What Is E-commerce? Definition, Models, 2026 Data

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods or services over the internet or another online system. The U.S. Census Bureau counts a sale as e-commerce when the order, or the price and terms, are agreed online, whether or not the payment itself happens online. It covers everything from a shopper ordering sneakers on a phone to a wholesaler receiving automated orders from a retailer's purchasing system.

A working definition

Official statisticians define e-commerce by how the order is placed, not by how the goods travel or how the bill is paid. The Census Bureau's definition includes orders placed over the internet, mobile devices, extranets, electronic data interchange (EDI) networks, email and similar online systems, and notes that payment may or may not be made online. Eurostat uses a similar idea for businesses: trading goods or services over computer networks using methods specifically designed for receiving or placing orders.

Two things follow from that. First, a click-and-collect order paid in store is still e-commerce. Second, a large share of e-commerce is invisible to consumers, because it happens between companies through automated ordering systems rather than through a web shop.

How big is e-commerce?

United States

The Census Bureau estimated U.S. retail e-commerce sales at $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 17.1% of all retail sales. Online sales grew 12.2% from the second quarter of 2025, while total retail sales grew 6.7% over the same period.

European Union

Eurostat reports that in 2025, 95% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU had used the internet in the previous 12 months, and 78% of those internet users had bought or ordered goods or services online. Services are a big part of the picture: in 2025, 27% of internet users bought transport services online. Most online buyers had a smooth experience, with 63% of e-shoppers reporting no problems.

On the business side, 23.59% of EU enterprises made e-commerce sales in 2024, up from 18.93% in 2014, and e-sales generated 19.49% of enterprises' total turnover. Size matters: 48.48% of large enterprises sold online, compared with 21.38% of small ones. Eurostat also found that EU enterprises' e-commerce turnover through their own websites or apps was more than five times higher than through marketplaces.

Worldwide

UNCTAD, the UN's trade and development body, estimated in a 2024 technical note that businesses in 43 developed and developing economies generated close to $25 trillion of e-commerce sales in 2021, and that sales rose by a further 10% to almost $27 trillion in 2022. In almost all of those economies, most e-commerce sales were made to other businesses or organizations; in most, business-to-consumer sales were less than a quarter. Online retail reached around 25 to 30% of all retail sales in China, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea, around 15% in the United States, and roughly 5 to 10% in most other economies.

The main e-commerce models

B2C (business to consumer): a business sells to individual shoppers. This is the model most people picture, from fashion stores to grocery delivery.
B2B (business to business): a business sells to other businesses, often with customer accounts, negotiated prices, larger orders and invoice payment. By value, this is the largest part of e-commerce.
D2C (direct to consumer): a brand that might otherwise sell through retailers sells straight to shoppers through its own store, keeping the customer relationship and the data.
C2C (consumer to consumer): individuals sell to each other, usually through a marketplace or classifieds platform. Eurostat's household survey counts purchases from private individuals as e-commerce too.
Digital goods and services: downloads, software, subscriptions, tickets and bookings, where nothing physical is shipped.

Businesses also choose channels: their own online store, marketplaces that bring existing traffic in exchange for fees and less control, and social or catalog channels that feed products into ads and shopping listings. Many sell through several at once, with their own store as the base.

The moving parts of an online store

Storefront: the website or app customers browse. It has to be fast, work well on phones and be easy for search engines to read.
Catalog: products, variants, prices, photos and descriptions, with accurate stock levels.
Search and navigation: categories, filters and a search box that tolerates typos.
Cart and checkout: the steps from "add to cart" to a confirmed order. Every unnecessary field is a chance to lose the sale.
Payments: cards, wallets and local methods, processed through a payment provider.
Tax: charging the right sales tax or VAT for where the customer is. Selling into the EU brings its own rules; see our guide to EU VAT and the One Stop Shop.
Shipping and fulfillment: rates, labels, tracking and delivery promises.
Returns and service: a clear returns process and a way for customers to reach you.
Marketing and measurement: search, ads, email and the analytics that show what actually produces orders.
Legal basics: privacy and cookie consent, terms of sale and consumer rights, which vary by country.

Each part can come from a separate tool or from one platform. Separate tools give flexibility but have to be connected and kept in sync; an all-in-one platform trades some of that flexibility for fewer integrations to maintain.

How to get started

Pick a focused offer and audience. Know who you sell to and why they would buy from you rather than from someone else.
Choose your channels. Decide whether you start with your own store, a marketplace or both.
Choose a platform that covers the parts above that you need now, and check what is included versus paid add-ons.
Set up payments, tax and shipping for the countries you will actually serve.
Launch, measure and improve. Watch where visitors drop off between product page, cart and checkout, and fix the biggest leak first.

Where CIQRA fits

CIQRA is an e-commerce platform that brings several of these parts together. Stores can take payments through providers such as Stripe and PayPal, bank card gateways or bank transfer, and connect to carriers including DHL, UPS and FedEx for labels, tracking and rates. Structured data for products, prices, shipping and returns is generated for search engines, and every plan sends server-side conversions to GA4, Meta, TikTok, Google Ads, Pinterest, Snapchat and Microsoft.

FAQ

Is e-commerce the same as online retail?

No. Online retail is the consumer-facing part. E-commerce also includes sales between businesses, which UNCTAD finds make up most e-commerce sales by value.

Does the payment have to be online for a sale to count as e-commerce?

No. Both the Census Bureau and Eurostat count a sale as e-commerce when it is ordered online, even if the payment is made offline.

What share of retail is online?

In the United States, 17.1% of retail sales in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Census Bureau. UNCTAD found shares of around 25 to 30% in China, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea, and roughly 5 to 10% in most economies it studied.

What is e-commerce? A plain-English guide with 2026 figures