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Probably over the longer run, but the available figures do not establish a precise global increase during 2023 itself. Secondary sources put the number of e-commerce websites worldwide at roughly 26.2 million to 26.5 million in 2023, compared with an estimate of 19.8 million in 2021. That implies an increase of about 32% to 34% across those two years, depending on which 2023 estimate is used—not a verified 2023 year-over-year growth rate. These are estimates of websites or detected storefronts, not an audited count of active businesses.
What the reported numbers show
The frequently repeated global figures point to a larger population of e-commerce websites in 2023 than in 2021, but they come from secondary sources and do not amount to a worldwide census. The totals also vary by source:
| Source and reported figure | What it appears to count | What to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| GrowthDevil: 19.8 million in 2021 and about 26.2 million in 2023 | Global e-commerce stores or websites | The comparison implies about 6.4 million more, or roughly 32% growth from 2021 to 2023. Its year labels and growth calculations are not consistent enough to establish a clean annual rate. |
| DemandSage: 26.5 million in 2023, versus 26.2 million in 2022 | Global e-commerce websites | A secondary estimate attributed to Markinblog; the surfaced information does not independently demonstrate its counting method. |
| Forbes: more than 26.2 million in 2023, up from 9.2 million in 2019 | Global e-commerce sites | Commentary corroborating a multi-year rise, not a complete or audited census. |
| Kinsta’s BuiltWith-related summary: more than 26.2 million in a 2022 context | Websites identified through technology detection | Technology-detection counts may include inactive sites or miss sites; the cited country distribution excludes China. |
| Belarus study: 28,927 at the beginning of 2023 | Online stores in Belarus, including 14,254 owned by legal entities and 14,673 by individual entrepreneurs | A national count using a different scope; it cannot establish a global total or be directly compared with website-detection estimates. |
The 2021-to-2023 comparison is the clearest basis for saying the storefront population appears to have grown. Even that comparison should be read as an estimate: the reported increase is about 32% using 26.2 million, or about 34% using 26.5 million. Neither figure proves how many stores opened, closed, or remained active during 2023.
Why “growth in 2023” is ambiguous
A headline can mean either that the total was larger in 2023 than in an earlier year, or that it rose between the start and end of 2023. The published figures support the first interpretation more clearly than the second. Some republished figures place the 2022 total around 26.0 million to 26.2 million and the 2023 total around 26.2 million to 26.5 million; that range suggests much less change in 2023 than over the full period from 2021.
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GrowthDevil associates a 39% figure with the 2021–2023 period, but its displayed figures do not supply a transparent, consistent calculation establishing that rate. It is not sound to describe that as “39% growth in 2023.” Different totals, collection dates, definitions, and rounding may all contribute to the discrepancy, and the underlying worldwide methodology is not sufficiently transparent in the cited material to resolve it.
What counts as an online store?
“Online store” is not a single, self-evident unit. A technology-tracking estimate is best understood as a count of detected e-commerce websites, unless its source defines a stricter measure. That is different from counting businesses that actively sell online.
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- Website or domain: A web address, which may host a shop, a catalog, or several regional storefronts. A business with ten country-specific domains might be one business but ten detected sites.
- Technology-detected storefront: A website where a tracker identifies e-commerce software or related technology. Detection does not show that the site is currently operating, making sales, or even accepting checkout transactions.
- Online retailer or active business: A business selling through an online channel. It may use its own site, a marketplace, social media, or a mix of channels; it may not have a distinct standalone website.
- Marketplace seller: A seller using a platform such as a marketplace rather than its own site. A store-count estimate based on independent domains may omit that seller entirely.
The distinctions matter in edge cases: a closed shop can remain in a historical database, a live storefront can have no sales, multiple brands may share one technical installation, and a platform migration can make a site disappear from one technology count and appear in another. Conversely, a functioning shop may use technology that a tracker does not recognize. The totals therefore should not be treated as counts of unique, trading merchants.
Does a larger website count mean e-commerce demand boomed?
No. Store counts, shopper numbers, parcel volumes, and sales measure different things. More websites can coexist with flat or uneven consumer demand, and an increase in one country or category does not establish a global trend.
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- Finland: Posti described e-commerce growth in 2023 as modest. From January through September, demand in pharmacy and cosmetics rose 2.3%, while some home-related categories declined. Those findings describe the Finnish index and specified categories, not global store creation. Posti’s fall 2023 index.
- Portugal and Spain: CTT reported 5.1 million online shoppers in Portugal in 2023, up 1.1% from 2022, and 33.8 million in Spain, up 5.9%. These are country-level shopper figures, not store counts. CTT also reported a 39.2% increase in Iberian postal volumes, a measure of activity for that company and region rather than global online-store growth. CTT Integrated Report 2023.
- Company performance: Build-A-Bear reported that its e-commerce demand fell 5.8% in fiscal 2023 even as other parts of its business grew. One retailer cannot represent the whole market, but the example illustrates why a larger storefront population does not guarantee stronger results for every merchant. Build-A-Bear fiscal 2023 earnings-call transcript.
Why the number of storefronts may have risen
Several changes could plausibly add sites to a technology-based count, though the reported totals do not isolate or measure the contribution of each factor:
- Businesses that began selling online during the pandemic may have kept those channels after reopening.
- Hosted platforms and store-building tools lowered the technical barrier to launching a site.
- Physical retailers added direct-to-consumer websites, or created localized sites for different markets and currencies.
- Social-commerce and marketplace tools gave more sellers a route to digital sales, although many such sellers would not appear in a count of independent websites.
- Some merchants may have experimented with short-lived or low-cost storefronts. A site being launched or detected does not show it became durable or profitable.
What the estimates cannot tell a business owner
The global totals do not establish how many stores were active, profitable, or transacting in 2023; how many closed during the year; how much revenue they generated; or whether demand kept pace with the number of sites. They also do not reliably distinguish one merchant with several regional storefronts from several independent businesses. A definitive global count would require a transparent, consistent definition and a method for identifying unique merchants, checking whether they are active, covering markets with different technologies, and accounting for openings and closures over a stated period.
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For an entrepreneur, the practical signal is not that every market is saturated or that launching a store is a guaranteed opportunity. More entrants can mean more competition for attention, customers, and profitable acquisition. A storefront alone is not a durable advantage: differentiation, customer retention, fulfillment, and sustainable acquisition economics still matter. Platform choice should follow the business model and operational needs, rather than the popularity of any one technology.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The defensible conclusion
Available secondary estimates place global e-commerce websites at roughly 26.2 million to 26.5 million in 2023, above the reported 19.8 million in 2021. That supports a substantial multi-year increase in detected or reported storefronts. It does not establish an exact worldwide count of active online businesses, nor a precise January-to-December 2023 growth rate.
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