As is typical in Q4, U.S. ecommerce sales — and total retail sales, for that matter — hit a quarterly high, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis of U.S. Department of Commerce data.
U.S. ecommerce sales grew at more than 6x the rate of total sales. As such, Q4 2024 marks the seventh consecutive quarter that U.S. ecommerce sales growth was at least double the rate of total sales growth.
It also marks the 10th consecutive quarter that ecommerce growth outpaces total growth. Prior to that, Q2 2021 through Q2 2022 saw U.S. year-over-year total sales growth outpace ecommerce sales when COVID-19 pandemic restrictions loosened.
To date, the only quarters that U.S. ecommerce sales penetration didn’t make year-over-year gains were during the Great Recession (Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, specifically) and following the pandemic (every quarter from Q2 2021 through Q2 2022).
U.S. ecommerce sales in Q4 grew 9.3% year over year, according to the Commerce Department.
Whereas ecommerce penetration of total sales has grown throughout the years, ecommerce growth has slowed since the pandemic. Since Q2 2021, U.S. ecommerce sales have not grown more than 10% year over year. That marks 14 straight quarters with sub-10% ecommerce sales growth.
“Q4 2024 continued the upward trend in ecommerce that the holiday shopping season sparked,” said Farnia Ghavami, executive vice president of digital strategy at Digital Commerce 360.
Ecommerce brought in more than $240 billion during the holiday shopping season in the U.S. in November and December alone. Diving deeper, more than $41 billion of that total came from just five days: the Cyber 5. The Cyber 5 refers to the period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
And “mobile shopping played a significant role” in it all, Ghavami said. Smartphones drove 54.5% of holiday-season sales, Digital Commerce 360 previously reported.
“These trends highlight the growing importance of both the holiday season and mobile optimization for ecommerce success,” Ghavami said.
How much of total U.S. retail sales came from ecommerce in Q4 2024?
The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce estimates that U.S. retail ecommerce sales in Q4 2024 totaled $352.9 billion. That’s a 22.1% increase compared to Q3, the Commerce Department said. It also estimated that total U.S. retail sales reached about $1.883 trillion.
Excluding spending in segments that don’t typically sell online, that comes out to $1.438 trillion, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis. Moreover, U.S. ecommerce sales totaled about $352.94 billion in Q4, Digital Commerce 360 analysis shows.
U.S. ecommerce sales accounted for 24.6% of total retail sales in Q4, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis. That’s the highest ecommerce penetration on record. The department’s ecommerce data goes back to the year 2000.
Still, U.S. ecommerce sales have not had a year-over-year decline since 2009, the end of the Great Recession. Furthermore, to date, U.S. ecommerce sales have only declined year over year during three quarters in 2008 and 2009. For those full years, U.S. ecommerce sales still managed growth compared to their prior years.
How is ecommerce penetration calculated?
Including all retail and food-service sales, U.S. ecommerce accounted for 16.4% of total sales in Q4 2024, according to the Commerce Department. Unadjusted figures show U.S. ecommerce sales represented 17.9% of total sales in Q4, the Commerce Department said. It estimates that total, unadjusted U.S. ecommerce sales in Q4 2024 reached $352.9 billion.
Digital Commerce 360 studies non-seasonally adjusted commerce department data and excludes spending in segments that don’t typically sell online. These segments include:
- Restaurants
- Bars
- Automobile dealers
- Gas stations
- Fuel dealers
U.S. ecommerce penetration reflects the share of dollars consumers could potentially spend online.
The Commerce Department defines ecommerce sales as the sales of goods and services where an order is placed by the buyer or price and terms of sales are negotiated over:
- Internet
- Extranet
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network
- Electronic mail
- Other online system
Payment may or may not be made online. The Commerce Department publishes estimates it adjusts for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes.
Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Here’s last quarter’s update on U.S. ecommerce sales.
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