Roughly one in three people on Earth now shops online. By the mid‑2020s, estimates cluster around 2.7-2.9 billion digital buyers worldwide, up from about 2.1 billion in 2021. That growth helped push online sales from roughly 10% of global retail in the late 2010s to around 20% today and heading toward a quarter of all retail. For you as a US buyer, that scale translates into more choice, more cross‑border offers from China and elsewhere, and wider gaps between great deals and duds on platforms like DHgate, Amazon, or smaller specialty sites.
How Many People Shop Online Worldwide Today?
Most recent global estimates suggest that around 2.7-2.9 billion people were online shoppers in the mid‑2020s, roughly one‑third of the global population. Different analytics firms land at slightly different numbers, but they all show the same pattern: steady growth from just over 2 billion digital buyers earlier in the decade.
A few anchor points help frame the rise:
- In 2021, one DHgate editorial summary, drawing on industry data, put digital shoppers at about 2.14 billion, or 27-28% of the world’s ~7.7 billion people.
- By 2025-2026, external analyses compiled by sites such as soax.com and Resourcera estimate the count closer to 2.7-2.9 billion, depending on methodology.
- Global ecommerce sales were expected to surpass around $5 trillion in 2022, according to aggregated statistics cited in the DHgate editorial snippet and broader ecommerce overviews.
Online’s share of total retail has climbed as well. Multiple summaries of Statista’s global ecommerce topic show online retail moving from roughly 10% of worldwide sales in the late 2010s to around 20% in the early 2020s, with forecasts nudging toward about 25% by the mid‑2020s. That doesn’t mean physical stores are disappearing, but it does mean a double‑digit slice of retail has shifted into your browser and your phone.
Data snapshot: If you imagine a random group of three people on a bus, statistically one of them likely ordered something online in the last year.
Where Online Shoppers Are Concentrated and How Behavior Differs
Online shopping isn’t evenly spread across the globe. A few large markets account for a huge share of buyers and spending, and they don’t all shop in the same way.
China vs US vs Global: who’s actually buying?
The DHgate editorial excerpt, summarizing 2021 research, offers a useful benchmark for where shoppers live:
| Region (time‑stamped) | Estimated online shoppers | Notes on scale |
|---|---|---|
| Global (2021) | ~2.14 billion | Around 27-28% of world population were digital buyers. |
| China (2021) | ~841 million | About 7.6% year‑over‑year growth; home to the largest single online shopper base. |
| United States (2022 forecast from 2021 data) | ~266-267 million | Expected to reach ~291 million by 2025; a mature but still growing market. |
These are past estimates, not live counters, but they show how concentrated demand is:
- China alone accounted for almost 40% of the world’s online shoppers in 2021. Platforms aligned with Chinese suppliers naturally play a big role there and in export markets.
- The US has fewer people overall but very high online adoption: forecasts suggested well over 80% of US internet users would shop online by the mid‑2020s.
You can feel this in product listings. Many cheap electronics, fashion accessories, and small home goods on US‑facing marketplaces trace back to Chinese factories serving their massive domestic audience plus export buyers.
Age and devices: who drives growth?
The DHgate editorial and broader ecommerce stats converge on a clear pattern: younger, mobile‑first shoppers are pushing most of the growth.
- Gen Z and younger millennials are described as more tech‑savvy and more comfortable buying online than older cohorts.
- In many markets, smartphones are the primary device for both browsing and checkout, especially in Asia Pacific and parts of South America.
- Social media and subscription services are singled out as growth drivers: younger shoppers discovering products via Instagram, TikTok, or in‑app live streams, then tapping to buy.
For a US buyer, this shows up as:
- A heavier tilt toward impulse buys via social feeds.
- More mobile‑optimized listings (short video clips, vertical photos, Swipe‑to‑Buy UX) on both global marketplaces and niche stores.
- A growing comfort level with cross‑border purchases—younger buyers often don’t care where a seller is located as long as the listing looks legit and the price feels right.
What These Trends Mean When You Choose Platforms Like DHgate
All of this isn’t just trivia; it reshapes the choices you face each time you shop online.
How global growth changes your options
As online shopping expands from ~10% toward 20-25% of global retail, three things happen that matter directly to you:
- Choice explodes: More sellers, more brands—legit and otherwise—want your business. The same phone case might appear on a US‑based site, a global marketplace, a small direct‑to‑consumer brand, and a cross‑border platform linking you straight to a factory.
- Price ranges widen: A $15 gadget domestically might have a very similar $6 or $7 equivalent shipped from Asia if you’re willing to wait longer and accept more variance in quality or after‑sales support.
- Risk spreads out: As more small sellers and manufacturers go online, the gap between best‑case and worst‑case experiences grows. Reading listings carefully and comparing offers matters more in a world of 2.7+ billion buyers.
When a cross‑border marketplace is a good fit
A cross‑border platform like DHgate, which connects many Chinese and other international sellers to buyers worldwide, fits best in specific scenarios:
- You’re a US shopper or small buyer looking for low‑cost gadgets, fashion, or accessories that clearly originate from factories overseas.
- You want to explore product types or brands that aren’t widely stocked by big US retailers.
In contrast, a domestic marketplace or local retailer may be a better fit when:
- You’re buying something where regulations or safety certifications are critical and easier to verify via local channels.
How to read platform signals against the stats
Global numbers tell you that online shopping is now mainstream, but your real job is matching a platform to a purchase. Use the trends to your advantage:
- In categories dominated by Chinese production and huge domestic Chinese demand (phone accessories, small electronics, cheap fashion), a marketplace that leans into Chinese suppliers can surface far more variants and prices than local US chains.
- In categories where US online adoption is high but margins are tight (groceries, bulky household goods), domestic options often compete heavily on speed and convenience rather than rock‑bottom price.
- As younger mobile users drive growth, expect more listings optimized for quick swipes than careful spec sheets. If a purchase matters to you—like a tool you’ll use for years—take a moment to dig into photos, dimensions, and independent reviews instead of buying from the first short‑video ad you see.
Evidence checks: why numbers differ and how to interpret them
If you compare sources, you’ll notice that one site says 2.77 billion online shoppers, another says 2.86 billion, and a third rounds to “about 2.8 billion.” This isn’t a red flag; it reflects different methodologies:
- Some providers count anyone who made at least one purchase in the last year; others use shorter or longer windows.
- Population baselines differ slightly by year and data provider.
- Certain datasets treat B2B and B2C differently;
- Some regional counts (for example, in China) rely on government‑reported ecommerce usage, while others extrapolate from survey panels.
You can treat all of these as directional rather than precise. They agree that:
- Online shopping grew roughly 30-40% in buyer count between 2020 and the mid‑2020s.
- The share of retail handled online is now in the high teens to low twenties percent, trending higher.
When you decide where to buy, that level of precision is enough. You don’t need to know whether 2.77 or 2.86 billion people shop online; you just need to know that online retail is now big enough that you can choose between domestic, global, and factory‑direct options for most everyday products.
A practical next step for US buyers
If you’re weighing domestic platforms against cross‑border ones:
- Pick a specific category, like wireless earbuds or kitchen tools.
- Search it on a US‑based marketplace and on at least one cross‑border site (DHgate, Alibaba’s retail‑facing platforms, or similar).
- Compare three concrete things for a few listings: total price, delivery expectations, and how clearly the product is described (photos, specs, sizing).
Use the global stats as context: with billions of online shoppers and trillions of dollars flowing through ecommerce, you now have more options than any previous generation. The best move isn’t to default to one platform, but to choose the channel that makes sense for the specific product, budget, and risk level you’re comfortable with.