Digital 2025: online shopping still popping
Figures from Statista point to compelling growth in online shopping revenues in 2024, with the company’s estimates for full-year spend on consumer goods clocking in at more than US$4.12 trillion.
Moreover, global online consumer goods revenues increased by more than half a trillion dollars in 2024 compared with 2023 spend, equating to year-on-year-on-year growth of 14.6 percent.
Statista’s analysis puts the number of people making online purchases of consumer goods at more than 2.5 billion, with that figure increasing by 200 million (+8.5 percent) over the past 12 months.
For comparison, GWI reports that close to 56 percent of online adults make online purchases every week, which points to an online shopping universe of roughly 1.7 billion in any given seven-day period.
And of those online shoppers, roughly half say that they buy groceries online each week, meaning that these products are amongst the most frequent of online purchases.
Top ecommerce categories
Statista’s data suggests that this frequency has tangible value too, with Food ranking second amongst the categories of online consumer goods purchases.
Indeed, with full-year online spend of US$680 million in 2024, the Food category was second only to Fashion, which delivered more than US$770 million in online revenue during the course of last year.
DIY & Hardware ranked third, with close to half a trillion US dollars in online spend, while electronics ranked fourth, with US$465.
And despite the continued growth of streaming platforms, physical media also saw strong sales in 2024, with Statista reporting an annual total of US$439 in online purchases of books, board games, vinyl, DVDs, and other similar products.
But despite these impressive figures, Statista’s analysis suggests that – worldwide – online channels account for just $1 in every $6 spent on consumer goods purchases.
The company’s data show that ecommerce claimed 17.3 percent of consumer goods revenues in 2024, which was slightly lower than the figure we saw during the 2021, when Covid-19 lockdowns redefined shopping behaviours.
However, on a relative basis, the latest revenue share figure is almost 50 percent above the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, when online channels only accounted for 12 percent of global consumer goods revenues.
Top ecommerce markets
At a country level, online channels are strongest in the United States, with Statista’s data indicating that ecommerce accounted for more than one-third of total consumer goods spending in 2024.
China isn’t far behind though, with 31.2 percent of category spend in the country attributable to online channels.
Ecommerce is still struggling to gain large-scale momentum in various parts of the world though, with ecommerce’s share of consumer goods retail spend still in single digits across most developing economies.
The world’s strongest ecommerce merchants
At a merchant level, intelligence from data.ai indicates that Amazon is the most popular online retailer in the world, with the company’s app topping the ranking of mobile apps in the shopping category.
Shopee ranks second at worldwide level thanks to a particularly strong showing in South-East Asia and Brazil, while India’s Flipkart ranks third.
However, it’s particularly interesting to see Temu take fourth place from Shein in these latest rankings.
Indeed, data.ai’s figures suggest that Temu delivered double-digit active user growth between September and November 2024, whereas Shein actually saw a small drop in active user figures during the same period.
Most searched products
Google’s Shopping search service isn’t restricted to online purchases, but – given its online nature – it’s safe to assume that queries are highly representative of online shopping intent too, so this dataset is well worth exploring.
At a worldwide level, Google Trends data indicates that the iPhone was the most searched product in 2024, with the volume of searches for this brand query roughly 12 percent ahead of the second ranked query, Samsung.
Nike ranked third, two places ahead of arch rival Adidas, while Amazon split the two sports brands by taking fourth place.
However, it’s interesting to note that iPhone ranked ahead of its “master” brand, Apple, with Google Trends data indicating that searches for the company’s smartphones occur three times more frequently than searches for the company brand.
And moreover, three distinct iPhone models also make the top 20 searches for 2024, with iPhone 15 in 9th place, iPhone 13 in 12th place, and iPhone 14 in 18th place.
Overall, Apple and its products account for six of the top 20, with iPad also making the list for 2024.
Meanwhile, Amazon, Lego and Walmart are the only search terms outside of the consumer electronics and sports categories to make the top 20.
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This article is a sub-section of our Digital 2025 Global Overview Report.
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