E-commerce sales continue growing globally

Global e-commerce sales reached an estimated US$6.3 trillion in 2024, representing 20% of total retail sales worldwide. New UNCTADstat datasets track this growth across more than 80 economies, revealing significant regional variation in both scale and trajectory.

Asia Pacific economies continue to dominate global e-commerce volumes. China alone accounts for over 50% of global B2C e-commerce sales, while the Republic of Korea and Japan maintain some of the world's highest per-capita digital retail penetration rates. Singapore and Australia lead in regulatory frameworks enabling cross-border digital trade.

The most significant growth stories, however, are emerging from Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia collectively saw e-commerce growth of 28% in 2024, driven by mobile-first adoption and expanding digital payment infrastructure. In Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile commerce via platforms like M-Pesa and similar services is enabling a "leapfrog" into digital trade without traditional retail infrastructure.

UNCTADstat's new e-commerce indicator now covers B2C, B2B, and C2C transaction categories, aligned with the OECD/WTO joint framework for measuring digital trade. This allows, for the first time, comparable cross-country analysis of the composition of digital commerce.

Policy implications are significant. Economies with well-developed e-commerce ecosystems tend to show lower trade costs, greater SME participation in international trade, and faster recovery from supply chain disruptions. UNCTAD's analysis suggests that closing the e-commerce readiness gap between LDCs and developed economies could unlock an additional US$500 billion in annual trade.

Datasets used in this analysis