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Market size · worldwide

E-commerce (worldwide)

Goods and services sold online to consumers and between businesses, across countries.

Forge’s own description of what this market covers. A ruler for the size of a market, read once a year from the publishers below — it holds no sector and no company.

As its publishers state it

$6.42 tn2025 · eMarketer · USD$8.91 tn by 2030 · 6.8 % a year — eMarketer’s outlook, not Forge’s
$27.00 tn2022 · UNCTAD · USDNo outlook published by UNCTAD

As of Sep 30, 2026 · 27 figures carried · never averaged, never Forge’s.

How big this market is, as its publishers state it

as of Sep 30, 2026 · 27 figures carried

2 publishers carried, 2017–2030, 1 with a published outlook, the furthest to 2030. Figures are the publishers' own, shown side by side and never averaged.

Last read Sep 30, 2026: wrote 6 figures, refused 6 already stored.

Forge measures none of this. A statistical body publishes the history and its own outlook; Forge copies the figures with the sentence each came from and refreshes once a year, when the publishers do. A growing market says you are not building into a headwind — it says nothing about whether this application has customers.

Where its publishers say it is going

  • $8.91 tnby 2030 · eMarketer’s outlook, published 20266.8 % a year from $6.42 tn in 2025, implied by its own two figures

    eMarketer: projects to 2030 from 2025, its last observed year — 6.8 % a year implied by its own two figures.

  • eMarketer· outlook dashed
  • UNCTAD
eMarketerUSD · latest release 2026 · outlook after 2025

eMarketer: grew 8.6 % a year, 2020–2025, by its own figures.

YearFigureKindPublishedIn the publisher’s words
2020$4.25 tnhistory2026 (+2 earlier)Global eCommerce Revenue in trillions from 2020 ($4.25) to 2024 ($6.01) with projections to 2030 ($8.91) according to eMarketerAs the read noted: Figure attributed to eMarketer but found on a secondary site (capitaloneshopping.com), not emarketer.com directly. source
2021$4.98 tnhistory2025the market has more than doubled since 2021, when global e-commerce sales stood at **$4.98 trillion**As the read noted: Figure attributed to eMarketer but found on a secondary site quoting eMarketer, not emarketer.com directly. source
2022$5.09 tnhistory2026 (+1 earlier)Year Retail Ecommerce Sales Worldwide 2022 $5.09 trillionAs the read noted: Figure attributed to eMarketer but found on a secondary site (backlinko.com) quoting eMarketer, not emarketer.com directly. source
2023$5.58 tnhistory2026 (+1 earlier)2023 $5.58 trillionAs the read noted: Figure attributed to eMarketer but found on a secondary site (backlinko.com) quoting eMarketer, not emarketer.com directly. source
2024$6.01 tnhistory2026 (+1 earlier)2024 | $6.01 trillion | +7.7%As the read noted: Figure attributed to eMarketer but found on a secondary site quoting eMarketer, not emarketer.com directly. source
2025$6.42 tnhistory2025the $6.419 trillion estimated for 2025As the read noted: Figure found on a page quoting eMarketer, not on emarketer.com directly (paywalled). source
2026$6.88 tneMarketer’s outlook2025Year | Retail ecommerce sales (trillions) | % change | | --- | --- | --- | | 2026 | $6.880 | 7.2% | Source: EMARKETER Forecast, Feb 2025As the read noted: eMarketer figure quoted on Shopify's report page, which cites 'EMARKETER Forecast, Feb 2025' as the source table; not found directly on emarketer.com. source
2027$7.38 tneMarketer’s outlook2025By 2027, it will increase by 7.2% and account for $7.38 trillion salesAs the read noted: eMarketer-sourced figure found on Shopify's page, not emarketer.com directly. source
2028$7.89 tneMarketer’s outlook2025by 2028, it will make up $7.89 trillionAs the read noted: eMarketer-sourced figure found on Shopify's page, not emarketer.com directly. source
2030$8.91 tneMarketer’s outlook2026 (+1 earlier)Global eCommerce Revenue in trillions from 2020 ($4.25) to 2024 ($6.01) with projections to 2030 ($8.91) according to eMarketerAs the read noted: Figure attributed to eMarketer but found on a secondary site, not emarketer.com directly. source
UNCTADUSD · latest release 2025

UNCTAD: 2017–2022 has a gap, so no rate is computed across it.

YearFigureKindPublishedIn the publisher’s words
2017$29.00 tnhistory2019Global e-commerce sales grew 13% in 2017, hitting an estimated $29 trillion, according to the latest numbers released today by UNCTAD. source
2018$25.60 tnhistory2020E-commerce sales hit $25.6 trillion globally in 2018, up 8% from 2017, according to the latest available estimates released today by the UN’s trade and development body, UNCTAD source
2019$26.70 tnhistory2021UNCTAD estimates that the global value of e-commerce sales (B2B and B2C) reached almost $26.7 trillion in 2019 (see Table 3). source
2021$25.00 tnhistory2024In 2021, approaching US$ 25 trillion of e-commerce sales were generated by businesses across 43 developed and developing economies accounting for around three quarters of worldwide GDP. source
2022$27.00 tnhistory2025 (+1 earlier)UN Trade and Development has estimated that global e-commerce sales reached over $27 trillion in 2022 – based on the latest available data covering businesses in 43 developed and developing economies. source

E-commerce elsewhere

The same industry as other publishers state it for their own place. Each figure is its publisher’s frame; none is compared with another.

Other markets in Worldwide

What else the yearly read measures in this region.

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