US ecommerce in 2022 tops $1 trillion for first time

U.S. ecommerce sales reached $1.03 trillion in 2022, according to a Digital Commerce 360 analysis of U.S. Department of Commerce figures released Friday. That marks the first time ecommerce revenue has topped the $1 trillion level. It’s also well above 2021’s $960.44 billion.

Digital Commerce 360 had earlier forecast ecommerce sales of $1.03 trillion for 2022 in its mid-year U.S. Ecommerce Market Report.

That remarkable level of sales comes with a slight bump in ecommerce penetration to 21.2% for the year from 21.0% in 2021.

Ecommerce sales grew 7.7% in 2022 year over year. That’s a dramatic drop from the double-digit ecommerce growth in each of the past five years. It’s also the slowest growth rate since the 2.8% growth in 2009. Ecommerce sales growth in 2022 was stayed slightly higher than the total retail sales growth of 6.8% that the Commerce Department reported in 2022. That’s the closest yearly total sales growth has come to reach ecommerce sales growth since the Commerce Department started tracking online sales.

Ecommerce’s share of total retail growth in 2022 was 23.8% year over year. That’s down from the 25.2% share of total retail growth in 2021 and well below the record-setting share of 84.2% during the pandemic in 2020.