Must-Know Ecommerce Facts & Stats

The ecommerce world is forever changing. Like a steam locomotive, it chugs forwards, blazing down the railway at breakneck speed. Along the way, it delivers factoids and analytics, the breadth of which are sometimes difficult to believe.

If you are a retailer that’s involved in this burgeoning industry, then you already know how exciting it has become. The following list of ecommerce facts will still blow your mind. What follows is some surefire insight that highlights just how big a juggernaut e-tailing has evolved into.

It’s estimated that ecommerce has become such a powerful force that roughly every 30 seconds about $1.5 million dollars is generated. Experts say that about $500,000 of this comes from mobile users, whereas the remaining $1 million is generated from desktop users.

Big players in the game are getting the most bang for the buck, too. Recent ecommerce statistics show that Amazon, by comparison, enjoys about $125,000 of that minute-by-minute revenue. Whereas eBay rakes in about $90,000. By comparison, Apple earns roughly $20,000 per minute in ecommerce.

The good folks over at Ever Merchant help us better understand how ecommerce works in real-time, and just how much of a revenue generator this industry has become on a global scale. Take a look at this infographic they’ve created for more clarity and a nice dish of interesting facts about ecommerce.

A recent article by Mashable finds that the average consumer drops about $1,300 per year on ecommerce. And according to consulting firm Booze, Allen and Hamilton, ecommerce is growing like a child, set to eclipse 93% in growth overall this coming year.

One reason why consumers are digging deep into their pockets is due to the convenience of online shopping. One does not have to leave their home, drive anywhere, wait in line or deal with a number of associated inconveniences that are related to brick and mortar shopping.

Rather, one can just get online – via desktop, tablet or mobile device – and shop with ease at their choice of online stores. This is more easily understood by a recent Statistica report that found that over 40% of online users have made purchases from such devices. Furthermore, Statistica says that this has equated to over 1 billion online buyers, a trend they predict will “continuously grow” over the years to come.

While desktop shopping has become a mainstay for many, mobile shopping is paving the cement superhighway to the future of online shopping. Google’s recent Mobilegeddon update forces online stores to cater to mobile shoppers with “mobile-friendly” websites, eradicating app-based shopping in favor of a more superfluous and seamless experience from device-to-device.

According to a 2013 report by Statistica, online shopping revenue from mobile devices increased by large margins, growing from just $42 billion in 2013 to over $133 billion in 2014. Namely, the think tank asserts, this was fed by the ease of which shoppers could rely upon secure mobile payment methods. For example, PayPal, the pack leader, processed over $14 billion in payments in 2013 alone.

According to a report by E Consultancy, 2015 will be the healthiest online shopping year on record. A look at Britain’s numbers is telling of this. It’s projected that £52.25 billion will be spent online in the UK this year, up 16% from 2014, accounting for over 15% of all retail sales, with the average spender dropping £1,174 online. Germans are predicted to drop £1,023 a person this year while in France the average is projected to be £847.

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. still is at the front of the line for most fervent online spenders. According to Internet Retailer, online sales exceeded $300 billion for the first time in 2014, marking over 15% in growth from 2013, with projections for this year pegged at $345 billion or higher.