Content Marketing Manager at Promodo
Taras has 16 years of hands-on copywriting experience overseas with 3000+ unique copies.
Accredited with Certificate of Proficiency in English (C2 level) by Cambridge University. Studied at Writing Launch Academy (United States) and owns an Academic Writing Certificate from Oregon University. Author of 12 dictionaries with Apriori Publishers.
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eCommerce continues to expand as consumers expect easier and more flexible shopping experiences. In this guide, Promodo highlights the trends that will define growth in 2026 and the coming years. Businesses that adapt now will be better prepared for what’s ahead.
🛒 The eCommerce market is expected to exceed $7.9 trillion by 2027.
🛒 2.71 billion people shop online, while the U.S. makes $1.256 trillion in eCommerce sales.
🛒 By 2027, 23% of retail purchases will take place online (EMARKETER).
🛒 eCommerce revenue will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.49% from 2024 to 2029 and reach $6.48 trillion by 2029.
🛒 China’s eCommerce market is projected to generate $1.08 trillion in revenue in 2026. Between 2026 and 2030, it is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 7.35%, reaching approximately $1.44 trillion.
🛒 With more than $1.5 trillion in online retail revenue in 2025, Asia remains the leading eCommerce market globally (Statista).
🛒 With 13.98 million eCommerce websites, the current number of US online shoppers of 280 million is about to rise by 288.20 million by 2026.
US retail sales are set to experience steady and moderate growth by 2028, with a notable shift favoring eCommerce, which is anticipated to expand at over four times the rate of in-store sales.
eCommerce trends 2025 indicate that major retailers are boosting their online sales channels in response to evolving consumer behaviors, particularly among Gen Z, who are increasingly driving digital commerce.
Emerging trends in product categories offer promising avenues for growth in the digital marketplace. To capitalize on these opportunities, eCommerce companies enhance their online strategies and align them with today’s digital-savvy consumers' preferences.
According to eMarketer, in 2024, the US eCommerce will grow from $1.2 trillion to $2.0 trillion in sales by 2028.
🛒The US eCommerce market is expected to reach $1.38 trillion in 2026, up from $1.25 trillion in 2025. By 2031, it’s projected to reach about $2.28 trillion, growing at an average annual rate of 10.53% between 2026 and 2031. (Mordor Intelligence)
🛒 Sales through US B2B eCommerce websites will keep rising over the coming years, surpassing $3.1 trillion by 2029. (EMARKETER)
AI is transforming the eCommerce landscape by offering personalized shopping experiences. Algorithms analyze customer data to recommend products that match their preferences, creating more engaging, personalized interactions that drive conversions.
According to Precedence Research, the global AI in eCommerce market is valued at $9.01 billion in 2025. It is expected to grow to $11.21 billion in 2026 and reach nearly $74.93 billion by 2035, showing rapid long-term expansion.
Some 80% of retail and eCommerce businesses are utilizing AI chatbots or planning to implement them soon. Moreover, by 2030, AI is forecasted to manage 80% of all customer interactions.
62% of consumers are more likely to buy when AI helps guide their shopping journey. Among millennials, this rises to 68%.
Retailers using AI recommendations report 15% higher conversion rates. AI-driven recommendations also lead to 11% growth in average order value (AOV).
If you need a chatbot to boost customer retention, Promodo can help set up a chatbot for your eCommerce business across any messaging platform.
Generative AI directly impacts the customer journey in eCommerce. Here's how it can enhance various stages:
🛒 Generative AI refines the pre-purchase experience through targeted content and dynamic recommendation engines. By understanding customer behavior, eCommerce retailers offer highly personalized product suggestions, improving communication and driving conversions.
🛒 AI enhances delivery logistics through efficient route planning and real-time tracking updates. This not only streamlines operations for retailers but also boosts customer satisfaction with timely information.
🛒 AI-powered shopping assistants leverage advanced language models for natural, interactive dialogues with customers. This approach goes beyond traditional chatbots, creating a more engaging, responsive shopping experience with real-time product recommendations.
🛒 AI-powered search can increase customer satisfaction by 20% (Mordor Intelligence). AI systems improve customer service by effectively handling complex queries, leading to greater accuracy and efficiency. This results in smoother interactions and higher satisfaction for customers seeking assistance.
🛒 By analyzing feedback and purchase history, AI generates personalized offers and content, fostering ongoing engagement and strengthening brand loyalty.
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Demandsage emphasizes that 20.5% of people worldwide actively use voice search.
Moreover, in the United States, 38.8 million people use smart speakers for shopping-related activities.
Why is voice search so popular? The same source indicates that 90% of people find voice search easier than searching online.
That’s why the increasing adoption of voice search means that eCommerce businesses need to optimize their content marketing strategy to ensure they appear in voice search results.
In 2022, there were approximately 142 million voice assistant users in the United States. The number of voice assistant users is expected to reach 157.1 million in 2026. (Statista)
Augmented reality (AR) enhances customers' shopping experience by allowing them to visualize products in real-world settings before purchasing. AR features in online stores reduce return rates and help customers feel more confident in their buying decisions. For example, over 35% of U.S. respondents reported using augmented reality to visualize furniture or customize vehicles.
According to Precedence Research, the global AR and VR market is valued at $75.18 billion in 2025. It is expected to grow to $118.79 billion in 2026 and reach approximately $693.01 billion by 2035, expanding at a 24.87% CAGR between 2026 and 2035. One of the main growth drivers is the increasing demand for augmented reality in retail and eCommerce, where AR technologies help improve customer experience and satisfaction.
The convenience of mobile shopping continues to grow, with smarter mobile app features simplifying product discovery and checkout. Smartphones generated 71.80% of US ecommerce checkouts in 2025 (Mordor Intelligence).
Mobile commerce remains a crucial aspect of eCommerce, and businesses are increasingly optimizing for mobile to capture on-the-go buyers.
Social eCommerce is booming, with platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok becoming vital sales channels. For example, according to Statista, 20.6% of respondents use Facebook for social commerce shopping. Integrating product catalogs and enabling seamless purchasing within social media apps creates new opportunities for brands to reach customers.
Social commerce continues to grow in importance. In 2025, purchases made through social media platforms accounted for approximately 17.11% of total online sales (Statista).
According to a 2025 survey, nearly 18% of global shoppers ranked Facebook as the top platform for social commerce, while Instagram and TikTok tied for second place at 17% each.
According to Salsify, 73% of Gen Z and 67% of millennials find new products on social platforms. When it comes to researching the products, Gen Z (63%) and millennials (55%) still lean heavily on social media apps.
What does it mean for brands? Integrating product catalogs and enabling seamless purchasing within social media apps creates new opportunities reach customers.
Unified commerce represents the pinnacle of retail strategy beyond conventional multichannel approaches to ensure seamless integration across all platforms. The strategy focuses on curating every customer interaction to foster loyalty through personalization.
Central to unified commerce is a Single Customer View (SCV), achieved by leveraging advanced data science, including machine learning and predictive analytics. This allows retailers to create detailed customer personas based on behaviors, preferences, and purchasing patterns beyond mere demographics.
With enhanced data analytics, customer segmentation now embraces behavioral and psychographic factors to enable more effective and personalized marketing strategies. This results in channel optimization, ensuring the right product reaches the right customer at the right time and place.
Furthermore, the SCV enables SKU-level customization, allowing retailers to anticipate customer needs and recommend relevant products precisely when customers are most likely to convert. For marketers, this underscores the importance of data-driven insights for tailoring customer experiences and boosting conversion rates.
Trending Now: While omnichannel commerce aims to enhance the customer experience across often-disconnected channels, unified commerce integrates all business operations and channels into a single platform. For marketers, this highlights the importance of seamless integration to improve customer engagement and streamline operations. Unified commerce is the next step in omnichannel retailing, moving beyond mere integration of online and offline channels. It offers a cohesive customer experience by consolidating all retail processes into a single platform, ensuring seamless interactions across every channel and touchpoint. For marketers, this means creating a consistent and integrated strategy that enhances customer engagement and satisfaction.
Mobile phones lead the world in digital commerce, accounting for the majority of website visits and online orders.
Statista reports a steady YoY increase in mobile eCommerce sales, projected to reach 3.4 billion by 2027, compared to 2.5 billion today.
Core reasons for the trend:
According to Adobe Experience Cloud (2024), desktops show an average CR of 3%, whereas smartphones reach 2%. This is because most shoppers primarily use smartphones for research but eventually purchase on desktops or laptops.
Understanding consumer behavioral patterns is pivotal for eCommerce success. By analyzing customer preferences, browsing habits, and purchase triggers, businesses can adapt their strategies to meet user needs better.
According to Growth Collective (2024):
🛒 84.3% of males are more likely to buy online than women.
🛒 Shoppers increasingly prefer online retailers for their speed, convenience, and variety of products, but over 50% still value in-person shopping, especially during events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2024.
🛒 30.94% of shoppers buy products on branded sites, 24.83% opt for marketplaces, 15.27 choose physical stores, 14.61% buy online, and 10.49% prefer social media.
🛒 61.82% trust online reviews on a retailer’s website, while 38.05% visit third-party review sites.
🛒 Almost 30% of shoppers prefer physical touch with the items they are about to purchase. The same number of respondents trust their immediate word-of-mouth referrals.
🛒 18.79% prefer to buy now and pay later, while 15.74% rely on virtual chat assistance, Celigo reports (2024).
🛒 52% of online customers report shopping internationally, so offering flexible shipping options can improve sales. Shipping must be fast as well, as 24% of potential customers don’t buy a product because shipping is too slow.
Celigo (2024) polled US citizens to explore buying behaviors. The data reveals how consumers make purchasing decisions online:
🛒 About 36.85% of shoppers compare prices across multiple sites, indicating that price competitiveness is a key factor.
🛒 21.85% trust online marketplaces as the best source of value, which proves the pivotal role of eCommerce platforms like Amazon in consumer trust.
🛒 20.45% prefer buying from trusted websites, which emphasizes brand credibility.
🛒 13.94% visit physical stores before buying online, reflecting a trend where consumers want to evaluate products in-person before making a digital purchase, combining both online and offline experiences.
Free delivery is a major driver of conversions. 93% of shoppers are more inclined to make a purchase, and 90% think it’s the greatest benefit.
Payment flexibility is another important feature in purchasing decisions. According to a Merchant Payments Ecosystem survey by HubSpot (2024), if a customer's preferred payment method isn't available, half will back out of the transaction.
According to Growth Collective (2024), personalization can transform, but only when executed well. Businesses that master personalization see revenue growth of 40% above their counterparts who don't. So far, increased conversions have led to spikes in ROI and revenue of up to 223%.
To get more insights on personalization in eCommerce, read our recent blog posts on Dynamic Content and Automated Offers in Retention Marketing.
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful conversion booster. Users who interact with UGC convert at a rate that is 102.4% higher than that of typical users. Conversion rates for eCommerce websites are currently between 1% and 4%, with an average of 2.58% for global rates and 2.57% for US rates:
To dig even deeper, ShipStation (2024) provides an in-depth overview of behavioral patterns featuring omnichannel shoppers:
🛒 Online-first flexers (33%) prefer to shop online rather than in physical stores. Nonetheless, they often opt for out-of-home delivery and returns options while shopping online. These are mainly urban residents who prefer expanded options and accessibility both online and offline.
🛒 Store-first flexors (21%) are older, lower-income shoppers who buy in-store, though prefer to research items and prices online. With digital exploration and physical fulfillment, these shoppers match the online research-and-purchase-offline (ROPO) effect.
🛒 Omnichannel maestros (19%) swing between bricks and clicks as well as home and out-of-home delivery. Their core focus is on ultimate convenience.
🛒 Online-only shoppers (16%) are browsing and purchasing online, emphasizing utter convenience and home delivery. These are mostly suburban Millennial (30-44) and GenX (45-59) customers with high spending power who avoid physical touchpoints.
🛒 Store loyalists (11%) are mainly in-store shoppers aged 65 and up who browse and purchase physically. They eagerly communicate with in-store staff and prefer the “try before you buy” experience.
To effectively compete in the highly saturated eCommerce market, businesses need a well-developed digital marketing strategy that includes different channels. Here are several key areas for you to prioritize based on the outlined eCommerce trends:
As AI increasingly influences product discovery, brands must optimize for generative engines and AI-powered search.
To improve AI visibility and performance, focus on:
To improve campaign efficiency, focus on feed quality and campaign structure.
When working with large retailers, we often see high-demand products underperform in Google Ads due to account structure or optimization issues — even though they sell well through other channels.
In one case, the iPhone 16 Pro 128 GB in white was delivering strong results from paid campaigns, while the same model in black received almost no impressions. The problem was how the campaigns were set up and prioritized. In situations like this, businesses lose potential revenue, and proper Google Ads optimization helps recover that missed opportunity.
— Yevhen Kolotylo, Team Lead, PPC Department at Promodo
Our team recommends using PPC automation tools to maximize efficiency in your ad campaigns. For large eCommerce stores, using automation can streamline bidding, optimize ad placements, and improve overall performance. Promodo offers unique tools such as G-MOS, FeedOptimizer, and AdsHub to help you manage and enhance your PPC campaigns, keeping your business ahead in a competitive market.
For example, in our work with ZooComplex, we implemented G-MOS to automate product-based campaigns and sync ads with the catalog in real time. This allowed the team to scale priority categories faster, improve ad relevance, and optimize budget allocation. As a result, the client gained higher-quality traffic and significantly improved the performance of search campaigns.
SEO is a cornerstone of any successful eCommerce strategy, and Promodo has proven this through a wide range of client success stories. By focusing on strategic SEO practices, we’ve helped numerous online stores significantly increase organic traffic and boost qualified leads.
For instance, when we started working with Unbench, the startup had low organic visibility. We conducted a full technical SEO audit, fixed crawl and indexing issues, improved and restructured the site architecture around search intent, and expanded keyword coverage for high-intent queries.
Over 8 months, the platform increased organic traffic by 91.7%. These results strengthened the brand’s presence in priority markets and built a solid foundation for further organic growth and lead generation.
Browse our SEO success stories and discover how we deliver measurable organic growth:
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Can you imagine that up to 70% of online shopping carts are being abandoned in the United States? Abandoned carts account for some $18 billion in sales revenue losses for eCommerce stores. What’s more, the higher the product cost, the higher the cart abandonment rate.
According to Bigcommerce (2024), 7 in 10 online shoppers abandon their shopping carts after adding the products due to:
Speaking more in detail, 47% abandon their cart because of additional costs such as taxes, fees, or shipping. 25% don’t finish a purchase because the website wants them to create a profile (Statista).
To decrease the shopping cart abandonment rate, Promodo offers the following digital marketing solutions:
At Promodo, we specialize in full-cycle digital marketing solutions for eCommerce to grow your brand awareness online, increase your sales, and retain your customers.
Our experienced team works across all digital channels to help your brand succeed online.
Content Marketing Manager at Promodo
Taras has 16 years of hands-on copywriting experience overseas with 3000+ unique copies.
Accredited with Certificate of Proficiency in English (C2 level) by Cambridge University. Studied at Writing Launch Academy (United States) and owns an Academic Writing Certificate from Oregon University. Author of 12 dictionaries with Apriori Publishers.
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