37 Ecommerce Statistics to Help Your Store Grow in 2023

Ecommerce is booming right now – but selling products online isn’t always as easy as it seems.

Not only do you need to understand the niche you’re going into and have deep research of your market, but it’s also important to have an overview of the Ecommerce industry as a whole.

When you know your industry, you’re equipped with the tools you need to make accurate predictions, optimize your own business based on what the best of the best are doing, and beat out your competitors!

Here are 37 of the most important Ecommerce statistics you should get familiar with in order to grow your online store in 2022.

Feel free to jump to the category you’re interested in the most:

• General Ecommerce statistics
• Amazon statistics
• Google Shopping statistics
• Email marketing for Ecommerce statistics
• Social media for Ecommerce statistics
• Mobile Ecommerce statistics
• Shopping cart statistics

Some general Ecommerce statistics you should know

First, let’s dip our toes into some basic Ecommerce statistics:

• It’s estimated that by 2040, 95% of all purchases made in the world will be through Ecommerce.

• Each year, the Ecommerce industry is growing 23%, but 46% of small businesses in the United States still don’t have a website.

• Over two-thirds of small businesses (68%) don’t yet have an official, documented conversion rate optimization strategy to help them grow their sales.

What this means for your ecommerce store

If people are telling you Ecommerce is a saturated business model and that it’s too late to start and grow your store in 2022, fear not. The statistics say otherwise.

Ecommerce is still growing and is expected to keep doing so for many years to come still.

For you, this means that you absolutely can start, grow, and scale an online store, even if you’re brand new to the game.

However, this doesn’t mean it will be easy.

Even if the market is not fully saturated yet and growth is expected to continue, you’ll still have plenty of competition. This means you should invest in building your own website to establish a brand that stands out.

But that’s not all. Once someone lands on your ecommerce site, you want to ensure you retain their business, whether they buy now or later.

And because the average conversion rate is quite low, it takes work to generate traffic into sales.

That’s why it’s crucial to invest in conversion rate optimization.

Even if you’re happy with your current numbers, don’t make the mistake of becoming complacent. Keep performing A/B tests to see how you can keep improving your conversion rates and stay ahead of the game.

Amazon Ecommerce statistics

Amazon is a powerful tool for ecommerce business owners, whether they have their own website or not.

For entrepreneurs who want to get started without needing to create their own website just yet, Amazon’s organic and paid advertising tools alike can help generate sales.

• 44% of Ecommerce sales in the United States came from Amazon in 2017.
• The leading online retailer in the world is Amazon, with net revenue of $232.99 billion back in 2018 alone.
• Jeff Bezos stated, in a letter to Amazon shareholders, that there are over 100 million Amazon Prime members, but other sources estimate there are closer to 95 million.

What this means for your store

95 million people is a third of the US population. No other ecommerce store owns such a large share of the market.

On top of that, over half a million small business owners use Amazon to sell their products, whether they have their own website already or not.

This has HUGE implications for the Ecommerce industry.

First off, a large chunk of the population has now gotten used to cushy services like free 2-day shipping and easy returns.

Yes, these people pay membership fees to get access to these services, but even non-members can access fast shipping options depending on the product.

So when shoppers stumble upon a product they like on another website and see 14-day shipping, there’s a high likelihood that they’ll bounce and try to find something similar on Amazon – unless they really want this specific product or have loyalty towards the brand.

The importance of Amazon depends on what types of products you offer and whether or not alternatives can be found easily.

For instance, if you developed an innovative product that is one-of-a-kind, you can probably get away with longer shipping times.

However, be aware that you will lose out on sales, even if your product has no Amazon alternative.

On the other hand, if you do offer products that can be found on Amazon, you’re competing directly with their services, so it’s important to keep up.

Even if you already have your own ecommerce website, consider adding your products to Amazon. Many users go directly to Amazon when they’re searching for something, so they have no chance of stumbling upon your website.

Of course, this means you will need to do some SEO work on Amazon in addition to what you are already doing on your website if you want to show up on the first page of relevant search results.

The more competition you have with similar products on Amazon, the harder you’ll have to work to show up organically. But once you start generating more sales, it will be easier to keep up the momentum.

That’s because the Amazon Sales Ranking – a rank that tells you how you compare to other products in your category – gets improved with a high volume of consistent sales. So the more sales you make, the more sales you’ll generate in the future as a result of showing up as a bestseller.

Google Shopping statistics

Although Amazon is a powerful tool, Google Shopping shouldn’t be discounted either.

• On average, 20 days pass between a Google product search and a purchase, compared to 26 days on Amazon.
• Over a third (35%) of Google product searches generate a sale within 5 days.
• Q4 of 2018 had the fastest growth rate in two years for Google Shopping ad spend, with an increase of 43%.
• Cross-device targeting with Google Shopping generates 16% more conversions for ecommerce brands in the United States.
• The click-through rate for Google Shopping ads are higher than Amazon’s Sponsored Product and Sponsored Brand ads.

What this means for your store

The sales cycle for Google compared to Amazon is shorter, which increases your chance of making more sales faster.

Google generates an insanely high number of searches every day, and these searches tend to convert a few days later. Google Shopping is the first thing that pops up for search results related to ecommerce products, so if you want to grow your store, advertising on this platform is a great way to do so.

Using Google Shopping in combination with Amazon to promote your Ecommerce store is your best bet, because Amazon items often pop up on the first page of Google search results.

This means you have a chance of showing up TWICE on the front page of a Google search query for your keyword.

Because the CTR for Google Shopping ads is higher than Amazon ads, you can also expect to get a higher return on investment – as long as the website your ad is linking to is optimized for conversions.

Email marketing for Ecommerce statistics

We already know that email marketing is here to stay in 2022, and the statistics show that this is just as true for Ecommerce, if not more.

• More than half (58%) of the top 1000 Ecommerce retailers send welcome emails to their subscribers.
• Segmenting your subscribers for email campaigns increases your revenue by 760%.
• Transactional emails have 8x the open rates of any other type of email and also make 6x as much money.
• On average, abandoned cart email sequences have an open rate of 45%.

What this means for your store

If you want to grow your ecommerce business, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective – and just flat out effective – ways to do it.

However, just saying ‘do more email marketing’ won’t necessarily help you get the results you’re looking for, because there are so many directions you can take with email marketing.

Based on the data we have, here are some pointers to help you develop an email marketing strategy that generates more sales for your ecommerce brand.

First, write and implement a welcome sequence for all your new subscribers. A welcome sequence is an automated series of emails that are set to go out at a specified interval once a subscriber joins your email list. They are designed to give expectations, help the subscriber get to know the brand, and deliver value to help build likeability and trust.

For instance, you could have the following welcome sequence:

• Email 1: Provide a discount code, sent out as soon as subscriber joins your list
• Email 2: Tell the story of your brand and where it all started, sent out the day after Email 1
• Email 3: Showcase customer stories about your product, sent out one or two days after Email 2
• Email 4: Behind the scenes of your business, sent out three days after Email 3
• Email 5: Provide a bonus for referring friends, sent out four or five days after Email 4

This is just an example, not a strict template to follow. Your welcome sequence could be longer or could simply be a curation of your best products.

By adding a welcome sequence, you’ll ensure that new subscribers receive your content when their interest is at its peak.

If you don’t use one – and if you also don’t happen to send a newsletter that day or that week – interest may fizzle out, and subscribers will be more likely to unsubscribe or stop opening your emails.

Also, consider segmenting your subscribers. Not all subscribers have the same interests and behaviors, so why should you treat them the same?

You can segment your subscribers based on:

• What type of content they engage with
• Which products they’ve purchased
• Quiz results if you have a quiz
• Demographics and/or location

You should also implement an abandoned cart email sequence, but we’ll cover this a bit later.

Finally, make sure you implement permission-based email marketing principles to stay within the law, improve your deliverability, and cultivate a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.

Social media statistics

Although social media isn’t quite as effective as email to generate sales, its value shouldn’t be discounted, either.

• On average, ecommerce stores that have a social media presence get 32% more sales than brands that don’t.
• The average online store publishes 4.55 posts every week on their Facebook page.
• Posts that contain images obtain 53% more Likes, 104% more comments, and generate an 84% higher click-through rate.
• Customers generated from Instagram have an average order value of $65, while Facebook is a bit lower at $55. Twitter and YouTube have an average AOV of $46 and $38 respectively.
• Social media posts that contain fewer than 80 characters generate 66% more engagement.

What this means for your store

Unless you spend a ton of time and money on advertising and SEO optimization, just having a website won’t be enough to grow your Ecommerce business online.

And even if you do go all-in with SEO and paid traffic, you could be growing so much faster with social media.

Social media helps ecommerce brands make more sales, so showing up on these platforms is a no-brainer. However, not all platforms are created equal.

For example, it makes total sense to use Instagram as your main platform if you’re a fashion brand. But since Facebook takes a large portion of the social media revenue pie, consider using it as well.

Both Instagram and Facebook have the highest average order value of all social media platforms, so consider combining at least these two. They’re already connected since both are owned by Facebook, so you can even publish the same posts on both platforms at once.

If you’re going to invest your time and budget in growing your presence on social media, make sure you’re posting at least 4-5 times a week.

Your posts should contain images and use short and sweet captions.

Mobile Ecommerce statistics

Whether you like it or not, your customers will be browsing your website and buying your products – or NOT buying them – on their mobile devices. Here’s what the data says about this.

• 40% of purchases made online during the holiday season are completed on a smartphone.
• Mobile apps have a 300% higher conversion rate when compared to mobile websites.
• Mobile device users spend 90% of their time within apps.
• Web page loading time on mobile devices that increases from 1 to 3 seconds can increase bounce rate by 32%.
• Ecommerce sales that were generated during Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2018 totaled more than $2 billion, which broke previous records from earlier years.

What this means for your store

When the circumstances are right, people are more likely to convert when they’re shopping using their mobile devices.

However, for that to be true, the mobile experience on your ecommerce store needs to be well optimized.

To make your mobile experience pleasant and increase conversion rates, consider doing the following:

• Make sure your website loads quickly, specifically on mobile browsers
• Optimize your website design for mobile instead of simply slapping on a responsive theme
• Change the size of your CTA buttons to make them bigger in relation to other sections of your web pages (and make sure they use catchy copy)

While these tips are true for mobile browser versions of your site, you should consider developing an app if that fits within your budget, since mobile users tend to spend more time on them (and conversion rates are much higher, too).

Double-check what your checkout experience feels like on mobile and consider testing it on people who aren’t familiar with your website already. This will allow you to determine whether it needs some work.

Shopping cart statistics

Finally, here is what you should know about shopping carts and shopping cart abandonment.

• 46.5% of small to mid-sized ecommerce businesses state that they can increase their profits by offering free shipping to their customers.
• On average, cart abandonment rates across all industries is 69.89%.
• This high cart abandonment rate could be costing ecommerce brands a total of $3 billion each year.
• Websites with slow loading times can get an increase of 75% in their cart abandonment rate.
• Ecommerce brands can increase their conversion rates by 35% by optimizing their checkout design.

What this means for your store

There’s no way around it: cart abandonment cuts deep in your sales.

That’s why working hard to reduce abandonment rate is a must. This is a struggle most ecommerce stores have to deal with, so you’re not alone.

Remember the importance of email marketing?

One of the ways you can implement email marketing while working to reduce your cart abandonment rate is to create an abandoned cart sequence.

In an abandoned cart sequence, you can remind your subscribers to complete their purchase. While this may not always work, you can salvage sales, especially when a shopper:

• Simply got distracted and forgot to complete the checkout process
• Left your cart to compare with other brands and forgot to make a decision
• Only needed a small incentive to decide to complete their purchase

During this type of sequence, you can offer a limited-time deal if they complete their purchase before a certain time.

If the item in their cart has limited availability, you can mention that as well. Some brands create fake scarcity, and while this can work, it’s also better to build trust with your buyers when the scarcity you build is real.

You can also reduce your cart abandonment rate in other ways, such as:

• Offering free shipping above a certain order threshold
• Optimize your checkout design to make it as easy as possible
• Improve your website speed

The faster and more pleasant the experience, the more likely shoppers are to go through with a purchase.

Learn from the data and grow your Ecommerce business

Let’s quickly recap what ecommerce statistics can teach us about growing a successful online store in 2022:

• Invest in conversion rate optimization – both for your desktop and mobile website
• Even if you have your own website, add your products to Amazon to access a wider audience
• Offer good customer service that can keep up with Amazon, like fast (and free) shipping
• If you have an ads budget, consider using Google Shopping
• Start using email marketing and social media to grow your business organically
• Consider creating a mobile app for your store
• Find ways to retain more customers who abandon their shopping carts

While you don’t have to do everything at once, it’s important to be proactive in the growth of your store so that you don’t get left behind when 2023 rolls around.