47 eCommerce Stats to Know for 2019 and Beyond

Inside this article

eCommerce is, and will continue to be, one of the fastest growing industries around the world. This is reflected in the large number of eCommerce shops continually popping up across the web, but also in the many consumers who make purchases online each year.

But what, exactly, should you know if you want your eCommerce website to succeed into 2019?

Let’s take a look at some eCommerce stats you should know to prepare your business and website for 2019 and beyond.

Consumer Spending

Consumer spending is one of the greatest indicators of eCommerce success and its future progress. With that in mind, let’s look at a few key statistics:

Retail eCommerce sales in the US are expected to increase by 11% between 2018 and 2019 (Statista, 2018)
Retail eCommerce sales across the globe are expected to increase by 21% between 2018 and 2019 (Statista, 2018)
By 2021, global eCommerce sales are expected to be $4.878 billion (compared to 2018’s $2.842 billion (Statista, 2018)
96% of Americans have made an online purchase in their life and 80% have made an online purchase in the past month alone (BigCommerce, 2018)

While it’s helpful to know just how much eCommerce has grown over the years, you should also understand what is driving these changes and how they can impact your business in the future. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the various eCommerce statistics broken down by category.

Mobile

Smartphones are a staple of modern society and, because of this, it’s important to understand the role they play in eCommerce. For example:

US adults currently spend an average of 3 hours, 35 minutes per day on mobile devices, and this is only expected to increase in 2019 (eMarketer, 2018)
Mobile traffic represents 53% of all ecommerce traffic (3dcart)
Mobile commerce is set to jump to $319 billion by 2020 (Javelin Strategy, 2016)
Mobile ecommerce sales are projected to make up to 67.2% of total ecommerce sales in 2019 (Statista, 2018)
Global mobile ecommerce revenue is expected to reach up to $669 billion in 2019

Mobile isn’t the only technology to have an impact on eCommerce sales, though.

Technology

One of the fastest growing technologies of 2018 and beyond is voice search. This is evidenced by the ever-growing data on its current use, as well as future estimates.

For example:

In 2016, Google said that between 20% and 25% of all mobile queries were done via voice search (Search Engine Land, 2016)

However, this is expected to grow as…

An average of 30% of searches will be done without a screen by 2020 (Gartner, 2016)
By 2020, 50% of all online searches will be accomplished by voice search (comScore, 2016)

And this increase is further supported by the fact that:

40% of adults use voice search once per day (comScore, 2016)
As of January 2018, there are over one billion voice searches per month. (Alpine.Al, 2018)

But voice search isn’t the only technology to have an impact on customer buying decisions. Live chat is another technology that is quickly gaining traction in eCommerce. After all:

63% of people who spend between $250-500 a month online are the most likely to buy from companies who offer live chat (Kayako, 2017)

It’s obvious, then, that you must prepare your website for the shift towards voice search and perhaps even employ live chat on your website. This was important in 2018, but it has become critical for 2019 and beyond.

Shopping Cart

As an eCommerce merchant, it is crucial that you understand how often shopping carts are being abandoned. According to 3dcart:

Average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 74% (3dcart, 2018)

But even more importantly, merchants should understand why customers are doing so. These reasons vary widely, but some of the more common ones include:

28% of US shoppers abandon their orders due to a complicated or drawn-out checkout process (Baymard, 2018)
35% of transactions are lost when websites require users to create accounts before purchasing (Annex Cloud, 2018)
60% of US adults have abandoned a shopping cart due to excessive extra costs such as shipping and tax (Baymard, 2018)
20% of US shoppers abandon their orders due to a glitchy website or checkout experience (Baymard 2018)

And what is the cost of this abandonment?

According to Marketing Land, shopping cart abandonment accounts for up to $18 billion in lost revenue each year. That’s why you must take steps to remedy the various problems mentioned above.

Marketing

There are many ways that eCommerce merchants can (and should) use marketing.

According to HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound, there are also many reasons that one might implement marketing techniques for the sake of their business. These reasons include:

Converting leads to customers (70%)
Attracting visitors to their site (55%)
Sales enablement (29%)

And some of the best ways to achieve these are across various channels.

Content

Content marketing is a technique that involves the creation and distribution of content – such as blog posts, articles, videos, and infographics – online. And when compared with traditional marketing campaigns, it has numerous benefits. Namely, content marketing:

Costs 62% less (DemandMetric, 2017)
Generates approximately three times the volume of leads (DemandMetric, 2017)
Increases conversion rates by an average of six times (Aberdeen Group, 2013)

In fact, some of the biggest brands (such as Coca Cola) spend even more on content marketing than traditional advertisements due to the fact that their Return-On-Investment (ROI) is so much higher.

Email

With the rise of social media, it may seem odd that email continues to be one of the greatest marketing channels to use. However, the statistics speak for themselves:

Email marketing has a 38-to-1 return on investment (Litmus, 2018)
91% of Americans want to receive promotional emails (Marketing Sherpa, 2015)

Even further, mobile technology can further lend itself to email as an effective marketing channel:

Email opens are most often done on mobile (46%), with webmail (35%) and desktop (18%) opens trailing behind (Litmus, 2018).
Smartphones account for 75% of devices used to check email, and this number increases for users under 35 years old (Adobe, 2017)

Smartphones also likely play a role in the efficacy of other marketing platforms, including social media.

Social Media

Before we start, let’s put some things in perspective. Social media use is constantly on the rise:

There are 3.196 billion active social media users in 2018 (We Are Social, 2018)
From 2017 to 2018, the number of active social media users increased by 13% (Hootsuite, 2018)

The most popular social media platform among adults in the United States is Facebook. To be more exact:

More than two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) reported in 2018 that they are active Facebook users (Pew Research Center, 2018)
Three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis (Pew Research Center, 2018)

As one might expect, this extensive use of Facebook and other platforms by consumers has a significant impact on the marketing activities of many brands. For example:

90% of brands use social media to increase brand awareness (Hootsuite, 2018)
Social media marketing spending in the US will increase to $17.34 billion by 2019 (Statista, 2018)

It’s also important to understand how effective various campaigns are so you can make more informed decisions:

70% of advertisements in front of videos are watched through to the end (Hootsuite, 2018)
The average click-through rate for Facebook ads varies depending on your industry, but averages 0.9% (WordStream, 2017)
The average conversion rate across all industries is 9.21% (WordStream, 2017)

The other social media platforms you may consider for your campaigns should include:

YouTube, which is used by 73% of US adults (Pew Research Center, 2018)
Instagram, which is used by 35% of US adults (Pew Research Center, 2018)
Pinterest, which is used by 29% of US adults (Pew Research Center, 2018)
Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, and WhatApp which are used by 27%, 25%, 24%, and 22% of US adults, respectively (Pew Research Center, 2018)

But at the core of every successful social media campaign is one thing: customer relationships.

Customer Relationships

One of the greatest tools that you, as an eCommerce merchant, have at your disposal is the customer relationship. A solid relationship can lead to more sales and, in fact, it’s been shown to be an important factor in customer purchase decisions:

By the year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the main way for consumers to differentiate between brands (VisionCritical, 2017)

And while building customer relationships can be a time-consuming endeavor, it’s one that pays off well in the future. For example:

86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience (Oracle, 2011)
84% of organizations that work to improve customer experience see an increase in revenue (Dimension Data, 2017)

So, how can you go about building a solid customer relationship with potential leads?

Communication is the key.

As mentioned previously, email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels. It’s also an easy way to tell stories, offer discounts and other perks, and request customer feedback.

In this way, you can not only hope to turn leads into customers but also increase the odds of them becoming repeat customers.

The Bottom Line

While statistics aren’t the be-all-end-all of eCommerce, they do offer insight into current and future trends. This can help you to plan for the upcoming year of 2019.

What stats did you find most helpful? Let us know in the comments section below!