E-commerce statistics and trends 2022
After general online marketing and lead generation statistics, this week’s blog article looks at e-commerce figures.
It’s no news to anyone that online shopping has exploded in recent years as the market environment has changed. However, there are questions that are on the mind of almost every business owner or marketer who runs an online shop, but there is one place where they have not yet been answered. This is the problem we are trying to address this week.
Indisputable facts in favor of online shopping
- It is convenient for the customer, fast and saves time. 56% of the 20,000 or so people surveyed by Statista shop online because they can do so at any time of the day.
- It’s cost-effective for the seller because they have lower overheads, but at the same time, if they plan consciously, monitor their performance and react quickly, they can also earn higher revenues.
If you are still in any doubt about whether you should consider introducing online shopping for your business or improving and optimizing your existing system, read on, because the facts speak for themselves.
E-commerce – FAQ
Yes, this point is usually at the very end of web pages and articles, but here it is prominent. Why? Because it gives us a perfect picture of the issues of interest to all.
1. What do people buy most online?
People buy all sorts of things online, from clothes and shoes to furniture and appliances. In fact, apart from clothes, the most popular products people buy online are electronics.
2. What percentage of purchases are made online?
In 2020, around 26% of the world’s population (just over 2 billion!!! people) shopped online at least once. This means that more than a quarter of the world’s population has chosen to shop online at least once.
3. What is the value of online purchases?
Annual retail e-commerce sales worldwide exceeded $4.9 trillion in 2021, and eMarketer forecasts that they will grow to over $5.5 trillion by the end of 2022. This is more than the GDP of Germany (around $4.2 trillion in 2021) and Japan (around $5.1 trillion in 2021).
4. How much will online shopping grow?
While we don’t know for sure how much online shoppers will spend in the future, Statista predicts that retail e-commerce revenues will cross the $500 billion mark in 2022. It is estimated that by 2025, online stores will generate around $563.4 billion in revenue.
5. How often do people shop online?
IPC surveyed people in 40 countries: 22% of respondents shop online every week, 25% once every two weeks and 29% once a month. 74% of those surveyed think that the frequency will increase in the future.
6. How common is shopping basket abandonment?
Although there have been many studies on basket abandonment, they often give very different results depending on when they were conducted and the population they were looking at. According to the May 2022 Freshrelevance survey, the basket abandonment rate in Europe is 55.9%.
7. Why are people abandoning online shopping carts?
The 2021 Baymard study looked at why American adults abandoned their baskets? 58.6% are just browsing and not shopping, while 49% decide to abandon because of the extra costs (e.g. delivery charges) at the end of the shopping trip.
8. How does e-commerce compare with traditional sales?
Between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, online shopping experienced a 36.3% upturn, probably due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
9. How has Covid-19 affected online shopping?
However, between Q2 2020 and Q1 2021, e-commerce grew by between 32% and 43.8% – more than double the normal growth rate.
10. What is the average order value?
The average basket value per order in October 2022 was $115.32 in the US and $103.42 worldwide, according to Irpcommerce.com.
11. Are reviews important?
According to Bizrate’s 2021 survey, only 8.7% of online shoppers buy something without reading reviews. Over half of respondents said they read at least four reviews before buying and 38% said they only trust something that has more than 50 reviews.
12. How often do people buy from social media?
According to eMarketer’s May 2021 e-commerce survey, 48% of people have made a purchase via social media in the last 12 months. Of the major social networks, Facebook was the most popular.
General online shopping trends
- Global e-commerce sales are expected to reach $5.5 trillion in 2022, and retail e-commerce sales are expected to exceed $7.3 trillion worldwide by 2025. (Shopify)
- In 2021, 2.14 billion people shopped online.
- Currently, around 20% of all retail sales are made online.
- 69% of total e-commerce sales come from organic sources (Google).
- The annual growth rate for in-store sales is around 4%, while e-commerce sales are growing at almost 13%.
- The global online shopping market is growing rapidly. In the United States alone, there are expected to be 300 million online shoppers in 2023 – 91% of the country’s current population.
- In 2022, it is estimated that more than 2.3 billion consumers will shop at least once at an online retailer, representing 27% of the world’s population.
- In the last 5 years, the number of digital shoppers has increased by 40%.
- Over the same period, sales volume has increased by 218%.
- In 2015, a shopper spent an average of $1,060 on online shopping worldwide, rising to $2,310 in 2021. According to Invesp, the average e-commerce revenue per shopper is as follows:
USA ($1804)
United Kingdom ($1629)
Sweden ($1446)
France ($1228)
Germany ($1064)
Japan ($968)
Spain ($849)
China ($626)
Russia ($396)
Brazil ($350).
- Shopify has the most e-commerce websites with 5.6 million out of 24 million e-commerce websites worldwide.
- Two thirds of consumers expect free delivery on all online orders.
- 56% of online shoppers are more influenced by images and videos on social media now than before the pandemic.
- In one survey, 69% of women said they had bought clothes and accessories online in the past month, compared to only 47% of men.
Mobile shopping
If you’re new to mobile optimisation and have a website, here’s why it’s worth your time, money and effort:
- US consumers will spend around 3 billion hours using mobile shopping apps in 2021.
- 73% of millennials (Gen Y) shopped 1-4 times a week on mobile in 2021.
- Salesforce found that in Q4 2021, desktop purchases accounted for only 27% of sales and 39% of orders. However, orders from mobile devices accounted for 58% of orders and 71% of sales.
- Between 2020 and 2021, the average value of sales increased by 37% on desktops and 41% on mobile.
- According to a December 2021 PwC survey, 41% of online shoppers use their smartphones to make purchases daily or weekly.
- According to ADEI, 40% of online retail sales in the US in the first quarter of 2021 were made via smartphone, compared to 36% in the same period in 2020. However, the same figure is close to 50% in the UK.
- Insider Intelligence’s m-commerce (mobile commerce) statistics show that by 2025, m-commerce sales are expected to more than double to $728.28 billion, accounting for 44.2% of US retail e-commerce sales.
The future of online shopping
In line with the latest trends, one of the focuses here is on generational marketing.
First of all, let us clarify the concept and segmentation of generational marketing. Generational marketing is when you segment and target your audience according to their year of birth.
The 6 generations developed by psychologists are:
- Veterans: 1920-1939;
- Baby boomers: 1940-1959;
- Generation X: 1960-1983;
- Generation Y: 1984-1994 then
- Generation Z: 1995-2009;
- and finally Generation Alpha born after 2010.*
*The separation of each period is not always clear-cut and may vary according to possible spatial and technological developments.
Members of these groups have different shopping habits, different needs that can be met in different ways when shopping online and different purchasing power.
While the young people born in the middle of Generation Z are just coming of age, their purchasing power is not to be sniffed at. This generation, born after 1998, is projected to have $44 billion in spending power and will dominate 40% of all consumer purchases in a few years.
Currently 93% of parents say that their Generation Z child influences household spending.
95% of this generation own a smartphone and spend nearly 10 hours or more a day on it, so it’s not hard to see that they are twice as likely to shop on mobile devices as the “millennials” (the “late Gen Y, early Gen Z” set), according to research. They spend most of their time scrolling Instagram and watching YouTube videos and use social media to find out about new products.
But what about the “millennials”?
- According to Business Wire, 70% of older millennials (30-44 year olds) prefer to shop online, while “only” 56% of younger millennials under 30 prefer to shop online. This age group is a big demographic, as they currently have huge spending power.
- For them, same-day delivery is key. (Best of Signs)
- 63% said finding deals is the most important factor in their online shopping decisions (CSA)
- Some 42% cited a smooth checkout process as the most important factor when shopping online.
- 22% said product recommendations were most important to them.
Final thoughts
From the statistics and figures above, it is clear that e-commerce is already a huge industry with plenty of potential. To stay competitive, you need to know online shopping habits, the preferences of different age groups and optimise your existing e-commerce website accordingly. We need to know how to adapt to the growing mobile shopping experience, the pitfalls of the online shopping process and the latest technological solutions to increase the traffic of our online shop.
If you need help, put your trust in a professional team and contact us.
If you need professional support for your digital marketing activities, do not hesitate to contact us!
Sources used:
- Adobe Digital Economy Index
- eMarketer – Worldwide retail e-commerce sales
- eMarketer – How the pandemic will effect sales
- Pew Research – How often U.S. adults are online
- BigCommerce – Consumer spending trends 2021
- U.S. Census – Quarterly retail e-commerce sales
- Baymard – Cart abandonment rates
- Digital Commerce – Online marketplace report 2021
- Salesforce – Shopping Index
- eMarketer – Social commerce usage
- Statista – E-commerce statistics
- Data Reportal – 2022 Global Report
- eMarketer – Global e-commerce forecast
- PwC – Consumer insights survey November 2021
- Future of Ecommerce: Shopify Report
- https://www.irpcommerce.com/
- https://www.bigcommerce.com/
- https://www.cloudwards.net/online-shopping-statistics/