Ecommerce Statistics 2026: US Online Sales, Growth and Tool Costs

US retail ecommerce reached $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted, which is 17.1% of all retail sales and 12.2% more than a year earlier, according to the Census Bureau. Total retail grew 6.7% over the same year, so online sales grew about 1.8 times as fast as retail overall.

Every figure on this page comes from a first-party source with its date: the Census Bureau's Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales report for the second quarter of 2026, released on 18 August 2026; Shopify's Q2 2026 results, released on 5 August 2026; and the Toolradar ecommerce statistics snapshot of 16 October 2026. Where we computed a number ourselves, the arithmetic is shown. The next Census release, for the third quarter, is scheduled for 19 November 2026.

Toolradar data: of the 350 tools in Toolradar's ecommerce category on 16 October 2026, 141 (40.3%) offer a free plan, and the median entry price among the 131 that publish one is $29 a month.

Five findings

1. Online grew 1.8 times as fast as retail. Ecommerce sales rose 12.2% between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026, against 6.7% for total retail, on adjusted figures.
2. Ecommerce took 29.6% of the year's retail growth. Adjusted ecommerce added $36,960 million a quarter while total retail added $124,885 million, so online sales captured nearly a third of the growth while making up about a sixth of sales. That is our calculation from the Census table.
3. The trailing year passed $1.29 trillion. Not seasonally adjusted, US ecommerce from the third quarter of 2025 through the second quarter of 2026 sums to $1,295,649 million, or 16.8% of the $7,712,526 million in total retail over those four quarters.
4. Shopify grew far faster than the US market. Shopify reported $115,567 million in gross merchandise volume for Q2 2026, up 32% year over year (30% in constant currency). Its GMV is global, so the comparison shows share gain, not a like-for-like market size.
5. Four in ten ecommerce tools have a free plan. Toolradar's snapshot counts 141 of 350 ecommerce tools with a free plan, and only a third of ecommerce platforms (36 of 108) offer one.

US ecommerce sales by quarter

The Census Bureau publishes two series. The adjusted series removes seasonal swings so quarters can be compared; the unadjusted series shows what was actually sold, including the holiday peak.

Source: Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, 2nd quarter 2026, Table 1, adjusted estimates, read October 2026.

What this means for an operator: the year-over-year growth rate more than doubled between the Q2 2025 row and the Q2 2026 row. A store that grew 8% online over that year grew more slowly than the US market did, so flat share is not the same as healthy growth.

• The share moved 0.8 points in a year, from 16.3% to 17.1% on adjusted figures. In a market this size, each point of share is worth billions of dollars a quarter, so a small move in the percentage is a large move in revenue for the stores that capture it.
• Store-based retail still grew. Subtracting ecommerce from total retail, non-online sales rose 5.6% over the same year, from $1,558,319 million to $1,646,244 million. Online is gaining share without physical retail shrinking. Shops that sell in both places should pick a register that shares stock with the website; our best POS for clothing boutiques guide compares the options.
• The Census counts only businesses with paid employees. Since its April 2025 revision, nonemployers are excluded, so a one-person shop's sales are not in these figures.

The holiday quarter and the January drop

Unadjusted figures show the calendar that every ecommerce operator plans around.

Source: Census Bureau Table 1, not adjusted estimates, read October 2026.

• The fourth quarter is the online peak. Ecommerce reached 18.3% of retail in Q4 2025, the highest share of any quarter in the table.
• First-quarter online sales fell 17.5% from the holiday quarter, from $365,160 million to $301,242 million, our calculation. Inventory and ad budgets planned on a holiday run rate need to step down in January.
• The second quarter recovered 9.4% on the first, according to the Census release, as spring demand returned.

What the platforms report

Platform results show where merchant volume is moving inside the market totals above.

• Shopify processed $115,567 million of GMV in Q2 2026, up 32% year over year. Source: Shopify Q2 2026 press release, 5 August 2026.
• Shopify's revenue was $3,583 million, up 34%, which equals 3.1% of its GMV by our calculation ($3,583 million divided by $115,567 million).
• Merchant solutions brought in $2,781 million, or 77.6% of revenue, and subscription solutions $802 million. Payments and other usage-based services, not plan fees, are most of what Shopify earns.
• Shopify's free cash flow was $654 million, an 18% margin.

For the plan side of that bill, our Shopify pricing breakdown and Shopify review show what a merchant pays per month and per card sale. For the wider platform choice, see best ecommerce platforms; for the apps merchants add on top, best Shopify apps, and for recurring revenue, best subscription ecommerce platforms.

The ecommerce software market on Toolradar

Toolradar, the software directory we run, publishes a weekly snapshot of the tools it tracks per category. These figures are from the 16 October 2026 snapshot.

Ratings are third-party review platform ratings that Toolradar aggregates, not Toolradar's own scores.

• Fewer than half of ecommerce tools publish a price. Only 131 of the 350 list an entry price; the rest are quote-only or free. A buyer comparing tools should expect a sales call for most of the market.
• Entry prices are spread wide. Among the 131 with a price, 23 start at $10 a month or less and 26 at $100 or more.
• Intelligence Node is the most cross-shopped tool, listed as an alternative to 148 other tools, ahead of Stripe (90), Klaviyo (75) and Shopify (70). Klaviyo's place reflects how central email is to a store's stack; see best email marketing for Shopify.
• Stripe drew the most comparison-page views in the 30 days to 16 October 2026, with 197, ahead of Intelligence Node (170) and PayPal (139).
• Shopify leads its own category on buyer interest, with 95 comparison-page views in 30 days among ecommerce platforms, ahead of NetSuite (83).
• ShipStation is the most cross-shopped shipping tool, listed as an alternative to 32 others.

What it costs to run an online store in 2026

Market totals say little about the bill a single store pays. These are scenarios we priced on vendor pages in October 2026 for our own Retailpresso guides:

• A seven-tool launch stack costs $101.99 a month on monthly billing: Shopify Basic, Gorgias Starter, ShipStation Starter and QuickBooks Simple Start, plus free tiers of Klaviyo, Triple Whale and Judge.me. The full breakdown is in best tools for DTC founders.
• Analytics for a 2,000-order store runs from $0 to $1,500 a month, from Google Analytics 4 to Northbeam Starter, with the profit trackers clustered between about $150 and $250. See best ecommerce analytics tools.
• A small Etsy shop can ship with no software fee at all: six of the seven Etsy-connected shipping tools we compared are free at 25 orders a month. See best shipping software for Etsy sellers.
• For a cafe, the card fee outweighs the plan fee. At an $8 average ticket and $25,000 a month in card sales, a 15-cent fixed fee alone costs $469 a month. See best POS for coffee shops.

Methodology

Census figures are copied from Table 1 of the Census Bureau's Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales release for the second quarter of 2026 (preliminary estimate, subject to revision). Our derived figures (share of growth, trailing four quarters, non-online growth, quarter-on-quarter drop) are simple sums and differences of that table and are labelled as our calculation. Shopify figures come from its Q2 2026 press release. Toolradar figures come from the public category CSVs behind toolradar.com/statistics, as of 16 October 2026, and count only tools with data for each measure. Store cost scenarios use prices read on vendor pages in October 2026. This page will be refreshed after the Census third-quarter release on 19 November 2026.

For a broader view across all of retail and marketing, Dupple keeps a separate ecommerce statistics page.

FAQ

How big is US ecommerce in 2026?

US retail ecommerce was $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026 on a seasonally adjusted basis, 17.1% of total retail, according to the Census Bureau's release of 18 August 2026. Over the four quarters to June 2026, unadjusted ecommerce sales summed to about $1.296 trillion, our calculation from the same table.

How fast is ecommerce growing?

Adjusted ecommerce sales grew 12.2% from the second quarter of 2025 to the second quarter of 2026, while total retail grew 6.7%. Ecommerce accounted for 29.6% of the year's increase in retail sales, by our calculation from the Census figures.

What share of retail sales is online?

17.1% in the second quarter of 2026 on adjusted figures, up from 16.3% a year earlier. The unadjusted share peaks in the holiday quarter, at 18.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and was lowest in the second and third quarters of 2025, at 15.5% and 15.8%.

How many ecommerce tools have a free plan?

Of the 350 tools in Toolradar's ecommerce category on 16 October 2026, 141 (40.3%) offer a free plan. Among ecommerce platforms specifically, 36 of 108 (33.3%) do, and among shipping and fulfillment tools, 15 of 46 (32.6%).

How much does ecommerce software cost?

The median entry price is $29 a month across the 131 ecommerce tools on Toolradar that publish a price, $39 among ecommerce platforms and $24.50 among shipping tools, as of 16 October 2026. Most tools in the category publish no price at all.

When are new US ecommerce figures released?

The Census Bureau publishes quarterly ecommerce estimates about seven weeks after each quarter ends. The third-quarter 2026 estimate is scheduled for 19 November 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and this page is updated after it.

Cite this: Retailpresso, "Ecommerce Statistics 2026", October 2026. Sources: US Census Bureau, Shopify, Toolradar.

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