Global web sales account for 6% of retail in 2014, to reach 8.8% in 2018

In 2015, worldwide web sales will grow by nearly 21% to USD 1.592 trillion, while ecommerce will account for 6.7% of all retail sales around the world. Three years later, global ecommerce will increase by 13.3% to USD 2.489 trillion, with online sales accounting for 8.8% of total retail.

According to the eMarketer report, China and the US rank highest when it comes to the world’s leading ecommerce markets, combining for over 55% of global internet retail sales in 2014. China will exceed USD 1 trillion in retail ecommerce sales by 2018, accounting for more than 40% of the total worldwide. The US will maintain its position as the second-largest retail ecommerce market in 2018, totaling nearly USD 500 billion that year, while the UK will account for about one-quarter of that figure.

Nearly 63% of the US population will make a digital purchase in 2014, yet only 6.5% of US retail sales are expected to come from online transactions, jumping to 8.9% by 2018. In other words, a majority of US consumers are making purchases online, but more than USD 10 out of every USD 11 are still spent in stores.

The other two largest ecommerce markets, China and the UK, have much higher proportions of online-to-total retail sales, as compared to the US. In China, the percentage of consumers who purchase online at least once during the year will reach only 27.5% of China’s population in 2014, while more than 10% of all retail purchases occur via the internet. This trend is indicative of the fact that consumers in China who buy online do so often. On the other hand, over 73% of the UK’s population will make a purchase online in 2014. With ecommerce accounting for 13.0% of total retail sales in the UK—leading all countries by this metric—this high volume of digital buyers who purchase online often positions the UK as the third-largest ecommerce market, despite being only eighth-largest in total retail sales.

Retail sales worldwide—including both in-store and internet purchases—will reach USD 22.492 trillion in 2014, according to figures from the eMarketer report. In 2018, worldwide retail sales will increase 5.5% to reach USD 28.30 trillion.