Global E-commerce Statistics 2025

The world of e-commerce in 2025 is perhaps the clearest example of the convergence of technology, consumer preferences, and AI.

It has evolved from a platform of convenience, which it was ten years ago, to a channel of necessity today.

With billions of buyers and sellers transacting on these platforms across a wide array of categories, e-commerce is no longer about building a platform but about creating an ecosystem. The ecosystem needs to balance data, personalisation, and logistics.

This report, Global E-commerce Statistics 2025, is a comprehensive report on the state of e-commerce covering the market size and expected growth rate of the market, country-wise contribution towards the global e-commerce market, devices and platforms used for e-commerce, and other trends such as social commerce, influence of social media in purchases, modes of digital payments, etc.

We have tried to put together these statistics in a way that they give us insights into consumer behaviour and technological disruptions.

The year 2025 is an important year for e-commerce.

The market is moving from a high-growth phase to an intelligent expansion phase, with AI playing a major role in areas like logistics, marketing, and predictive analysis.

As we go through this report, we will observe not only how the market has grown but also the significant changes that are underway in the ecosystem.

Market size of the global e-commerce market from 2015 to 2025

Online retail more than quadrupled over the past decade, with some normalization over the past 18 months as we lapped the Covid distortions and China’s slowdown had broader trade spillover effects.

In 2025 retail e-commerce growth was positive, just at a more measured rate, and its share of global retail was roughly 20%.

In millions of U.S. dollars, trillions Headline numbers (USD, trillions)

Year	Market size
2015	1.548
2016	1.845
2017	2.382
2018	2.982
2019	3.351
2020	4.248
2021	4.979
2022	5.090
2023	5.580
2024	6.007
2025 (forecast)	6.419

Source data for the chart: 2015 to 2024, Capital One Shopping Research, compiled from eMarketer and Statista; 2025, Insider Intelligence (eMarketer).

What changed in 2025

Scale: $6.419 trillion in 2025, a ~6.8% year-over-year increase. Penetration: E-commerce accounted for ~20.5% of global retail sales in 2025, compared with ~19.9% in 2024.

Analyst’s take

The market grew at a ~15% compound annual rate between 2015 and 2025, a staggering rate for such a large base.

The recent slowdown is more cyclical than secular: logistics are cheaper than in 2021 to 2022, cross-border issues are the variable to watch, and AI is now starting to move from sales strategy to sales practice (content creation, price optimization, use of first-party data).

I would expect some category shifts (to grocery and essentials) and format shifts (more AI-enabled curation in discretionary categories) but a reacceleration once China gets back on track and merchants complete the build-out of their data infrastructure. In other words, there is still plenty of room to run here; 2025 is a speed bump, not a destination.

Share of Online Commerce in Overall Retail Purchases (2015–2025)

My view on the share of online shopping to total retail sales around the world is that it has been fairly consistently moving from a “want to have” to a “must have”.

The share of e-commerce as a proportion of overall retail sales globally has been on an upward trajectory over the years in a mostly steady but step-like fashion.

But, if the latest statistics are to be believed, it will increase from the mid-teens in 2015 to approaching a fifth of all retail sales by 2025.

Official statistics

Here is a table of that history. Note that some figures are actual and others projected, and all are in terms of global retail e-commerce as a share of total retail.

Year	% of Total Retail Sales Online
2015	~12.0%*
2016	~13.5%*
2017	~15.0%*
2018	~17.0%*
2019	~18.0%*
2020	~18.8%*
2021	~18.8%
2022	~19.4%
2023	~19.9%
2024	~19.9%
2025 (forecast)	~20.5%

*Based on overarching trend metrics (not all data was year-by-year and/or separated into yearly data for public consumption). Data source: eMarketer global predictions.

Meaning

What that says to me is that even if the share growth isn’t torrid anymore, it is definitely still happening.

In 2015 this was roughly 12 %, in 2025 it will be more than 20 %, so we’re talking about a major structural shift. Three things are worth noting here:

The deceleration in year-on-year share implies some markets or categories have reached a level of maturity in terms of online share and that going forward, most of the share gains will be driven by new markets or categories less penetrated by e-commerce.

The leveling-off of share around 20% does not imply that e-commerce is decelerating — it implies that retail is not decelerating, and that e-commerce is becoming a normal part of it, rather than an aberration.

Given that AI, m-commerce, social commerce, and supply chain technologies are all still evolving, we may see this baseline ratchet up again as another wave of technological or behavioral disruption occurs (e.g., VR/AR shopping, fully automated last-mile, etc.).

For companies, this implies that share is leveling-off, and competition is becoming more heated: online is no longer a growth story, it’s now just another channel. Differentiation and operational excellence have never mattered more.

My take

But, in truth, I think this is a “steady state transition” situation. The real “step up” happened already. It was that first 10 years of growth.

Now we’re seeing the normalization, the integration of online commerce as a natural part of shopping around the world.

That means that from an investment/strategic perspective, the high-risk/high-reward period is now largely over.

Then there is just the execution left: margin optimization, supply chain, AI driven personalization, regional play in markets where e-commerce penetration is below global average etc.

So yes – the penetration moving up to ~20 % by 2025 is a big deal. However, I think there’s an even bigger deal – can ecommerce move from ~20 % to ~30 % and beyond, and what will be the key enablers?

As an analyst, I’d say that unless there is some massive disruption (technological, regulatory or consumer behavior) that significantly impacts the market, we should not see huge increases in market share for any of these players in the short term.

Biggest e-commerce markets in the world in 2025 Countries by E-commerce Revenue (2025)

Let’s have a look at the biggest e-commerce markets in the world in 2025.

I find it fascinating not only to look at the absolute numbers but also at how much of a global market share they make up (and what that means for future growth).

Numbers

Here is the overview table of the top 10 countries by e-commerce revenue in 2025 (in USD billions).

Rank	Country	E-commerce Revenue (2025, US$ bn)
1	China	2,534.7
2	United States	1,343.8
3	South Korea	207.7
4	Japan	190.5
5	United Kingdom	141.8
6	France	128.6
7	India	117.7
8	Germany	104.2
9	Canada	74.7
10	Indonesia	60.7

Source of the data: Statista: due to different sources, some of the numbers are estimates and/or rounded.

My take

Here are my 3 key takeaways from this data:

• There is a huge difference between the #1 country (China) and the #2 country (United States). China’s e-commerce revenue is almost twice as big as the US’ revenue (which can be explained by a combination of market size, mobile-first user behavior, strong ecosystem of platforms as well as culture).
• From #2 onwards, there is a huge drop to all remaining countries. That indicates that the global e-commerce revenue “plateau” is shaped mostly by two markets alone.
• Countries such as India and Indonesia rank high but still have relatively low absolute e-commerce numbers.

That implies there is plenty of room for e-commerce growth in countries with young demographics, improving infrastructures as well as digital transformation.

For global companies, this e-commerce country ranking underlines the importance of adjusting market strategies to local contexts (for example, what works in China e.g. logistics, live streaming, super apps likely won’t work in Germany or Canada etc.).

From an AI angle (the broader article on AI statistics is here), there is certainly scale to target use cases such as personalization, dynamic pricing or product discovery in the largest markets.

However, most marginal gains can likely be achieved in second tier countries (India, Indonesia) in which digital habits have not yet been formed yet.

Analyst

This country ranking of e-commerce revenues is in my opinion less a story of “who will win where” and more of a “where to play” next story.

The biggest markets (China and US) will certainly continue to grow but will face diminishing marginal returns.

The growth potential hence shifts towards countries with relatively low e-commerce penetration rates. That requires investors and strategists to shift the focus less on absolute market sizes but more on speed and efficiency.

For instance, how can AI-enabled logistics or AI-powered customer engagement instruments contribute to the e-commerce growth story in India or Indonesia in the next 3-5 years?

At the end of the day, the biggest e-commerce markets of today are dominated by a few countries but the underlying structural opportunity lies in many other countries where e-commerce has not yet arrived.

Mobile Commerce by Device Type (2025)

If we slice these global numbers by screen type, it’s pretty clear the store is in the phone.

In 2025, mobile e-commerce commands the majority of the retail sales pie, with desktop and tablet slices making up the difference.

Using the most recent global data and the best available device-mix estimate, we can take a closer look at the state of the market in 2025.

Reported split (global retail e-commerce, 2025)

Device type	Share of e-commerce sales	Implied revenue (US$ trillions)
Mobile (smartphone)	59%	$3.79
Non-mobile (desktop & tablet)**	41%	$2.63

Notes: Shares reflect 2025 global mobile share of retail e-commerce (59%).

Totals are based on $6.42T in worldwide retail e-commerce sales for 2025; implied revenues are simple share × total.

Non-mobile aggregates desktop and tablet because most public datasets report mobile versus “other” globally rather than a clean three-way split.

Sources (max 2): • SellersCommerce, Top 12 Mobile Commerce Statistics of 2025, mobile’s 59% share (and ~$4.01T headline). • Capital One Shopping Research, eCommerce Statistics (2025) — global 2025 total of $6.42T used for the implied revenue math.

What it means (analyst take)

I like to think of 2025 as the year that mobile ceased to be a “channel” and simply became the way we buy things.

The 59% share is not just a matter of convenience, it’s also a matter of habit: saved credit cards at checkout, one-tap repeat orders, social media discover triggering a natively-installed shopping app.

Desktop remains relevant for considered purchases and buying on-the-clock, but the economics are increasingly driving toward a mobile-first approach: quicker loads, shorter funnels, and AI-enabled merchandising that feels native on a small screen.

If you’re looking to deploy resources, you’re likely seeing highest marginal returns from further optimizing the mobile experience (speed, UX, identity, payments) and then applying AI to customize it at scale.

The pie will continue to expand, but the fight for share of that expansion is taking place in your customer’s pocket.

Number of Digital Buyers Worldwide (2018–2025)

One way to appreciate the magnitude of digital commerce is to look at the number of people who make purchases online.

Between 2018 and 2025, I note a generally linear upward trend in the number of digital buyers worldwide, interrupted by a surge in growth amid the pandemic and a subsequent deceleration as the market returns to more modest gains in penetration, financial inclusion, and behavioral adoption.

The statistics below present standardized global “online shoppers/digital buyers” data from trusted sources.

Number of people who shop online worldwide (billions)

Year	Users (billions)
2018	1.79
2019	1.92
2020	2.37
2021	2.48
2022	2.56
2023	2.64
2024	2.71
2025	2.77

2018–2019 data was sourced from a Market.us study that aggregated past digital-buyer estimates; 2020–2025 data was sourced from DemandSage’s series on global online shoppers.

Key takeaways from the graph

There are two phenomena I find particularly interesting. Firstly, the absolute numbers are massive, 2.77 billion, indicating that digital commerce is no longer a fringe activity but a normal part of life for the overwhelming majority of the world.

Secondly, the rate of growth appears to have slowed down since the pandemic-fueled boom of 2020 and 2021, implying that the low-hanging fruit has been plucked and the main growth challenge is now in areas like financial inclusion, building trust, international shipping, and search functionality on lower-end devices.

From a data science perspective, this is a story about the longevity of the trend. Between 2018 and 2025, the number of digital buyers worldwide grew by 55%, representing a CAGR of 6% to 7%, a respectable clip for a demographic trend.

Going forward, much of the growth won’t come from “new buyers” as much as it will from “more purchases per buyer,” which is where AI and machine learning come into play: personalized product recommendations for first-time buyers, checkout optimization that reduces instances of mistaken identity, and voice-activated customer support for regions with spotty internet connectivity.

In other words, there is still plenty of headroom in this trend, even if the growth rate is tapering off, as long as online merchants can deliver a personalized, payment-optimized, and low-latency commerce experience that acknowledges the technological limitations of the next billion buyers.

Average Annual Online Spending per User by Country (2025)

Now, when looking at how much each user spends online, we get a sense of how e-commerce isn’t just about penetration, but also how users engage.

The table below shows the average annual online spend per user in select countries based on the best publicly available figures (2025 data isn’t readily available, so some of these figures are 2024 estimates).

Country	Estimated Avg. Annual Online Spend per User (USD)
United States	~ 3,612 (2024)
China	~ 1,353 (2024)
South Korea	~ 3,806 (2023)
Europe (avg.)	~ >1,000 (2023)

My analysis

Based on these figures, here are my observations:

• The United States is the leader in per user spend, which is no surprise given its higher GDP per capita and a long history of online shopping.
• China has the lowest per user spend despite being the largest market, which indicates that growth is coming from the number of users rather than high per user spend.
• South Korea boasts high per user spend for a non-US country, which indicates high mobile penetration and digital adoption.
• The European average is in the middle, which is no surprise given the mix of countries within the continent.

Analyst’s Take

In the analyst’s eyes, “per user spend” is a metric that’s important for decision-making. Are you as a merchant or platform going to increase revenues by gaining more users, or by making each user spend more?

Based on these figures, it seems that in advanced markets (the US, South Korea), the impetus is on the latter, on how to make each user spend more, pay more, and purchase more categories.

In markets with low per user spend (China relative to the number of users), the impetus may still be on adding more users or increasing per user spend (by better income levels, smartphone penetration, etc).

Now, given this is a piece on AI data, I’d like to highlight that AI will play a critical role in increasing per user spend, via recommendations, dynamic pricing, cross-sell and upsell strategies, and logistics optimization (lowering the costs of delivery).

My view is that in the next couple of years, the biggest jump in the “spend per user” metric will not come from “more users” but from “users spending more, more often, and via more convenient channels.”

The markets that do both will be the ones to watch over the next 2-3 years.

Global E-commerce Product Categories, 2025

Now, let’s focus on the products that are driving global e-commerce. While there are many variations, the general trends are well-known.

Electronics and Apparel have historically been leading categories. Household items are also major, and Food and Personal Care are gaining traction.

As I don’t have a crystal ball, let me take a simple approach to estimate the size of each product category in 2025.

The rule of thumb here is to apply the overall growth rate of global e-commerce in 2025 to each category’s 2024 baseline revenue. I will use ECDB’s global e-commerce dataset for this purpose.

Estimated 2025 revenues by category (USD billions)

Rank	Category	2025 Revenue (est.)
1	Consumer Electronics	$705.7
2	Apparel (Fashion)	$677.7
3	Electrical Appliances	$448.6
4	Furniture & Homeware	$439.3
5	Food (Grocery)	$299.1
6	Personal Care	$279.2

Methodology: The baseline 2024 product category revenues are obtained from ECDB’s Global E-commerce Dataset. Then, I apply the overall 2025 global e-commerce growth rate of 6.86% YoY to calculate each product category’s estimated 2025 revenue.

Why? This way, we keep the same product category definitions in 2024 and 2025. You can access ECDB’s product category definitions here. You can find ECDB’s datasets here.

What we see here is: * ECDB’s global e-commerce dataset estimates 2024 revenues as $660.4B (Consumer Electronics), $634.2B (Apparel), $419.8B (Electrical Appliances), $411.1B (Furniture & Homeware), $279.9B (Food), and $261.3B (Personal Care). * Global e-commerce is estimated to grow by 6.86% YoY in 2025. * Then, what you see above is simply the 2024 baseline revenues for each product category, compounded by the overall 2025 global e-commerce growth rate.

What changed in 2025?

Electronics remain as the largest product category. Combined, Consumer Electronics and Electrical Appliances reached more than $1.15T in revenue, driven by the cyclic nature of their markets and the “trade-in” effect in major markets.

Furniture & Homeware is not as explosive as it was during the pandemic. The pandemic effect seems to be over for Furniture & Homeware, with its 2025 revenue being comparable to that of Electrical Appliances.

Food and Personal Care categories are here to stay. Neither leads the pack, but both Food and Personal Care have been experiencing steady growth as their online penetration keeps increasing, supported by increasing basket sizes and same/next-day delivery.

Takeaway

For 2025, I don’t see a major power shift among these product categories. The early adopters (Electronics, Apparel) are still the top-grossing product categories.

However, the major driver of growth is gradually shifting toward frequently bought and everyday categories such as Food, Personal Care, and other household products, thanks to improvements in logistics and payments.

This trend suggests that while it is necessary to optimize the value chain of high-average-selling-price (ASP) product categories (e.g., enhancing product return and warranty claim processes, developing refurbished goods markets), e-commerce companies should invest more in AI solutions to expand average basket sizes for frequently purchased product categories, such as same/next-day replenishment reminders, bundle offers, and personalized recommendations that are actually helpful.

In other words, while the ranking of product categories is unlikely to change overnight, the next source of profitability will come from frequently bought, habitual purchases that technology will make seamless.

Distribution of E-commerce Payment Systems (2025)

If I look at the payment methods that are preferred by consumers in the digital space, there is clearly a movement towards convenience, security and flexibility.

Fast-forward to 2025, and various forms of payment (mature and emerging) are vying for supremacy, each providing its own nuanced snapshot of the relationship between shopping habits and technology.

Share of global e-commerce payment methods, 2025

The following chart shows the projected share of different payment methods in ecommerce in 2025, based on the report:

These numbers are based on recent reports by industry analysts as the exact global stats are not readily available, so they’re best read as indicative rather than precise.

Payment method	Estimated share of online payments (2025)
Digital wallets	~ 50%
Credit & debit cards	~ 25%
Bank transfers (including instant/ACH)	~ 15%
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)	~ 5%
Cash / Cash-on-Delivery	~ 3%
Other methods (cryptocurrency, checks)	< 2%

(Source: “What are the Most Popular Payment Methods in 2025?” on ClearlyPayments) Also, “32 global payment processing industry statistics for 2025” from Airwallex has some relevant statistics on digital wallets and cards.

From my perspective

Here’s what I take away from these figures:

Digital wallets at ~50%: That’s big. Wallet-based payments (e.g. in-app, tokenised cards, mobile pay) are already the dominant form of payment in many markets, particularly in Asia and mobile-first countries.

Their prevalence also means that online retailers will need to support wallet users for seamless checkout.

Cards still relevant (25%): Cards are playing a significant role in the region, and in many markets cards are a mature market, and the legal and logistic aspect of the market are well settled.

Bank transfer and instant payment (15%): This is a representation of the markets where the bank-to-bank or UPI/ACH based payments are the dominant form.

They’re most useful in areas where mobile wallets aren’t that prevalent or where bank-based payments have better network effects.

BNPL (~5%): Still a small percentage, but it’s not insignificant—people are getting comfortable with installment payments online. In some cases, for larger purchases or discretionary spend, this is becoming a more important percentage. Cash/CoD and “others” (<5%): Declining in more advanced markets, but still existent in others (developing markets, the unbanked, etc.).

Their small share implies that for global commerce, digital is the core.

ANALYST VIEW

In my view, the payments ecosystem in 2025 highlights two key areas of focus for digital merchants and marketplaces:

What’s more, offering a variety of payment methods is no longer a nice-to-have. Digital wallets, which account for about half of global ecommerce transactions, can cause checkout friction, cart abandonment and revenue loss if they’re not available.

Having multiple approaches is not only a best practice, it is a basic requirement.

Differentiation is now coming from value-added payment experiences.

Given that the majority of payment methods are now a hygiene factor (wallet, card, bank transfer) we will see the companies who differentiate around this space think about: one click, saved cards, embedded financing (BNPL), added security (tokenisation, biometric) and local payment schemes where relevant for specific geographies.

In particular, in emerging markets, offering payment methods that reflect consumer trust and cultural nuances is a plus.

In the grand scheme of our AI statistics here: payment flows are an interesting data-point to be used in AI models — transactional behavior, fraud behavior, conversions by payment methods.

Companies that allocate resources to AI-driven payment-risk management, checkout optimisation and targeted promotions based on payment method segmentation are well positioned to reap the most benefits.

In other words, how you accept payments isn’t just a plumbing-level tech choice, it’s increasingly a user experience, conversion and competitive edge opportunity.

Because of the size of the market and the margin of change, I would anticipate over the next 2–3 years that we won’t see huge swings in share (digital wallet is already ~50%).

Instead, there will be a rise in wallet adoption in under-served markets, expansion of BNPL, and a localization of bank/transfer payment products.

It would seem that the best strategy for businesses, for now, is to simply focus on bettering the existing forms of payment options as well as preparing for the next evolving options that will inevitably become available, not to focus on disruption, but on optimisation.

Global E-commerce Logistics and Delivery Times (2025)

Listen to the consumer, and they’ll tell you exactly what they want from e-commerce logistics in 2025: “Get it here fast and let me know when.” Delivery times have shortened in developed markets, but consumer demand has grown even faster.

By 2025, a two-day delivery is the standard in most product categories, although it still takes a bit longer for internationally shipped products, but they too are now more predictable.

What the numbers say (selected 2025 data points)

Metric (global unless noted)	2025 figure	Scope / note
Shoppers who expect delivery ≤ 2 days	74%	Signals the new “default” promise for competitive merchants.
Deliveries arriving within 4 days	74%	Share of orders delivered in four days or fewer.
Cross-border orders delivered within 14 days	81%	Indicates improving reliability on international lanes.
Average U.S. delivery time	2.47 days	Useful proxy for best-in-class domestic performance.
Shoppers who consider delivery windows when buying	92%	Visibility matters as much as raw speed.
Shoppers who want faster delivery vs. last year	52%	“Fast delivery” cited as a top improvement priority in 2025.

Sources (up to 2): Capital One Shopping Report, E-commerce Delivery Statistics 2025; DHL eCommerce Report, Delivery & Returns Report 2025.

How to read this

There are three key takeaways here. Firstly, speed is no longer a differentiator, it’s a hygiene factor. When 75% of consumers expect a two-day delivery, the benchmark for speed is set by the top quartile, not the average.

Secondly, predictability smooths out the rough edges: even in international shipping, completing 80% of orders within a four to 14-day window shows the networks are maturing despite customs clearance challenges.

Finally, communication is the new expectation, as consumers place almost as much value on accurate ETAs and proactively communicated updates as they do on time itself.

Analyst’s view

2025 was the year logistics has moved beyond “how fast can I ship this?” to “how fast can I ship this predictably?”

The lever here is orchestration over acceleration: using multiple carriers, positioning inventory closer to the point of demand, and using AI to set realistic (not just optimistic) estimated delivery dates.

Practically, that means moving beyond blanket promises, and communicating more personalized, SKU, postal code, and inventory availability-specific promises, grounded in real-time milestone tracking.

The benefits are obvious: better conversion due to more accurate and reliable delivery promises, reduced WISMO (Where Is My Order?) calls, and reduced cancellations for missed expectations.

The only constraint, somewhat surprisingly, is not about speed; it’s about trust. The brands who treat e-commerce logistics as a feature, measuring it, reporting on it and continually improving it, are the ones who will continue to reap compounding benefits, even if “speed to door” stops improving.

Social Commerce and Influencer-Led Sales (2025)

As I look at the development of e-commerce, one area that has particularly grabbed my attention is the maturation of social media and influencers from “nice to have” to “must have.”

In 2025, social commerce and creator-led activations are not a side item but rather are fully ingrained as part of how brands achieve customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.

Key 2025 statistics:

Here are some of the top statistics reflecting the size and influence of this phenomenon:

Metric	Value	Note
Share of online sales via social platforms	~ 17% of total e-commerce sales	Estimates for social commerce as a portion of e-commerce.
Global influencer-marketing industry size	~ US$ 32.55 billion	Projected for 2025.
Percentage of digital consumers who made purchase influenced by creators	~ 30%	Approximate figure for 2025 from survey data of influencer effect.

What does this mean to me?

Firstly, that we are reaching a point where 15% of online spend is now within a social-commerce environment is a clear sign that this is no longer a niche channel.

If brands are not offering smooth social-commerce journeys, they are losing sales.

Secondly, with total influencer marketing spend exceeding over US$30 billion, it is clear that the industry is moving towards considering creators as sales-drivers as much as it considers them brand-awareness-drivers.

There is now a very direct line between “influence” and “checkout click.”

Finally, that ~30% of online consumers now attribute a purchase to the influence of an influencer says a lot about the changing dynamic of trust and discovery; post-click commentary carries more weight than a banner ad.

This means the credibility, authenticity, and relevance of the creator is crucial.

My analyst take:

In my opinion, 2025 marks the year where social commerce and influencer-led activations enter a “maturity” phase; that is, growth continues, but it’s now more about refinement than experimentation. To be successful, brands will need to do three things:

Integrate commerce into social experiences: It is no longer about “see in feed, click to site;” it is now about “see, engage, buy in-app” with as little drop-off as possible.

Select creators with conversion in mind: It’s not just about follower numbers; engagement rate, vertical relevance, and post-purchase behaviors are key.

Leverage AI and data to streamline the process: Whether that be in planning (which influencer? what type of content?), attribution (which creator drove which sale?), or retargeting (which audience should we re-target?), AI needs to be the engine-room of scaling a social-commerce and influencer-led strategy.

In a nutshell, social commerce and creators are no longer “nice-to-haves;” they are now key levers for growth.

Those brands that now treat them as such (with measurement, with strategy, with investment) will outmaneuver those that still treat them as “nice-to-haves.”

The Top E-commerce Platforms in the World and Their Market Share (2025)

If you were to plot where the world does online shopping, you’d notice something about the landscape in 2025. On one hand, the major payments-heavy e-commerce platforms — in particular, in China — drive most of the activity. On the other hand, you have some Western companies and regional players that fill out the map.

For simplicity, I will use GMV (gross merchandise value) at the platform/storefront level, and project 2025 using publicly accounted 2024 numbers.

Ok, so here’s the method (all in one go):

I begin with ECDB’s 2024 GMV by storefront (e.g. pinduoduo.com, taobao.com, tmall.com, jd.com, amazon.com), and then apply each platform’s indicated 2024→2025 growth range where ECDB reports one (e.g. Pinduoduo “10–15%”, Taobao/Tmall “0–5%”, JD “<0%”).

In cases where there is no explicit 2025 growth signal for the platform, I use the global retail e-commerce growth rate for 2025 (which is +6.8% YoY) as a proxy, which is fairly conservative.

Lastly, I calculate share only within this top-platform pool to keep out millions of tiny sites. (Values rounded; $ = USD billions.)

Store-level GMV and market share forecast for 2025

Rank	Platform (storefront)	2025 GMV (est., $bn)	Share of top-platform pool
1	Pinduoduo (pinduoduo.com)	804.7	23.3%
2	Douyin (douyin.com)	543.6	15.7%
3	Tmall (tmall.com)	540.3	15.7%
4	Taobao (taobao.com)	555.5	16.1%
5	JD.com (jd.com)	505.7	14.7%
6	Amazon.com (US storefront) (amazon.com)	436.3	12.6%
7	eBay (ebay.com)	35.3	1.0%
8	Rakuten (rakuten.co.jp)	30.4	0.9%

Notes: 2024 baseline (GMV) and growth bands: ECDB sample pages: Pinduoduo: $715.2B (10–15% ‘24→‘25); Taobao: $541.9B (0–5%); Tmall: $527.1B (0–5%); JD.com: $505.7B (“<0%” growth signal); Amazon.com (US store): $405.9B in 2024 with “5–10%” growth signal; I’m using the midpoint (7.5%).

The 2024 GMV for Douyin is ~$509B from ECDB’s marketplace data and I’m using the +6.8% global here because we don’t have a 2025 pointer for each platform.

For example, eBay ($34.5B) and Rakuten ($28.3B) are two ECDB marketplace examples, but conservatively-set midpoints are in place. Securities listed are within this 8-platform group, not across all e-commerce globally.

What the table tells us (and what it doesn’t)

China’s gravity well. Four China-centric platforms (Pinduoduo, Taobao, Tmall, JD) plus Douyin account for most of the GMV on large platforms. That dictates everything from pricing to seller tooling. Amazon’s nuance. The amazon.com line is US-only; Amazon’s GMV is spread across multiple country domains.

At the storefront level, you’d find that one Chinese domain exceeds an entire Amazon country site — even though, in total, Amazon is still bigger. The storefront view doesn’t double count anything but does reduce the granularity.

Long tail reality. eBay and Rakuten are huge, in absolute numbers, but tiny compared to the big two.

That gap is also the reason why cross border and social commerce merchants now aggressively pursue the traffic of the top 5.

What the analyst says

My take? 2025 is going to be a year of platform consolidation. Not only are the top platforms dominating traffic — they’re squeezing out conversion drivers (payments, trust signals, returns) and leveraging AI to maximize attach rates and ad yield.

But the leverage of data now favors orchestration over brute force: being quicker to identify the right SKUs to highlight to shoppers, in which locations; more efficient at transporting inventory to them; and more precise in ad bidding based on customer lifetime value versus last click return on ad spend.

For brands, test into the leaderboards for reach, but allocate budget to local challengers where marginal ROAS is greater.

If you’re a platform, the unlock is AI-powered merchandising and logistics SLAs that are robust, not just fast.

Taking all of these measures into account, the global ecommerce industry in 2025 represents a relatively developed and still rapidly expanding market.

Over $6 trillion in annual sales, over 20% of total retail sales and over 2.7 billion digital shoppers.

E-commerce is no longer retail’s subcategory, evidenced by the predominance of mobile commerce, the growth of developing nations, and the increasingly mainstream expectation of two-day (or less) delivery.

Yet, intelligence is the enabler for this scale.

Machine learning applications such as personalization, dynamic pricing, fraud detection and demand forecasting for inventory have made ecommerce a learning machine that learns with each transaction and shopping cart.

Social media, for instance, and influencer commerce, combine entertainment with commerce to create additional roadways between awareness and purchase.

Interestingly, the adoption of digital wallets, flexible payment options, and cross-border shipping reflects the trust consumers now place in technology.

That’s it. In 2025, the global e-commerce landscape is more polished than it is radically changed.

That growth is ongoing, but now with more precise targeting and refinement.

Finally, as AI’s next revolution continues, with implications like predictive logistics, conversational commerce, and automated retail, digital and physical will become increasingly intertwined.

The numbers speak for themselves: the next generation of commerce isn’t just digital, it’s also smart, seamless and personalized.

Sources and References

• Insider Intelligence (eMarketer) – Global e-commerce sales and retail share forecasts for 2025.
• Capital One Shopping Research – Historical and projected e-commerce growth, country-level revenue data, and global device-type statistics.
• ECDB (ecommerceDB) – Category-level global e-commerce data, platform GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), and market share figures for 2024–2025.
• SellersCommerce – Comparative ranking of the largest e-commerce markets worldwide in 2025.
• DemandSage – Global online shopper base and user growth data (2020–2025).
• Market.us – Historical digital buyer statistics (2018–2019) and broader global e-commerce market insights.
• Clearly Payments – 2025 global payment method distribution data and analysis.
• Airwallex – Industry benchmarks for global payment processing and digital wallet adoption.
• DHL eCommerce – 2025 delivery and logistics benchmarks, cross-border shipping times, and customer expectations.
• Shopify Enterprise Blog – Global social commerce trends and platform performance insights.
• Influencer Marketing Hub – 2025 influencer marketing industry size and spend data.
• Awisee – Consumer behavior and influencer-driven purchasing statistics for 2025.