US retail ecommerce sales reached $1.234 trillion in 2025, up 5.4% from 2024, and made up 16.4% of all retail sales, according to the US Census Bureau. Growth then sped up: second quarter 2026 online sales were $340.2 billion, up 12.2% from a year earlier and 17.1% of retail. Shoppers spent a record $257.8 billion online over the 2025 holiday season, and retailers expected 19.3% of online sales to come back as returns. Figures were last checked on November 9, 2026. The Census Bureau releases third quarter 2026 data on November 19, 2026.
The Census Bureau's quarterly retail ecommerce report is the official count. Its figures are adjusted for seasonal swings but not for inflation, and they are revised over time.
That 12.2% is roughly double the pace of 2025, when the latest revised figures show year-over-year growth between 5.0% and 5.9% in each of the second, third and fourth quarters. The Census Bureau has said revised estimates will appear in its November 19 release, so treat the 2026 quarters as preliminary.
Adobe Analytics measures online spending across a large panel of US retail sites. Its 2025 holiday season covers November 1 to December 31.
Adobe counted 25 days in the 2025 season when shoppers spent more than $4 billion online, up from 18 days in 2024.
These companies report different measures, so the numbers below should not be ranked against each other. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) counts the value of goods sold. Amazon's seller services line counts the fees it collects.
The National Retail Federation and Happy Returns, a UPS company, survey retailers and consumers each year.
Illustrative numbers: a seller with $2,000,000 in online sales, returning at the NRF's 19.3% estimate.
The refund reverses revenue. The unsellable unit is a separate loss that sits in inventory until someone writes it off. Sellers who book only the refund keep phantom inventory on the balance sheet, which overstates assets and understates cost of goods.
Baymard Institute averages 50 published studies of online cart abandonment. Its documented average is 70.22%, with individual studies ranging from 55% to 84%. Baymard notes that much of that abandonment comes from shoppers who were only browsing or comparing prices, which no checkout redesign will fix.
Faster ecommerce growth and higher online return rates both show up in the same place: the gap between what sold and what stayed sold. A few points for anyone closing the books on a multichannel business:
ConnectBooks syncs sales, fees and refunds from Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, eBay, TikTok Shop and Temu into QuickBooks or Xero, with each payout matched to the bank deposit. See the full list of integrations.
US retail ecommerce sales were $1,233.7 billion in 2025, according to the Census Bureau, up 5.4% from 2024. Second quarter 2026 sales were $340.2 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis, up 12.2% from a year earlier.
Ecommerce made up 16.4% of US retail sales in 2025 and 17.1% in the second quarter of 2026, on a seasonally adjusted basis. In the fourth quarter of 2025, before seasonal adjustment, the share reached 18.3% because of holiday shopping.
The NRF and Happy Returns estimated that 19.3% of online sales would be returned in 2025, compared with 15.8% of all retail sales. That works out to roughly one online sale in five.
Baymard Institute's documented average is 70.22%, based on 50 studies. That means about seven in ten online carts are abandoned before purchase.
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