How Many People Shop Online in 2023

Online shopping is more popular than ever. The advantage for retailers of being able to track the profile and behavior of their online shoppers allows them to generate better sales strategies that, supported by the Internet, can reach an audience genuinely interested in the products or services on offer.

Of course, after the pandemic, the challenge of meeting demand, ensuring on-time delivery, and satisfying buyers accessing different catalogs on the Internet requires efficient protocols. For this reason, and so that you can design effective strategies, here are some statistics that show the most recurrent behaviors in virtual commerce today, how many people shop online in 2022, and the trends related to e-commerce for 2023.

56% of Internet users around the world use the web for shopping.

At least 62% of the world's population has access to the Internet, according to data collected by DataReportal in mid-2022. That means around 4.92 billion people go online every day. But what exactly is it for?

According to GWI's measurements in the first quarter of 2022, while Internet users' primary activity is searching for information, at least 2.75 billion use the web to make purchases. 

The above figure represents 56% of total users, showing that more than half are familiar with online shopping. That scenario makes it necessary for e-commerce companies to keep up to date with the latest market trends and even more so with cyber security.

Speed and freedom of time when looking for products or services: some of the top reasons to shop online.

While traditional shopping has advantages, such as checking the quality of products in real-time, online shopping is also attractive to some people. 

According to 88% of respondents to a survey published by Finances Online in 2022, the main reasons for shopping online are the ability to shop at any time and to find products quickly.

In addition to the above, 84% of respondents also answered that they prefer to shop online because they can save the time it takes to get from one place to another plus the time it takes to wait in line, and also feel they can make a better selection of their products online.

China leads the e-commerce market with at least 842.1 million online shoppers.

The e-commerce market continues and will continue to grow in 2023. This year, online retail sales are expected to reach $6.5 trillion. Some predictions point to websites accounting for 22.3% of overall sales.

For its part, China generates the most online purchases in the world. According to an eMarketer study published in June 2022, this country alone took in $2.8 trillion so far this year, accounting for 46% of all retail e-commerce sales worldwide.

According to the same report, China has the most digital shoppers (842.1 million), representing 39.4% of the global total.

The e-commerce market could exceed $904.9 billion in the United States by 2023.

Although the U.S. e-commerce market represents only one-third of the Chinese market, it is the second largest worldwide. 

In just five years, the population familiarized with online shopping in the U.S. grew from approximately 247 million in 2019 to 263 million by 2022. In contrast, a survey conducted a year earlier by Pew Research Center revealed that only 7% of U.S. adults did not use the Internet when shopping. 

Social Commerce is expected to reach $80 trillion by 2025.

Sales made through social media channels are rising. In 2021 social commerce transactions reached nearly 40 billion, and forecasts point to that figure will double by 2025. But how are the different markets performing?

According to Insider Intelligence, after China and the United States, the regions with the highest online sales are the United Kingdom, with a 4.8% share of the retail e-commerce market; Japan, with 3% and South Korea, with 2.5%.

Visual searches: a trend on the rise.

TikTok has made hundreds of thousands of young people prefer this platform as a search engine, to the point that other companies, such as Google, have updated their tools to offer different types of multi-search results through Lens.

The reason is video and image, in general, are the format of the moment. That's why, as of August 2022, U.S. adults under 34 had increased visual searches when shopping on the Internet.

According to eMarketer data, 30% of that population had at some point used visual searches for shopping, 24% had completed a transaction, and 12% used this feature regularly. 

1 in 5 US customers uses mobile shopping apps daily to make online purchases.

Little by little, e-commerce is also taking over smartphones. As a result, mobile shopping has become increasingly popular, and the effects of this phenomenon are beginning to show in the data.

For example, according to Insider Intelligence, up to 2019, smartphone retail sales through e-commerce reached 4.1%, while in 2022, it reached 6% of total online sales.

In addition to the above, smartphones have also been protagonists even when shopping in physical stores because, as Finances Online shows, 65% of customers use them to compare prices between channels. In comparison, 49% use their mobiles to review reviews of the products they are interested in, which helps them to finalize their purchase decision.

The average US online consumer completes approximately 19 online transactions per year.

When online shopping experiences are positive, it becomes recurrent to repeat them and give in to the advantages of online shopping previously discussed. But how can you guarantee that a customer will return to your e-commerce again? 

When you sell online, you should always guarantee two main aspects: trust and security. When your website generates both feelings in the users who visit it, they will likely return to your store. So grab those opportunities, and keep in mind the average US online consumer completes approximately 19 transactions on the Internet per year (in China, 22). So one or more of them could be in your store. 

The above scenario may reflect what an NPR study of online shoppers shows, where 38% of respondents said that return policies positively influenced their purchase decision, and 78% said that reviews on a website were essential.

Guarantee previous items so those who trust your service once will buy from your website again. 

Conclusions

• More than half of the population uses their smartphone when making virtual purchases. Those made through e-Commerce platforms account for 6% of total online sales. Optimize your website so that it is fast and user-friendly.
• Visual searches are at an all-time high. Include tools that allow users to get a realistic idea of your products and find them through engines such as Lens.
• Take care of every detail in the shopping experience your customers will have through your web channels, as 78% of buyers consider reviews about a brand essential when deciding whether to complete a purchase.