ECOMMERCE STATISTICS for Small Businesses

These eCommerce statistics for small businesses have been collected from a variety of sources.

Last updated: January 29, 2017

General Ecommerce Statistics

51 percent of Americans prefer to shop online.
Online buying frequency numbers:
- 95 percent of Americans shop online at least yearly.
- 80 percent of Americans shop online at least monthly.
- 30 percent of Americans shop online at least weekly.
- 5 percent of Americans shop online daily.
48 percent of online shoppers have bought or spent more than planned when shopping online.

Marketing and Conversion eCommerce Statistics

Between 2014 and 2015, social media referrals to eCommerce sites increased 198 percent.
Almost a quarter of online shoppers (23 percent) are influenced by social media recommendations.
Using product videos on eCommerce sites can increase product purchases by 144 percent.
The following factors have been shown to influence American shoppers to buy online:

While 49 percent of online shoppers cite not being able to touch, feel or try a product as one of their least favorite aspects of online shopping, ecommerce retailers can alleviate some of those frustrations with the following tactics:

Product Returns eCommerce Statistics

Research shows that:

At least 30 percent of all products ordered online are returned as compared to 8.89 percent in brick-and-mortar stores.
Stated reasons for eCommerce returns:
- 20 percent of consumers returned items because they received damaged products.
- 22 percent said they received different products from what they ordered 23 percent said they received wrong item altogether.
- 35 percent of shoppers return products because of other reasons.

In addition, studies have shown that:

60 percent of shoppers actually read your return policy before completing a sale, and that the return policy ultimately influences 80 percent of the sale.
55.2 percent of consumers disliked online shopping due to products being “difficult to return” or the associated restocking fees and or return shipping fees.

Lost Opportunities eCommerce Statistics

28 percent of online shoppers will abandon their cart if the shipping costs are too high.
74 percent of small business websites have no eCommerce.
An estimated 66 percent of online consumers abandon their transactions due to problems during the payment process.
30 percent of mobile shoppers abandon a transaction if the experience is not optimized for mobile.
The following factors can negatively influence eCommerce conversions:

Weird eCommerce Statistics

Studies show that:

20 percent of American online shoppers have purchased from the bathroom.
10 percent of Americans shop online when they’re under the influence of alcohol.

Bottom Line

As the statistics above show, eCommerce is a thriving industry. Small businesses that are not participating stand to lose out on both sales and relevancy as the number of online shoppers continues to grow. While it’s important to take customer wants and needs into consideration, the payoff exceeds the cost.

Ready to get started? These posts can help:

Ecommerce Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “ECOMMERCE STATISTICS for Small Businesses” was first published on Small Business Trends