Global ecommerce

How big is the global ecommerce market?

The global ecommerce market is expected to total $5.55 trillion in 2022. That figure is estimated to grow over the next few years, showing that borderless ecommerce is becoming a profitable option for online retailers.

Two years ago, only 17.8% of sales were made from online purchases. That number is expected to reach 21% in 2022, a 17.9% increase in ecommerce market share over two years. Growth is expected to continue, reaching 24.5% by 2025, which translates to an 6.7 percentage point increase in just five years.

 

Global ecommerce sales growth

Global retail sales growth will continue to rise and take up more retail market share. According to eMarketer, online retail sales will reach $6.17 trillion by 2023, with ecommerce websites taking up 22.3% of total retail sales. 

Although retail had a tough year in 2020, every national market covered by eMarketer saw double-digit ecommerce growth. The trend continues: 

• Latin America saw $85 billion in ecommerce sales in 2021, up 25% from $68 billion in 2020.
• The Indian ecommerce market is expected to grow to $111.4 billion by 2025, up from $46.2 billion in 2020.
• Russia, the UK, and the Philippines saw more than 20% ecommerce sales growth in 2021.

China continues to lead the global ecommerce market, accounting for 52.1% of all retail ecommerce sales worldwide, with total online sales just over the $2 trillion mark in 2021. It also has the world’s most digital buyers, 824.5 million, representing 38.5% of the global total. 

The US ecommerce market is forecasted to reach over $875 billion in 2022, a little over a third of China’s. After China and the US, the third-largest ecommerce market is the United Kingdom, taking up 4.8% of the retail ecommerce sales share. The UK is followed by Japan (3%) and South Korea (2.5%).

The top five ecommerce markets haven’t changed since 2018. Trends from eMarketer suggest that these markets will stay in the top five until 2025. 

Casey Armstrong, CMO at ecommerce fulfillment brand ShipBob, adds, “While a lot of focus in ecommerce centers around the United States and Canada, there is a lot to learn from other large international players who are seeing an even more accelerated growth rate in ecommerce.”

He adds, “Merchants can shift where they sell based on this data and the demand on ecommerce from these countries. At ShipBob, it’s why we have opened fulfillment centers in Canada and the UK and are about to open another in Australia.”

 

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