Global E-Commerce and Online Business Growth

In 2025, people spent a whopping $6.42 trillion online. And this figure is still growing! Online businesses are growing quickly all over the world. This is because more people are shopping on their phones, personalisation is using AI, and people are buying differently. Research into the e-commerce market shows that digital sales will account for 22.5% of total retail by 2028. This shows that online channels are now a must for modern retailers.

This means there will be more jobs for people who are good at digital marketing, analytics, product management and logistics. Online shopping sales are expected to reach $3.89 trillion in 2026, showing that the sector is still growing. We’ve looked at the latest market information to show where the industry is going and what businesses need to know right now.

Digital Commerce Definition and E-Business Basics

Digital commerce is all about buying and selling things online. This includes websites, apps, social media, and voice-activated devices. E-business uses technology in every part of the customer journey, from managing stock to processing payments, helping customers and keeping them interested after they've bought something.

The move towards digital-first models happened faster than most experts thought it would. In 2020, online shopping grew much faster than expected. Three years later, the infrastructure has improved. Platforms that handle payments can be used to make transactions across cards, wallets and installment plans using a single API. Logistics networks can deliver your order the same day in major cities. Customer data powers the algorithms that recommend products before shoppers even search.

What makes this different from previous waves? How well it can be used with other systems. These days, most commerce companies don't just sell online – they also operate as technology platforms with shops. Amazon builds cloud services. Walmart is investing in retail media networks. Shopify is used by 4.82 million stores around the world. The lines between tech companies and retailers have essentially disappeared.

• How Global E-Commerce Is Expanding

More and more people are shopping online, which means there is now a higher demand for professionals in areas such as online sales, analytics, marketing, and digital product management. A lot of these jobs are now in Cyprus. Limassol is an international business hub. This means that companies from all over Europe and the Middle East are attracted to it. The city has good tax conditions, is in a great location and has a workforce that speaks English. This makes it a great place for digital commerce operations, and jobs in Limassol help people looking for work find current vacancies and employment opportunities in commerce company that are setting up regional headquarters or expanding tech teams.

Geographic expansion tends to follow predictable patterns. The Asia-Pacific region is the biggest market, making up 55.2% of global sales. In 2024, China made $1.5 trillion from sales. But the fastest growth is coming from emerging markets. The Philippines is expected to grow by 23% every year, Thailand by 20%, and India by 14.1% every year until 2027. These regions are bypassing desktop commerce completely, instead building mobile-first ecosystems where social shopping and digital wallets are the main ways of buying things.

North America and Europe are growing more slowly, but the numbers are still very high. By 2025, the total value of online shopping in the U.S. will be more than $1.2 trillion. The European market deals with rules about VAT and how things are made that make things more expensive but make customers trust companies more. Both regions see consolidation as platforms unable to fund logistics arms, payment rails, and AI infrastructure face margin compression.

Ecommerce Market Research and Insights

The latest ecommerce insights shows three big changes that are changing the industry. First, by 2025, mobile shopping will be worth $2.51 trillion – more than half of all online sales. Most online shopping is done on smartphones, with over 75% of transactions in countries like South Korea being done on mobile. This isn't just a passing trend; it's the new normal.

Secondly, B2B digital commerce is growing faster than B2C. The B2B e-commerce market was worth $32.11 trillion in 2025 and is expected to reach $36.16 trillion by 2026, growing at a rate of 14.5% each year. Manufacturers and distributors are using digital technology to manage their orders, and they need to be able to access catalogues, agree on credit terms, and connect their systems to the ERP.

As millennial buyers take over purchasing roles, they expect the same personalised recommendations and live chat they experience as consumers.

Third, social commerce grew much faster than experts thought it would. By 2026, the total sales of social commerce around the world will be more than $1.17 trillion. TikTok Shop helped to make social shopping grow by 26% in the U.S. in 2024. Facebook will have 80 million social shoppers in the United States by 2026. These platforms have completely changed the way people discover new products. 76% of Gen Z find products on social media, and 39% of them buy them without ever visiting the brand's website.

• Market Share Trends in Digital Commerce

Market share trends show that companies are both concentrating and fragmenting at the same time. Amazon accounts for 37.6% of U.S. online retail sales, Walmart's e-commerce grew by 22-26% compared to last year, and Chinese platforms are the most popular in the Asia-Pacific region. But there are already 28 million online shops around the world, and 2,162 new ones set up every day. Shopify and Wix are used to set up 49% of all online stores, helping smaller brands to compete by telling better stories and focusing on specific markets.

The competition between them is similar to what happened in financial markets over the past decade. To understand why some sectors do better than others, it helps to look at what's happening in similar areas. Just as the stock market going up matters for investors to feel more confident and helps them decide how to spend their money, the growth rates of global e commerce show where consumers and technology are working well together.

The way the platform is set up makes it better for companies to take on other companies in their sector. The most successful companies build logistics networks so they can deliver to customers the same day, develop their own payment systems to reduce fees, and make money from their own data through retail media businesses that make a lot of money. Companies that cannot pay for these extra services must make important choices: focus on the parts of the market that make the most money or accept that their products and services will become boring and ordinary.

Ecommerce Demand Forecasting

Ecommerce demand forecasting has gotten better. It used to be that we would just look at how things have sold in the past. Now, we use computers to analyse lots of data very quickly. Modern forecasting systems look at search patterns, social media sentiment, weather data, and even satellite images of parking lots. This helps them predict changes in demand before these changes appear in sales data.

It is more important to be accurate as the cost of stock rises. Stabilising freight rates is helpful. In late 2025, the cost of shipping a container from Shanghai to Los Angeles was around $2,196 per FEU, which is less than the very high rates seen in 2024. Predictable shipping costs help brands to plan their profits more accurately for different regions. But demand is still very unstable as inflation changes how people buy things.

Almost half of consumers are worried about rising prices. Retailers then change their prices and promotions in different areas as the situation changes. Some companies use omnichannel strategies, which means engaging customers across multiple touchpoints to maintain conversion rates. Others are using retail media, where advertising revenue makes up for lower profit margins on product sales.

• Data-Driven Online Business Growth

The data infrastructure shows which companies make a profit. Winners use AI to spot fraud, predict demand and automatically create images for their products. They bring together all the information about customers from different sources, such as website visits, email opens, social media engagement and purchase history, into one easy-to-access view. This allows them to provide a highly personalised experience for each customer.

The AI e-commerce market was worth $8.65 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $22.60 billion by 2032. You can use this for more than just chatbots. Visual search lets shoppers upload photos to find similar products. Voice assistants understand what you say to them. Prices are changed all the time to take into account how many products are left, what other companies are charging, and how likely people are to buy.

Conversion optimization becomes algorithmic. Systems test thousands of different options at the same time, like button colours, how products are described and the checkout process. This helps to find the best combinations to make the most money for different types of customers. Personalization engines show different homepages to customers who have already bought something, and different homepages to customers who are buying something for the first time. These engines suggest products based on how customers have behaved in the past, rather than showing them products in a random order.

Future of E-Commerce 2030

The future of e-commerce 2030 shows several likely scenarios. First, online sales will account for 95% of purchases by 2040, according to some predictions. However, this seems optimistic, as physical stores still have advantages for certain types of products. A more realistic prediction is that e-commerce will account for between 30 and 35% of total retail sales by 2030, with big differences depending on the category.

Second, augmented reality changes the way we discover products. Current AR tools let customers see how furniture would look in a room or try on glasses. In the future, we will be able to create full virtual showrooms where customers can browse photorealistic 3D environments and examine products from any angle before they buy. This makes it easier to compare prices and products online and in shops.

Thirdly, self-driving delivery becomes commonplace. Drone deliveries and robots on the pavement can deal with the last bit of a delivery in busy cities, reducing delivery costs and getting your order to you in just one or two hours. Amazon's new AI technology already uses real-time regional trends and weather patterns to make product recommendations. This is an example of technology that can predict what customers want to buy before they even tell us.

We have to make sustainability a priority. Most shoppers (61%) say that eco-friendly packaging influences which products they buy. Brands are now investing in shipping that doesn't create carbon emissions, supply chains that are designed to be sustainable, and programmes that encourage customers to recycle their products. Rules about packaging waste are being introduced, particularly in Europe, meaning that global platforms will have to change how they work.

The resale market is expected to double between 2022 and 2027, with secondhand clothes projected to reach $99.49 billion. This is because people are under more economic pressure and there are cultural shifts towards sustainability. Platforms that focus on selling second-hand luxury items, such as handbags, and consumer electronics, make a lot of money as part of the wider e-commerce system.

Conclusion

Global e-commerce is at a turning point. Technology, how consumers behave, and how markets are set up are all changing in a way that should allow them to keep growing. We expect to make $7.89 trillion by 2028. But what's really important is how people buy things: using your phone first, having things recommended to you based on what you like, being able to discover new things through social media, and being able to buy from other countries without any problems.

For businesses, the way forward is choosing which skills to build themselves and which to buy from other companies. Vertical integration is good for platforms that are very big. If a brand has a good relationship with customers in a specific area, specialisation can be a good strategy. The middle ground – with average products, services and technology – offers no lasting advantage.

The next step is to think about how things are measured. You need to know how much it costs to get customers, how much they're worth over time, and how you can make your business stand out from the competition. Build infrastructure that increases:

• private information;
• special relationships with suppliers;
• real innovation in the customer experience.

The market will carry on growing, but the people who win are those who put their ideas into action, not just those who join in.