Global Ecommerce Sales Growth Report (2024)

With the number of people shopping online increasing year after year, it should come as no surprise that global ecommerce sales have also been rising.

Here’s a look at how annual ecommerce sales worldwide have risen in the past few years and are forecast to grow.

Global ecommerce sales: 2021–2027

Global ecommerce sales are expected to total $6.3 trillion worldwide in 2024. This number is expected to continue growing over the next few years, proving that the ecommerce business model is becoming an increasingly lucrative option for companies. 

2024’s number also marks a 9.4% annual increase—the second-fastest global ecommerce sales growth rate in the forecast period between 2021 and 2027.

Online sales are expected to continue rising and take a larger piece of the retail pie. In 2025, global ecommerce sales are forecast to rise to $6.9 trillion, before adding another $600 billion in 2026, to $7.5 trillion. By 2027, it’s estimated that world retail ecommerce sales will exceed $8 trillion. 

From 2021 to 2027, annual global ecommerce sales is projected to increase by $3 billion. This marks an overall increase of 61.1% and an average annual growth rate of 8.3%.

Global ecommerce sales: largest contributors

As the world’s top exporter, China is also the world’s top ecommerce market, with total online sales exceeding the $3 trillion mark in 2023. Together with the United States, ecommerce sales from these two countries totaled more than $4.1 trillion.

It should come as no surprise then, that some of the world’s top ecommerce companies come from these two powerhouses. In fact, more than half of the top 10 hail from either China or the US. 

Rising ecommerce sales worldwide: biggest drivers

This divide between online and in-store widened significantly in 2020 in 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, experts say the pandemic accelerated the shift to online shopping by as many as five years.

But that’s not the only reason ecommerce is on the rise. 

The infiltration of mobile technology into consumers’ lives has more than helped to move things along. Recent figures show the number of people shopping online worldwide grew by 8.3% in 2022 to hit 4.11 billion, and nearly 60% spent on these online purchases was attributed to mobile devices. In fact, mobile commerce sales are also set to grow. In 2024, total sales from mobile devices are projected to hit $2.5 trillion, from $2.2 trillion in 2023.

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