United States · E-commerce share of US retail
E-Commerce as a Percentage of US Retail Sales
As of Q2 2026 U.S. Census Bureau (via FRED) Next update: Quarterly, about six weeks after each quarter closes
How much of total US retail spending happens online, tracked quarterly from official U.S. Census Bureau data and refreshed as new figures are released.
What percentage of US retail sales are online? E-commerce accounted for 17.1% of US retail sales in Q2 2026, against 16.3% a year earlier, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (seasonally adjusted).
Key takeaways
- E-commerce made up 17.1% of US retail sales in Q2 2026, against 16.3% a year earlier and 6.5% in Q3 2014.
- E-commerce has taken a steadily larger slice of US retail for more than two decades, with only brief pauses.
- The figure is seasonally adjusted, so the headline number strips out the usual fourth-quarter holiday surge.
- Total-retail share understates reality for most online-first brands, whose own category share runs far higher.
- A rising online share means more of the buyer journey is measurable, and more competition for that demand.
The data
| Period | E-commerce share of US retail |
|---|---|
| Q2 2026 | 17.1% |
| Q1 2026 | 17.0% |
| Q4 2025 | 16.7% |
| Q3 2025 | 16.4% |
| Q2 2025 | 16.3% |
| Q1 2025 | 16.0% |
| Q4 2024 | 16.2% |
| Q3 2024 | 16.2% |
| Q2 2024 | 16.1% |
| Q1 2024 | 15.9% |
| Q4 2023 | 15.5% |
| Q3 2023 | 15.4% |
| Q2 2023 | 15.3% |
| Q1 2023 | 15.0% |
| Q4 2022 | 14.6% |
| Q3 2022 | 14.5% |
| Q2 2022 | 14.2% |
| Q1 2022 | 14.4% |
| Q4 2021 | 14.6% |
| Q3 2021 | 14.5% |
| Q2 2021 | 14.6% |
| Q1 2021 | 14.9% |
| Q4 2020 | 15.0% |
| Q3 2020 | 14.9% |
| Q2 2020 | 16.3% |
| Q1 2020 | 11.9% |
| Q4 2019 | 11.2% |
| Q3 2019 | 10.8% |
| Q2 2019 | 10.3% |
| Q1 2019 | 10.0% |
| Q4 2018 | 9.9% |
| Q3 2018 | 9.7% |
| Q2 2018 | 9.6% |
| Q1 2018 | 9.4% |
| Q4 2017 | 9.1% |
| Q3 2017 | 8.9% |
| Q2 2017 | 8.7% |
| Q1 2017 | 8.4% |
| Q4 2016 | 8.2% |
| Q3 2016 | 8.0% |
| Q2 2016 | 7.8% |
| Q1 2016 | 7.7% |
| Q4 2015 | 7.4% |
| Q3 2015 | 7.2% |
| Q2 2015 | 7.0% |
| Q1 2015 | 6.9% |
| Q4 2014 | 6.6% |
| Q3 2014 | 6.5% |
What this means for e-commerce and DTC brands
The online share of retail is the baseline every e-commerce and attribution decision sits on top of. When the share climbs, more of the buyer journey happens across paid, organic, and owned channels that all need to be measured and credited correctly. A rising share also means more competition for the same online demand, which pushes up acquisition costs and makes accurate attribution the difference between scaling profitably and overspending.
What this statistic does not tell you
This is total US retail, not your category. Grocery, autos, and fuel sit in the denominator and dilute the online share for brands that never sell those goods, so a direct-to-consumer apparel brand will run well above this line. The series is seasonally adjusted, which smooths the fourth-quarter holiday spike, and it measures share of spend rather than growth, so a flat share in a growing market still means rising online sales.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of US retail sales are e-commerce?
E-commerce accounted for 17.1% of total US retail sales in Q2 2026, seasonally adjusted, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A year earlier it was 16.3%, and in Q3 2014 6.5%.
Is e-commerce's share of retail still increasing?
Yes, though far more slowly than in 2020. The pandemic pushed the share up in a single quarter, part of that reversed in 2021 and 2022 as stores reopened, and the share has been climbing again since. The highest reading in the series is 17.1% in Q2 2026.
Why do other sources say e-commerce is more than 20 percent of US retail?
Because they use a smaller denominator. The Census figure divides online sales by all retail sales, including motor vehicles, fuel and other categories that are rarely bought online. Sources that exclude those categories, often called core retail, report a higher online share for the same online sales.
What counts as e-commerce in this figure?
The Census Bureau counts sales where the buyer places the order online, on a mobile device or through a comparable electronic system, regardless of how payment or delivery is handled. Online sales of store-based chains count too, so the figure is not limited to pure online retailers.
How often is the e-commerce share of retail updated?
The Census Bureau publishes it quarterly, roughly six to seven weeks after a quarter closes, and revises the most recent quarters with each release. This page refreshes automatically when a new quarter is published, and the retrieval date is shown in the sources box.
What does the online share mean for DTC brands?
It is the market tailwind, not your category. Online-first categories such as apparel, beauty and supplements sell a far larger share online than the total, so a DTC brand should read the trend rather than the level, and compare its own growth against the online growth rate rather than against total retail.
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