers preferring to shop online versus in a brick-and-mortar store.
As these digitally native people enter the workforce, their purchasing power increases. So, if you’re company sells products that might be of use to these groups of people, it’s worth considering running a campaign targeting them specifically, instead of generic ones.
eCommerce Statistic #2: On average, two in five US consumers (41%) receive one to two packages from Amazon per week. That number jumps to half (50%) for consumers ages 18-25, and 57% for consumers ages 26-35.
This supports the stat above where younger people preferring more online shopping than their older counterparts.
eCommerce Statistic #3: When it comes to online shopping, men spend 28% more than women.
eCommerce Statistic #4: 43% of online shoppers have reported making purchases while in bed, 23% at the office, and 20% from the bathroom or while in the car.
eCommerce Statistic #5: A total of 96% of Americans have made at least one online purchase in their life, with 80% doing so in the last month alone.
This is really a great time for online retailers. As the industry continues to grow, sure, there are challenges. But it’s still a very great industry to be in.
eCommerce Statistic #6: The number one reason people shop online is that they’re able to shop at all hours of the day.
eCommerce Statistic #8: Average ecommerce conversion rates range from 3% to 4%
Combining the last two statistics, it means that for you to reach your targets and become profitable, you’d have to invest in content so you get found on search engines (SEO).
If you haven’t started thinking about voice search, this is a great time to do so.
Why? Take a look at the next stat….
eCommerce Statistic #12: Voice commerce sales reached $1.8 billion last year, with the potential to reach $40 billion in 2022.
Future Trends
eCommerce Statistic #13: It is estimated that 95% of purchases will be made online by 2040.
Just let that sink in for one moment.
Almost all purchases. Imagine what that world would be like.
Over the next five years, it’s said that $800 billion will shift in the retail, financial services, and health care markets from those that can’t deliver good experiences to the 15 percent that get personalization right.
eCommerce Statistic #14: It’s estimated that there will be 1.92 billion global digital buyers in 2019.
Again, think about this number.
With an estimated global population of 7.7 billion people, that’s about 25 percent of the world’s population shopping online.
eCommerce Statistic #15: By 2023, retail ecommerce sales in Asia Pacific (APAC) are projected to be greater than the rest of the world combined.
eCommerce Statistic #16: Experts predict that by 2020, 80% of businesses will be using chatbots.
Chatbots are growing rapidly. Facebook’s bot platform has already been used to create over 300,000 chatbots. And it’s not showing signs of slowing down.
In fact, Google Trends says that the search number using chatbots has increased by 19 times in the last 5 years.
eCommerce Statistic #17: By 2021, early adopters of the technology who have redesigned their websites to support voice search capability will increase revenue by 30%.
Again, this goes back to the main reason why people buy online — convenience. Talking (to a device) is much easier and faster than typing it. If you take advantage in this technology, you’re one step closer to growing your eCommerce site.
Buying Behavior — Pre-purchase
eCommerce Statistic #18: Bloomberg reports that more than 50 percent of online shoppers start a product search with Amazon.
eCommerce Statistic #19: 85% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase online.
The best way to take advantage of this is to be part of that research process. Include the lessons from the other statistics, you can employ the following strategies:
Create more educational content solving problems
Provide public testimonials on your site
Have your products reviewed and displayed on review/comparison sites
Add some videos demonstrating your products in action
Or better yet, get real customers post their own videos
eCommerce Statistic #20: 65% of shoppers look up price comparisons on their mobile device while in a physical store.
This is great news for online retailers as they can take part in the buying / research phase. But, as noted above, if you are not found online, you’re at a great disadvantage.
eCommerce Statistic #21: If a potential customer can watch a video explaining a product or service beforehand,73% of them are more likely to make a purchase.
eCommerce Statistic #22: 46% of consumers want product comparisons from ecommerce sites and 42% of customers want more testimonials from ecommerce sites.
eCommerce Statistic #23: Along those same lines, 69% of online shoppers want more reviews from ecommerce sites.
eCommerce Statistic #24: In fact, 77% of customers read product reviews before making a purchase.
This is one of the things where Amazon is ahead of other ecommerce sites. Reviewing products is baked right into their strategy. If you’ve purchased from Amazon before, you’d noticed that after a few days, they send you an email asking you to leave a review and help other customers.
It allows potential customers to learn and trust the brand before they buy something from them. And it’s definitely something you should be doing.
eCommerce Statistic #25: The average amount of time between a Google product search and a purchase is 20 days (it’s 26 days on Amazon).
Bottomline: online retailers have be be present across all channels, including Google Shopping. This is one of the things we discussed thoroughly in our white paper for online retailers. (Insert form)
Buying Experience
eCommerce Statistic #26: 75 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history.
Personalization is where Amazon beats all other online retailer. If you’ve purchased from Amazon, you would have noticed these personalized suggestions for you while browsing (on their website or app), and a few days after via an email they send.
eCommerce Statistic #27: Additionally 59 percent of customers say that personalization influences their shopping decisions.
Unfortunately, only 40% of retailers have either somewhat or significantly increased investment in this area, which means that many have an opportunity for improvement.
eCommerce Statistic #28: One report found that 91% of online shoppers in the US will leave an ecommerce site if “fast and free shipping” isn’t offered
eCommerce Statistic #29: When it comes to making a purchase, 64% of customers find customer experience more important than price.
Think about this for one moment.
Most often, online retailers think that price is the most important factor customers look for. But time and time again, it’s the experience that matters.
That’s why some brands can command a higher price than others and still sell more than its low-priced competitors.
eCommerce Statistic #30: A total of 37% of customers will leave your website if they find the layout unattractive or too difficult to use.
eCommerce Statistic #31: 57% of customers will abandon your site if they have to wait 3 seconds or longer for a page to load.
This is one of the reasons why focusing on customer experience, especially on mobile is vital if you want to succeed in eCommerce.
eCommerce Statistic #32: Personalization can help increase a businesses’ profits by 15%
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, only 40% have invested in this technology. So there is really a big room for improvement.
eCommerce Statistic #33: Multi-channel shoppers spend three times more than single-channel shoppers.
eCommerce Statistic #34: In a study of 30,000 online shoppers, nearly all said they “prefer” to shop and make purchases on sites that price in their local currency.
Special Highlight: Mobile Experience
Online shopping via mobile devices is on a rise.
According to ReadyCloud, 44% of internet retail minutes were spent on a smartphone, 11% on a tablet, and 45% on a desktop. Those numbers appear to be supported by eMarketer’s claims that 59% of ecommerce sales were made through mobile.
And in this group, more than half of them have made purchases on mobile devices.
Stop reading this right now and go look at your ecommerce site on your phone. When was the last you tried purchasing from your own website using a mobile device? Did the page load fast? Were images loading or does it take time to load?
All these are important questions you need to answer because…
eCommerce Statistic #36: 52% of people say they’re less likely to re-engage with a brand when they’ve had a bad mobile experience.
This includes people who have tried loading your site and because of the slow load time, didn’t push through with the visit (and purchase) anymore.
Take a look at this stat on page load times on mobille…
eCommerce Statistic #38: Mobile ecommerce is expected to account for 67.2% of digital sales in 2019.
Mobile ecommerce, aka Mcommerce, is projected to reach a 72.9 percent by 2021, making now a great time to optimize your site for mobile.
If you don’t know where to start, here are some key points:
Make sure it’s responsive
Do pages and images load fast?
if not, try compressing your images first
Do the elements on the page easy to read, click, or navigate?
eCommerce Statistic #39: More than a third of online Black Friday 2018 sales were completed on smartphones.
Purchasing
eCommerce Statistic #40: Credit cards are the preferred method of payment
Credit cards are used in 53% of transactions, followed by digital payment systems (43%) and debit cards (38%).
eCommerce Statistic #41: PayPal transactions have 70% higher checkout rates than non-Paypal transactions.
PayPal has made a great name for itself in eCommerce payments. If you are wary of using PayPal because of the fees, just think about the added potential sales it can bring you because of the trust it’s built over the years.
Abandoned carts occur when a potential client adds products or services to their cart but didn’t follow through with the check-out process.
Again, think about that statistic: for every three successful purchases in an ecommerce shop, there are about seven that ended up in an abandoned cart.
This results in about an $18 billion loss in revenue each year.
And do you know why?
eCommerce Statistic #43: Unexpected extra cost is the number one reason shoppers abandon carts.
More than 60% of consumers who abandoned their carts did so because of shipping costs while 57% of people who abandon their shopping carts say that they were “window shopping.”
As an online retailer, you should stop “hiding” your shipping costs and add it towards the end. Instead, display it upfront. Or if you’re following Amazon’s footsteps, add a qualifier — free shipping for orders over $25 (or any dollar amount you think is appropriate).
Delivery and Shipping
eCommerce Statistic #44: Nearly 90%of respondents in a recent survey “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree” that Amazon has changed consumers’ expectations for order delivery.
eCommerce Statistic #46: 79% of US consumers said that free shipping would make them more likely to shop online.
One tactic you can do is incorporate the shipping costs in your prices. That way, you can explicitly say that you offer free shipping.
eCommerce Statistic #47: Only 15% of US consumers said that online retailers always offer shipping options that meet their expectations for speed of delivery, compared to 30% that report the same for Amazon
eCommerce Statistic #48: 83% of US online shoppers expect regular communication about their purchases.
Yet, most eCommerce sites don’t have any communication strategy after a customer buys from them.
eCommerce Statistic #49: 53% of US online shoppers won’t purchase a product if they don’t know when it will arrive.
This means it’s vital that you over-communicate deliveries and other updates.
After-sales and Support
eCommerce Statistic #50: Americans tell an average of 15 people about poor customer service, and 11 people about a good one
This backs up the old adage about bad news spreading faster than good news. So, make sure that you invest in a great customer service/after-sales team in order to provide a great experience with your customers.
eCommerce Statistic #51: 33% of Americans say they would consider switching companies after having dealt with poor customer service.
Have you ever contacted a company and got passed around multiple departments? Or have you ever contacted someone by a chat or on Twitter, then someone replied saying to contact them via email?
That’s an example of a poor customer service.
Now if that’s not worrisome, think about this…
eCommerce Statistic #52: 80% of people stop doing business with a company because of poor customer experience.
eCommerce Statistic #53: Companies lose an estimated $300 billion annually due to poor customer experiences
Returns and Refunds
eCommerce Statistic #54: 42% of US online shoppers have returned an item they bought online in the last six months.
eCommerce Statistic #55: An inconvenient return policy deters 80% of shoppers
When was the last time you looked at your return policy? Is it in plain, non-legal language? If not, this should bother you.
Take, for example, Amazon’s no-hassle return policy. Just send it back within 30 days of receipt free in most cases.
eCommerce Statistic #56: 74% of people are likely to switch brands if they find the purchasing process too cumbersome.
eCommerce Statistic #57: 63% of US online shoppers said that they would not make a purchase if they couldn’t find the return policy.
Quick question: where’s your return policy located? Can it be found easily by your customers?
eCommerce Statistic #58: Nearly 70% of US online shoppers said that their most recent return experience was “easy” or “very easy,” and 96% would buy from that retailer again based on that experience.
eCommerce Statistic #59: 59% of US online shoppers said that they want to receive notifications about the status of their refund.
eCommerce Statistic #60: 41% of US online shoppers said that they “bracket” at least some online purchases
Bracketing refers to buying multiple versions of the same item, then returning those that didn’t work. But this obviously won’t apply to you and limit your customers if you don’t offer a return policy that takes this into consideration.
Social Media and Messaging
The biggest takeaway from this group of statistics is that consumers expect to engage more with the brands before, during, and after their purchase. So whether that’s on social media, inside groups or tribes, or even one-to-one communication on message apps or live chats, consumers want more interaction with the brand.
eCommerce Statistic #61: 74% of consumers rely on their social networks to make purchasing decisions.
Did you know that mobile shoppers who read product reviews on social media channels show conversion rates of up to 133% — this represents billions of dollars worldwide just up for grabs.
eCommerce Statistic #62: Online stores that have a social media presence have 32% more sales on average than stores that don’t.
eCommerce Statistic #63: 61% of US consumers say that they have messaged a business in the last 3 months
eCommerce Statistic #64: 70% of the US consumers who message businesses expect a faster response than they would have gotten had they used a more traditional mode of communication.
eCommerce Statistic #65: Engagement between users and brands on Instagram is 10 times greater than it is on Facebook, 54 times greater than it is on Pinterest, and 84 times greater than it is on Twitter.
Over to You
These statistics are useless if you don’t do anything about it. So, bookmark this page, read and re-read it and find a way how to incorporate the insights here into your eCommerce site.
