Electronic Shopping
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 46,000 electronic shopping retailers in the US are online-only retailers, with no or limited-format physical stores. The business format ranges from the independent specialized seller with one or a few lines of products to the large conglomeration of businesses selling a broad range of products on a single e-commerce website (Amazon, Etsy). Websites that bring together third-party sellers are known as marketplaces and typically earn revenue by charging sellers a fee that is either fixed or based on a percentage of sales or a number of transactions.
Fierce Ecommerce Competition
Electronic shopping sites must find ways to stand out in an e-commerce market flooded with domestic and foreign retailers as well as dominant players like Amazon.
Delivery Race Slows
The need for speed in ecommerce delivery is easing with shoppers showing a greater willingness to wait for deliveries of household items as concerns grow over the cost of fulfillment.
Industry size & Structure
The average electronic shopping retailer operates out of a single location, employs 16 workers, and generates $25 million annually.
- The electronic shopping retailer industry consists of 46,000 companies that employ over 734,100 workers and generate $1.15 trillion annually.
- The industry is concentrated at the top and fragmented at the bottom with the top 20 firms accounting for about 53% of industry sales.
- Large companies include Amazon, eBay, Qurate, Etsy, Wayfair, and Zara. Many large companies have international operations.
Industry Forecast
Electronic Shopping Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Jan 31, 2025 - Sales, Consumer Spending Up
- Sales for electronic shopping and mail-order houses rose 8.7% in November 2024 compared to a year ago and were up 13% from the previous month, according to the Census Bureau. In addition, consumer spending levels increased nearly 3% in November 2024 compared to a year ago and were up 0.3% from the previous month, according to personal consumption expenditures data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The Services PMI registered 54.1% in December, up 2 percentage points from November. Nine of the 18 services industries reported growth in December, including Finance & Insurance; Arts, Entertainment & Recreation; Retail Trade; Health Care & Social Assistance; Transportation & Warehousing; Public Administration; Accommodation & Food Services; Wholesale Trade; and Utilities. Industries reporting a contraction in December include Real Estate, Rental & Leasing; Educational Services; Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting; Professional, Scientific & Technical Services; Information; and Management of Companies & Support Services.
- Online is expected to be the top destination for Valentine’s Day spending in 2025, with nearly 40% of consumers expecting to shop online, according to National Retail Federation data in Digital Commerce 360. Other top shopping destinations include department stores (34%), discount stores (29%), and florists and specialty stores (18%). Consumers plan to spend an average of $188.81 in 2025 on the holiday, up from $185.81 in 2024, totaling a record $27.5 billion on gifts and outings for Valentine’s Day. The top categories for Valentine’s Day spending include greeting cards ($1.4 billion projected), candy ($2.5 billion), flowers ($2.9 billion), an evening out ($5.4 billion), and jewelry ($6.5 billion). Nearly a third of consumers intend to buy gifts for friends for Valentine’s Day, up from 28% in 2024.
- Shoppers continued to flex their omnichannel shopping muscles in the 2024 holiday shopping season, with a 7.5% increase year over year in Buy Online, Pick Up in Store (BOPIS) and Reserve Online, Pick Up in Store (ROPIS) transactions, according to Chain Store Age. The report from Locally found that nearly 50% of online shoppers abandoned their carts when local pickup wasn’t an option. Over 90% of leading retailers are expected to adopt ominichannel strategies. According to Locally CEO Mike Massey, "The data shows a clear and sustained shift toward local retail as a preferred choice. Consumers increasingly demanded the flexibility to browse and buy on their terms, and local retailers were quick to respond with omnichannel strategies that bridged the gap between digital and physical commerce.”
- US online retail sales are projected to grow from $1.2 trillion in 2024 to $1.8 trillion in 2029, with a CAGR of 8.4%, according to a new Forrester online retail sales forecast reported in Chain Store Age. US online retail penetration is expected to reach 29% by 2029, an increase of 23% from 2024. Big retail players Amazon and Walmart are projected to continue their growth in total and online retail sales in the US, expected to account for a quarter of total retail sales and two-thirds of online retail sales by 2029. US click-and-collect sales, which include curbside pickup and “buy online and pickup in store” (BOPIS) options, became very popular during the pandemic. Click-and-collect sales are forecast to be 29% of US omnichannel retailers’ ecommerce sales by 2029. Non-durable goods categories, including clothing, have online growth potential as their aggregate online retail penetration is half that of durable goods categories, with growth of high single-digit or double-digits expected in the next five years. According to the Forrester report, online retail penetration for clothing, flowers, footwear, pets, and toys is forecast to exceed 50% by 2029.
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