22+ Ecommerce Statistics & Online Shopping Trends [2024 Update]

2024 is here and the retail apocalypse is upon us and it’s all thanks to ecommerce and online shopping. Not familiar with any of those terms? You’ve come to the right place.

This article will walk you through all you need to know about how ecommerce and online shopping will shape in 2020. Because staying up to date with the latest ecommerce statistics and online shopping trends is essential for any online business this year.

  1. Buying Behavior Stats & Facts
  2. Abandoned Cart Stats & Facts
  3. Platform Performance Stats & Facts
  4. Video Content Stats & Facts
  5. Social Ecommerce Stats & Facts

The retail apocalypse refers to the closing of a large number of brick and mortar locations, particularly chain stores.

This apocalypse has been occurring since the early 2010s and there’s no end in sight. The cause? The growth of ecommerce and online shopping that no allows us to have products at our fingertips without so much as opening a catalog or walking out our front doors.

Ecommerce is the act of buying or selling products and services online. It’s been booming since the early 1970s when students at Stanford and MIT used ARPANET to arrange the sale of cannabis.

Today, ecommerce and online shopping brands are household names. Have you ever heard of a website called Amazon? In 2015, the online shopping site accounted for half of all ecommerce growth. This topic is the gateway to the future and knowing the latest ecommerce and internet statistics for 2020 is crucial to being in the know.

1. Buying behavior statistics 2024

Men spend more per transaction than women – roughly 68 percent more

Source: https://home.kpmg/bh/en/home/insights/2017/01/online-purchase-behavior.html

According to KPMG, men spend around 68 percent more money on their transactions than women do. This is due to the fact that they are more likely to purchase luxury products and electronics as well as buy in bulk than their female counterparts. Women are more likely to purchase food and make-up which are lower cost items.

Men maximize their time online and thus end up spending more money because of it. If you’re looking to up your sales to your male audience in your ecommerce marketplace, try offering packages. Men are more likely to take the time to figure out that they can buy a bigger package at once and spend more money at one time—so they don’t have to come back later—than a woman.

Global internet users are increasingly engaged into online shopping – 93.5% have experienced purchasing products online and still counting

Source: https://optinmonster.com/email-marketing-vs-social-media-performance-2016-2019-statistics

According to OptinMonster, both e-mail and social media marketing can affect the buying behaviors on global internet users. While social media marketing offers pathways to interact socially before deciding on what to buy, e-mail marketing is also very essential for promoting brands and using the power of the audio-visual content to gain more traffic, sales, conversions, and even higher ROI.

Consumers are creatures of habit – 30 percent would rather return to a website they’ve purchased from previously

Source: https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2017/01/the-truth-about-online-consumers.pdf

If you have a positive experience with a brand, the research says you’re unlikely to stray from that brand after that. This is one of the reasons why emails directed at customers after they’ve already purchased from a website once is so effective. Just like going back to your same favorite store in a shopping mall, online shopping is very similar. You know the brands you trust and you’re good to go after that.

Remember Amazon? Around 59 percent of Millennials say they’re headed to Amazon before any other ecommerce website

Source: https://whatmillennialswant.inviqa.com

What does this say about the ecommerce market? It’s all about convenience. Amazon markets convenience before anything else. Their Prime shipping option is the epitome of convenience because it gets your product to your doorstep before a tracking number is even available for you to locate your package.

Once Amazon has got you, you’re never going back. Plus, Amazon offers so many different items you need there’s really never a need to look anywhere else.

Online consumers are becoming more active online – around 30 percent are posting feedback and leaving reviews

Source: https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2017/01/the-truth-about-online-consumers.pdf

While reviews aren’t available in brick and mortar stores, they can make or break the decision to make an online purchase. Keep in mind that this is now an integral part of the online shopping experience. The marketplace is now a space for buyers to exchange information businesses and products. It can be helpful to consumers but can really hurt sales if the product doesn’t do what it’s supposed to.

It’s estimated that by 2040 around 95 percent of all purchases will be via ecommerce

Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/uk-online-shopping-and-e-commerce-statistics-2017-2017-03-14

If you were a disbeliever up until this point, this is one cue to get on board. It can be tough if you love the buying experience of going to a retail mall. Yet, that’s just not the way of the future. With the retail apocalypse upon us, we’re looking at a ton of

Credit cards are the used globally for sending online payments – being used in 53% of transactions, followed by digital payment systems (43%), and debit cards (38%).

Source: https://kinsta.com/blog/ecommerce-statistics/

As Kinsta reports, the percentage distribution shows that using a credit card is the most preferred method. Western Europe and China still prefer digital payment methods such as Strip, PayPal and other related modes. On the other hand, the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe, still prefer cash-on-delivery.

Offline holiday shopping account accounts for 76% of the global customers

Source: https://geomarketing.com/76-percent-of-consumers-prefer-in-store-to-online-for-their-holiday-shopping-needs

According to GeoMarketing, customers may browse for holiday gits or items online but 76% of them will personally visit these physical stores to buy their preferred items for the holidays for their loved ones. Their smartphones are mostly used for finding store locations(27 percent), find deals (18 percent), compare prices (13 percent), and research products online (6 percent).

According to Statista, PayPal gets to the top 89% of customer’s preferences when it comes to the payment gateways preferred by most Americans. While Stripe, Venn, Wise, Skrill and other payment gateways are widely available to them, they said that PayPal is the most suitable and very convenient to their needs.

2. Abandoned Cart Statistics 2024

Sometimes it’s tough to follow through. The unexpected additional costs associated with online shopping have roughly 60 percent abandoning their carts at checkout

Source: https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate

These extra fees are one of the reasons that Amazon is killing the ecommerce game in 2019. Shoppers like to see exactly what they are going to get in terms of cost. If a shopper was getting an incredible deal until they clicked on their cart icon, it’s no wonder they aren’t following through with payment.

Having online shopping and ecommerce websites clue buyers into any additional fees upfront will lead to a much happier outcome on both ends.

Everyone loves a deal – 54 percent of shoppers go back and purchase those abandoned items in their baskets if the price drops

Source: https://www.nchannel.com/blog/retail-data-ecommerce-statistics/

If you put it in your cart, you probably wanted it, but those unexpected fees scared you away. That said, if your basket price drops, why wouldn’t you go back and purchase it? That’s the behavior of over half of online shoppers out there.

Shoppers are non-committal – 23 percent won’t attempt to purchase if they have to create an account

Source: https://www.nchannel.com/blog/retail-data-ecommerce-statistics/

If you’re an online shopper, you’ve probably been there. This won’t be a commonplace occurrence at a website like Amazon. Yet, if you’re trying out a new site, you might see a few things you like and put it in your basket. Before you know it, you’re heading to the checkout and the website hits you with, “Create an Account.”

While some ecommerce websites have gotten wise and added a “check out as guest” option, others insist you make an account. According to N Channel, 1 in 5 shoppers aren’t trying to do that. They’re looking to speed through check out without having to give up any personal information. ecommerce websites looking for more sales will do well to add an option that doesn’t require the creation of an account to purchase.

3. Platform Performance Statistics 2024

Customer service matters. Roughly 80 percent of participants said that they stop giving their business to companies because of a poor customer service experience

Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/customer-acquisition-study

You might already have a specific incident in mind with this statistical infographic. Have you ever encountered a really tough company to work with? Have you ever had just an abysmal customer service experience that ruined a company for you forever? Perhaps you even swore you’d never give them your business again in an angry phone call with a customer service agent?

Multi-step forms in WordPress yields greater conversions. Around 300 more

Source: https://www.ventureharbour.com/multi-step-lead-forms-get-300-conversions/

According to Venture Harbour, there are 8 tricks to WordPress multi-step forms that “convert like crazy.” These include such tips as creating low friction questions with image selector buttons to minimize typing and using conditional logic to personalize questions among others.

Mobile purchases are often influenced by emails sent from the retailer. As such, while a consumer may start on their phone or laptop or iPad, the purchase is completed on another device because the information is so accessible from all platforms.

Consumers are purchasing on multiple devices. Around 85 percent of customers will start any given purchase on one device and complete it on another

Source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/how-digital-connects-shoppers-to-local-stores/

Whatever happened, it was memorable. If you have beef with a company, you’re not looking to work with them again and that’s how most consumers are. Having good customer service when you don’t have any facetime with your customers is equally as important as a brick and mortar establishment but increasingly more challenging.

Beware slow sites. If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 57 percent of consumers will click off rather than wait

Source: https://www.pure360.com/warm-up-ip-address/

With the ecommerce revolution comes with the need to satisfy the consumers’ need for fast internet. If sites are slow then sales will be too. Waiting for pages to load is equivalent to waiting in lines at the mall, and 2019 shoppers want nothing to do it with it.

4. Video Content Ecommerce Statistics 2024

Organic traffic improves by up to 157 percent with videos

Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics

The websites that perform best are the ones with videos. Whether it’s because videos are generally more helpful to consumers or because they’re more interesting than reading material, either way, traffic goes up when videos are involved.

When making a purchase, 80 percent of consumers found videos helpful

Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics

Have you ever come across a really helpful video tutorial or a product demo? If you have, you know that it can improve your shopping experience ten-fold. Part of the reason that some shoppers love going to a brick-and-mortar location so much is that it allows them to have the physical product in their hands.

You can spend so little time with an item and know it isn’t for you. While it doesn’t completely replace the experience, seeing someone else handle a product can help you evaluate how you’d like it. Perhaps seeing the jacket modeled on someone who is a similar size or all the pockets in the backpack in a video is just the tipping point you need.

Visuals are a significant part of a consumer’s decision-making process. Nine in 10 shoppers say it is the most important part of their buying decision

Source: https://www.jlbmedia.com/benefits-product-video-production/

Would you buy something that you’d never even seen before? The answer is likely, “no way!” Whether these visuals are videos or pictures, you want to make sure you know what you’re getting before you order it. Thus, videos spur engagement on websites because they showcase products in real-time. Users can see exactly how they’d use the product and what it looks like.

Viewing a video about a product is preferred by four times as many shoppers than just reading about the product

Source: https://animoto.com/blog/business/video-marketing-cheat-sheet-infographic/

Let’s face it. Reading about a product just isn’t as easy as watching something about it. If you get to watch a tutorial or demo video, you know exactly how the product is intended to be used in a user-friendly fashion. It takes less time and less effort, and you’ll be that much closer to purchasing your desired item in no time.

5. Social Media Ecommerce Statistics 2024

If a store has a social media presence, they increase their average sales by 32 percent

Source: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/5-social-stats-for-online-storeowners/

In general, most individuals trust businesses that have more and more of an online presence. If you can find their Facebook or Instagram, it increases the possibility that you can get to know their products. If consumers can interact with a store via their social media, they’re more likely to feel comfortable with and make a purchase. Thus, it increases a store’s online sales by 32 percent.

Facebook is the most popular ecommerce forum. Around 85 percent of all ecommerce purchases on a social media site comes from Facebook

Source: https://www.shopify.com/infographics/social-commerce

While you may not be familiar with it, Facebook’s ecommerce marketplace may become more and more relevant in the future. Currently, around 85 percent of all ecommerce purchases on social media is on Mark Zuckerberg’s platform.

While Facebook currently has the monopoly, it’s booming success might begin to be emulated by some other social media giants like Instagram or Twitter. Only time will tell where ecommerce can expand to and continue to be successful.

If the content is visual, it’s 40 times as likely to get shared on social media

Source: https://www.dreamgrow.com/21-social-media-marketing-statistics/

Visual content is more appealing to consumers, and thus, they’re much more likely to share it with their inner circles. Social media—just like ecommerce and online shopping—is changing the way that products are viewed. Products can now be referred instantly to friends and family if one consumer is satisfied with it. Making a product marketable on social media is now just as important as ensuring your website is user-friendly.

6. Key Takeaways

So, what are the key takeaways of the 2024 ecommerce and online shopping industry that these statistics indicate?

  • Understanding how consumers operate is important to increasing ecommerce and online shopping sales.
  • Optimizing mobile websites will help consumers to operate better and increase sales. Mobiles websites that aren’t optimized are hindering customers impacting platform performance statistics.
  • While shopping cart abandonment will happen even with the absolute best sites, understanding if it’s happening just because buyers are non-committal or because the site itself is a hindrance to the buyer, is incredibly important. If it’s the latter, it’s important to make modifications to the site itself. What might this modification look like?
  • Notify buyers of any additional fees ahead of time so that there’s no sticker shock in the cart.
  • Don’t mandate the creation of an account in order to purchase items.
  • Send out an email reminder to individuals who have abandoned carts. Even better, if a sale happens to hit their cart items, it makes them that much more likely to buy.
  • In the day and age of social media, video content can improve engagement and help consumers understand the way that products work in a more effective way that written content or even photographs.
  • Social media and their ecommerce marketplaces can help to build brand awareness. Using this avenue can help to improve business and become competitive in this new and booming industry.

Overall, the ecommerce and online shopping industry will soon become a way of the future. The available ecommerce statistics demonstrate that there are a variety of ways to view the beneficial aspects of buying and selling services online.

Whether you look at buyer behavior, platform performance, or social media statistics, the most important aspect is just understanding how consumers operate in order to continue to grow ecommerce.

With 95 percent of purchases heading toward the online marketplace in nearly 20 years, you’re better off learning how to make the most of your buying or selling experience.

Mathias Ahlgren is the CEO and founder of Website Rating, steering a global team of editors and writers. He holds a master's in information science and management. His career pivoted to SEO after early web development experiences during university. With over 15 years in SEO, digital marketing, and web developmens. His focus also includes website security, evidenced by a certificate in Cyber Security. This diverse expertise underpins his leadership at Website Rating.

The "WSR Team" is the collective group of expert editors and writers specializing in technology, internet security, digital marketing, and web development. Passionate about the digital realm, they produce well-researched, insightful, and accessible content. Their commitment to accuracy and clarity makes Website Rating a trusted resource for staying informed in the dynamic digital world.

Lindsay Liedke

Lindsay is the Chief Editor at Website Rating, she plays a pivotal role in shaping the site's content. She leads a dedicated team of editors and technical writers, focusing on areas such as productivity, online learning, and AI writing. Her expertise ensures the delivery of insightful and authoritative content in these evolving fields.

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