In 2025, ecommerce will account for 20.5% of worldwide retail sales, and is projected to reach 22.5% by 2028. Global ecommerce encompasses many things: cross-border commerce, borderless business, and international online retail. But more important than what it is, is what it isn’t.
Ecommerce is not a luxury. It’s not one strategy among many. Becoming an online business is a necessity.
Unfortunately, ecommerce is also fraught with questions: Where to invest? What countries present the best product-market fit? How do you attract non-local buyers? Which is most important: language translation, exchanging currencies, new payment options, or something else entirely?
This guide helps you navigate those decisions with a clear view of how ecommerce is evolving. Ahead, get a global snapshot, examine key statistics and trends shaping 2026, and learn how to build an international strategy supported by Shopify’s cross-border solutions.
Market snapshot: Key global ecommerce numbers for 2026
Global ecommerce continues to grow steadily. But that’s not the whole story— the most useful detail for enterprise leaders is found in the regional breakdowns and operational benchmarks.
From the rapid acceleration in Latin America to the normalization of freight costs, the data points to a year of opportunity. Here is where the market stands in 2025.
- Global share: Ecommerce now accounts for approximately 20.5% of global retail sales, up from 19.9% in 2024.
- Market context: China significantly lifts the global average, according to a forecast from EMARKETER. When excluding China, global ecommerce penetration sits closer to 12.8%, setting a realistic benchmark for other markets.
- Regional growth: Latin America leads regional growth with a rate above 12.2% year-over-year, reaching $191.25 billion. Notably, Mexico’s growth trajectory puts it on track to surpass US ecommerce penetration levels by 2026.
- Performance benchmark: As of October 2025, the average global storewide conversion rate hovers at around 1.58%, though category and device mixes vary.
- Logistics update: Ocean freight costs have normalized. Container rates retreated through late 2025, decreasing 2% to $1,806 per 40-foot equivalent unit (FEU), easing the cross-border cost pressures seen in early 2024.
Together, these data points offer a snapshot of how global ecommerce is evolving and what enterprise brands should consider as they plan their next stage of international growth.
What is global ecommerce?
Global ecommerce is selling products or services across national borders from a company’s country of origin, normally defined as its founding or incorporating location. Products or services are sold into non-native markets via online sales and marketing channels.
The advantages of international ecommerce are:
- Easier expansion into foreign markets through localized storefronts and marketing
- Finding product-market fit facilitated by testing demand in new regions online
- Shorter B2B sales cycles as buyers research and purchase through self-serve digital experiences
- Quicker building of international presence without heavy up-front investment in physical locations
- Lower barriers to entry for cross-border selling across payments, currencies, and shipping
These advantages become even clearer once you understand how large the global ecommerce market is and where it’s growing fastest.
How big is the global market in 2025 (and what’s next)?
The global ecommerce market is expected to total $6.88 trillion by the end of 2026. That figure is estimated to grow over the next few years, showing that borderless ecommerce is becoming a profitable option for online retailers. By 2028, about 22.5% of total retail sales will happen online.
While 2025 represents a year of deceleration due to macroeconomic pressures in China and trade-war stress in North America, the medium-term outlook for global ecommerce sales remains resilient, with ecommerce’s share of total retail sales expected to climb steadily through 2028.
Regional outlooks
- APAC: Asia-Pacific is still the world’s largest retail and ecommerce region. Even though China maintains a dominant 83% market share, India and Southeast Asia are increasingly driving the region’s growth as sentiment stabilizes. For global brands, this means APAC remains a core region for ecommerce demand, but growth is becoming more distributed across markets.
- LATAM: Latin America is the fastest-growing retail ecommerce region in 2025. Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico account for 84.5% of retail ecommerce sales. Brands that can localize payments, pricing, and logistics in these markets are well positioned to benefit from that momentum.
- North America: Growth in North America is decelerating in 2025 amid tariff headwinds and softer consumer confidence, though forecasts point to improvement in 2026 as market conditions stabilize. As conditions will evolve through 2026, brands should remain flexible and cautiously optimistic.
- Europe: Western Europe is settling into a steady rhythm, with ecommerce growth stabilizing around 4% annually from 2025–2029, putting the market on track to surpass $800 billion by the end of the decade. For enterprise retailers, Europe represents a mature but reliable ecommerce market where gains often come from optimization rather than expansion into entirely new categories.
Casey Armstrong, CMO at ecommerce fulfillment brand ShipBob, adds, “While a lot of focus in ecommerce centers around the United States and Canada, there is a lot to learn from other large international players who are seeing an even more accelerated ecommerce growth rate.
“Merchants can shift where they sell based on this data and the demand for ecommerce from these countries. At ShipBob, it’s why we have opened fulfillment centers in Canada and the UK and are about to open another in Australia.”
Understanding the size and shape of the global ecommerce market is only part of the picture—the next step is looking at how shoppers and brands are actually behaving online.
Top global ecommerce statistics
If you’re running an online store, staying updated on the ecommerce industry is important for maximizing revenue. Below are the top statistics from around the world, so you can be more prepared for the year ahead and make smarter decisions about global expansion.
These numbers don’t tell the whole story on their own, but they highlight the forces shaping how shoppers browse, buy, return, and receive orders across markets.
Digital wallets dominate online checkout globally
The era of credit and debit card domination is over. Digital wallets now drive 66% of global spending. To capture this volume, retailers are offering a mix of payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and regional heavyweights.
Shopify delivers this through Shop Pay. You get the internet’s highest-converting accelerated checkout built in, removing friction and streamlining purchases for customers everywhere.
For global ecommerce, this makes it easier to localize payment experiences while maintaining a consistent checkout across markets.
Returns are a bigger line item than ever
With $849.9 billion in US returns forecast for 2025, retailers face a reality where nearly 15.8% of online sales come back, according to the National Retail Federation. Brands are turning to stricter policies and smarter tech like Loop and Happy Returns to protect margins and optimize reverse logistics.
Having a clear ecommerce returns strategy—and localized options where possible—is now a core part of profitable ecommerce.
The global conversion rate averaged 1.58% in October 2025
IRP Commerce suggests a negative trend in conversion efficiency globally. While a 1.86% decline in the rate might seem like a small number, it indicates a rise in various factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions, such as inflation and user experience.
Even small shifts in conversion rate can impact revenue at scale, making continual optimization essential.
The global B2C ecommerce market is expected to reach $9.8 trillion by 2033
The global B2C ecommerce market reached $5.2 trillion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $9.8 trillion by 2033—a growth rate of 6.63% between 2025 and 2033.
The continued growth of ecommerce will give brands more opportunities to expand internationally. With tools like Shopify Managed Markets, you can easily handle localization, regulatory requirements, and local payment methods in one place.
For enterprise retailers, this long-term growth shows the value of investing early in scalable cross-border infrastructure.
Social commerce is poised to reach $1 trillion by 2028
The most recent global social commerce statistics indicate that the market reached $821 billion in 2025, and is on pace to surpass $1 trillion by 2028.
This growth is driven by the increasing integration of social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube into ecommerce, particularly with the rising use of online shopping and short-form video content.
As social commerce matures, brands expanding globally will need creative and localized content to meet shoppers where they’re already spending time.
Global supply chains continue to shift toward new regional hubs
As of late 2025, global supply chain pressure has eased compared to the disruptions of recent years, with indicators like the NY Fed GSCPI nearing neutral. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reports that multinational companies are restructuring supply chains toward Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central America—an acceleration of a shift that began during the pandemic.
In particular, Southeast Asia is emerging as a major production hub, with foreign direct investment rising 10% to a record $225 billion in ASEAN countries.
For global ecommerce brands, these changes mean more resilient but complex supply networks, making flexible inventory and logistics strategies essential for international growth.
Freight costs have retreated from highs in late 2025
Container spot rates have eased significantly compared to the volatility of early 2024. The Drewry World Container Index sat at $1,806 per FEU on November 27, 2025, after touching a recent low of $1,669 in October.
On key trade lanes, pricing is stabilizing, with Shanghai-to-Los Angeles rates hovering near $2,196 per FEU, providing a much more predictable cost baseline for 2026 planning.
As freight costs stabilize, global ecommerce brands can forecast more accurately and adjust their pricing and margins across regions.
Global ecommerce trends to watch
The following trends build on the statistics above and highlight how shifting shopper behavior, media consumption, and operations will shape global ecommerce strategies in 2026 and beyond.
1. Global inflation pressures
Inflation’s ripple effects continue to be felt across the ecommerce landscape in 2025. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s consumer prices ran at 4.2% YoY in June 2025, and 43% of consumers list rising prices as their top concern. This is in line with the global inflation rate, which is projected to reach 3.65% in 2026. Customers everywhere are feeling the pinch.
This can lead to more price-sensitive consumers, potentially reducing demand and impacting sales and profits. Retailers expect shoppers to prioritize price over brand loyalty in 2026, as continued inflation tightens up budgets.
Some ecommerce businesses are turning to omnichannel marketing strategies. By engaging customers across multiple touchpoints, businesses can offer a seamless shopping experience, potentially offsetting the dampening effects of inflation on consumer spending.
To stay competitive, ecommerce brands must remain proactive, vigilant, and adaptable, constantly seeking solutions to mitigate inflation’s impact on their operations and maintain competitiveness in the market. That includes revisiting pricing and promotions across regions as conditions change.
2. More consumers will shop on their smartphones
Consumers love convenience—it’s why they shop online using their mobile phones. But this isn’t a fad. The rise of mobile commerce (m-commerce) is significant, with some forecasting it to reach $2.4 trillion in 2026, growing at a rate of 9.5% until 2034.
M-commerce involves shopping online through mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. Mobile ecommerce is expected to continue to break out over the next few years. Technological advances like branded mobile apps, 5G wireless, and social shopping make it easier for people to shop on their phones.
In 2025, 76% of Gen Z discover products on social media and 39% have purchased there, and among US millennials, 56% bought via social in the past three months. Expect more branded shopping apps, SMS and Facebook Messenger marketing campaigns, and integrations for mobile-enabled add-ons to boost in-store engagement to influence purchases.
For global ecommerce leaders, this means designing mobile-first experiences—including localized apps, checkout flows, and messaging—rather than treating mobile as a secondary channel.
3. Retail media and connected TV
Connected TV (CTV) is a $33.35 billion channel, projected to reach $41 billion by 2027, and streaming now accounts for 44.8% of TV usage, surpassing broadcast plus cable. Retail media will also hit $58.79 billion in 2025, with most new spend concentrated in Amazon and Walmart’s networks.
A sweets/confectionery company in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) category credited CTV ads with an overall sales lift of 15.4%. The campaign used two targeting strategies: a broad approach to maximize reach and a more focused strategy targeting VIZIO’s cord-cutting viewers for incremental growth.
The campaign successfully penetrated new buyer segments and demonstrated the potential for competitive prospecting and reaching consumers new to the brand and category. Together, these results underscore CTV’s ability to drive both top-of-funnel awareness and measurable sales lift.
As retail media networks and CTV mature, global brands can use them to test new markets and reach audiences without building large in-market teams from day one.
4. Faster deliveries for everyone, no matter where the customer is
The trend toward faster deliveries is reshaping the global ecommerce landscape, as retailers grapple with the twin pressures of controlling logistics costs and meeting rising consumer expectations for speed.
Logistics and delivery costs, especially last-mile delivery, are major challenges for ecommerce profitability, particularly in Europe and the Middle East.
Still, retailers expect two-thirds of deliveries to be fulfilled within the same day or next day by 2029, showing a shift toward rapid-delivery expectations.
As more consumers choose retailers based on their ability to provide rapid delivery, companies that fail to meet these expectations risk losing out to competitors who can. In markets where speed of service is increasingly seen as part of the value proposition, this demand for faster delivery puts pressure on ecommerce businesses to enhance their global fulfillment capabilities.
To meet the demand for rapid delivery, retailers are heavily investing in logistics infrastructure, especially in automated and micro-fulfillment centers. These smaller, more localized warehouses are strategically placed near urban centers, allowing quicker and more efficient deliveries. Some 64% of retailers anticipate the expansion of automated micro-fulfillment centers within the next five years, supporting the growth of ecommerce and quick deliveries.
5. Improving workforce management with AI
Global labor costs are rising for 85% of retailers, driving a shift in strategy for 2026—from hiring more employees to AI-driven workforce optimization.
While 86% of retailers say AI is already improving efficiency, the market is currently split between early adopters and those truly capitalizing on the tech. Although more than 80% of major retailers planned to increase AI operational capabilities in 2025 (with 35% planning “significant” increases), only about one-third of teams currently report high productivity gains. The competitive advantage this year will come not just from adopting AI, but from redesigning workflows to leverage it fully.
AI is playing out in two areas:
- Demand-based scheduling: With 69% of retailers expecting higher foot traffic and 73% anticipating sales growth, static schedules are a liability. Retailers are turning to AI-driven scheduling to mitigate understaffing risks and align labor spend with actual peak volatility.
- Service automation: AI is reshaping employee roles by offloading routine contacts. AI is expected to resolve 30% of customer service cases in 2025, climbing to 50% by 2027. This frees up human staff to move from high-volume support queues to high-value selling and fulfillment tasks.
For global ecommerce teams, AI can help match staffing to regional demand and scale multilingual service, improving customer experience.
Together, these trends highlight where global ecommerce is headed next. They shape the pricing, channel, fulfillment, and workforce decisions brands must make when setting up or scaling an international strategy.
How to set up your international ecommerce strategy
Setting up an international, omnichannel ecommerce strategy can seem intimidating, but there are a few key areas that, if you address them as a priority, can help you succeed. Now that the market landscape and major trends are clear, these fundamentals will help you operationalize global expansion.
The areas for ecommerce businesses to focus on are:
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, two main issues arise for international ecommerce retailers: currency conversion and how to handle promotions. Regarding the former, it’s worth researching how customers perceive pricing in the country you’re targeting. In the West, it’s common for prices to end in a 9, whereas in countries like China, it’s best to use a round number.
Businesses should use a wider range of factors to determine price sensitivity with their promotions, especially in foreign markets. Effectively and profitably linking pricing and promotions can increase revenue and profits.
Payments
When planning payment methods for international ecommerce, you’ll need at least a debit and credit card processor and mobile wallet options, like Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option.
Some ecommerce platforms and global marketplaces have their own payment setup. For example, with Shopify Payments, you can set up all major payment methods for your ecommerce store automatically and support local preferences with less manual configuration.
Customer service
Customer service is important no matter where in the world your customers are. In most countries, common types of communication for customer service include phone, email, and live chat.
Shipping and logistics
How your buyers will receive your products is a huge factor to consider, as shipping will likely be expensive. So to make shipping internationally successful, think about removing as much friction as possible. That includes researching price options with carriers, offering shipping speed estimates, researching relevant taxes, and simply preventing some products from being sold in certain countries.
With freight costs stabilizing and transit times improving, brands also have more room to fine-tune delivery promises and inventory placement across regions.
Even with a strong strategy, cross-border sales introduce currency, duty, and compliance challenges that Shopify simplifies.
Scale faster with Shopify Markets
Our data shows that 30% of your online store visitors are coming from international markets. In the past, converting these visitors was much more challenging than selling to domestic customers.
With Shopify Markets, you can now manage international sales by simplifying complex areas such as compliance, tariffs, shipping, and conversions. As Shopify’s merchant-of-record cross-border solution, Markets handles many of the hardest pieces of global ecommerce on your behalf.
On average, brands in North America that use this feature are able to sell to 14 new markets, creating a scalable, lower-risk way to enter new regions and grow revenue.
Global ecommerce FAQ
How big is the global ecommerce market?
The global ecommerce market is expected to total nearly $7 trillion by 2026.
How do I start a global ecommerce business?
- Determine which international markets you want to target and how they will support business growth.
- Understand target market needs, such as preferred payment methods.
- Create a plan for market entry.
Is ecommerce important to a global business?
Ecommerce can support and facilitate international trade, ease business deals, and help businesses better understand market demand.
