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E-commerce gives retailers another way to reach customers and take orders, but it also adds work: managing product listings, payments, fulfillment, shipping, returns, and sometimes sales-tax obligations across jurisdictions. Whether it helps a particular business depends on its customers, products, operations, and channel costs—not simply on the growth of online sales.
How much of retail is online?
In the United States, e-commerce accounted for 17.1% of total retail sales in the second quarter of 2026. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated seasonally adjusted retail e-commerce sales at $340.244 billion, up 12.2% from the second quarter of 2025; total retail sales rose 6.7% over that period. The latest-quarter estimate is preliminary and subject to revision, and the series is not adjusted for changes in prices. Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales.
Census counts a sale as e-commerce when the buyer places an order or negotiates the price and terms through the internet or another qualifying electronic system. Payment need not happen online. Its quarterly estimates cover employer firms, so they are not a count of every individual or informal seller. Census Bureau definition and methodology.
Online sales are a significant part of retail, but they remain a minority of U.S. retail sales by this measure. That points to coexistence between online and physical channels, not the disappearance of stores. National figures describe the market; they do not show whether an individual retailer will earn a return by adding an online channel.
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What changes when a retailer sells online?
Customer reach and ways to buy
A website or marketplace can make products discoverable and purchasable beyond a store’s immediate location. A retailer can operate its own site, sell through a third-party marketplace, or use both. An owned site gives the business more control over product presentation and the customer experience. A marketplace provides access to an existing online venue, but the seller operates within that platform’s rules and tools.
These options are not a universal ranking of better and worse. Retailers need to consider who their customers are, how those customers shop, how much control the retailer needs, and what it takes to manage each channel. A UK government-commissioned study published in 2021 examined retailers’ platform use, motivations, experiences, and ability to respond to negative impacts; its public study page does not establish current fee levels or a general profitability result. UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Online platforms and their impact on the business models of SMEs.
More operating steps behind each order
A storefront is only one part of e-commerce. Retailers also need reliable product descriptions and prices, a way to accept orders and payments, accurate inventory, shipping options, order-status communication, returns handling, and customer support. If a business sells through multiple channels, it must also keep inventory and product information consistent enough to avoid selling items it cannot fulfill.
Statistics Canada’s survey of Canadian businesses with e-commerce sales through websites or apps illustrates the range of features businesses reported in 2021:
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches| Feature reported | Share of surveyed Canadian businesses with e-commerce sales |
|---|---|
| Product or service descriptions | 84.8% |
| Prices displayed | 71.7% |
| Online payment | 70.9% |
| Shipping options and associated prices | 22.1% |
| Tracking or order status | 19.6% |
These are survey results for a defined Canadian business population in 2021, not current global adoption rates or a list of universal legal requirements. Statistics Canada, Canadian businesses and e-commerce.
Shipping and fulfillment costs
Shipping affects both the retailer’s costs and the customer’s experience. Among Canadian businesses that reported challenges selling over the internet in 2021, 39% identified high shipping costs. That pandemic-era survey finding is not a current estimate for every country or retailer, but it underlines why online reach should be assessed alongside the cost and capacity to deliver orders.
For a retailer shipping physical goods, the practical questions include the cost of packaging and postage, the time required to pick and pack orders, delivery expectations, returns, and what happens when a carrier is delayed. A shipping tool may help with a specific task: for example, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General describes postage providers that let merchants print labels electronically and integrate USPS shipping into online platforms. That does not mean every retailer needs a dedicated thermal label printer. USPS Office of Inspector General, E-commerce and USPS.
Why the effects differ between retailers
Business size and capability matter
In Statistics Canada’s 2021 survey, small Canadian businesses—defined as having 0–19 full-time employees—reported challenges selling online more often than large businesses, which generally had at least 100 employees: 19% versus 14%. The survey reflects a specific pandemic-era period and business population, not a forecast of what a new seller will experience.
Reported cost challenges also changed between the two survey years. Among Canadian businesses reporting online-selling challenges, high setup costs were cited by 31% in 2021, compared with 38% in 2019; high maintenance costs were cited by 27% in 2021, compared with 32% in 2019. Statistics Canada noted that the greater availability of platforms and tools may help explain the decline. The figures do not establish that technology alone caused it. Statistics Canada, Canadian businesses and e-commerce.
More online activity does not guarantee more profit
Online sales can create opportunities, but sales volume is not the same as profit. A retailer considering a new channel needs to estimate its own costs and likely customer response: platform or payment costs, marketing, fulfillment labor, shipping subsidies, returns, customer service, and any systems needed to manage inventory and orders. Aggregate statistics cannot supply that business-specific calculation.
A 2014 U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies working paper used a model of retail activity in 2007–12 to estimate that improvements in online retail increased aggregate welfare by 13.4% in its counterfactual. Roughly two-thirds of the modeled increase came from welfare improvements while market shares were held fixed; 8.2% of firms benefited by absorbing market share from stores that closed. This is a historical, model-based result about aggregate welfare—not a contemporary forecast, a measured return for every retailer, or proof that online selling makes an individual business better off. Allen Tran, U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies working paper.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to evaluate an online channel
Before adding a website or marketplace, compare the practical demands of the channel with the way the business already works. The right answer may be a limited trial, an expanded store-based service, a marketplace listing, an owned site, or no change; the evidence does not support one universal choice.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →- Customer reach: Identify which customers the channel could make easier to serve and whether they are likely to buy online.
- Control and dependence: Decide how much control you need over product presentation and the customer experience, and what reliance on a platform’s rules and tools would mean.
- Full cost to serve: Include setup and maintenance, order handling, packaging, postage, returns, support, and any channel-specific costs—not just the cost of putting products online.
- Operational capacity: Check whether staff, inventory records, and fulfillment processes can handle orders accurately and on time.
- Compliance and security: Consider the rules that apply to the business, the products, the customers, and the jurisdictions where sales occur.
- Evidence of results: Track channel-specific orders, costs, returns, and customer-service demands so that the decision reflects the retailer’s own economics rather than a national growth figure.
Remote sales can add compliance work
Selling remotely may raise sales-tax collection and administration questions across jurisdictions. A 2017 U.S. Government Accountability Office report estimated potential state and local revenue gains of $8.5 billion to $13.4 billion for calendar year 2017 under a scenario in which states could require all remote sellers to collect tax on all remote sales. GAO also noted that some businesses would likely face increased compliance costs. These are historical estimates under a past policy setting, not a statement of current law or a guide to a particular seller’s obligations. U.S. Government Accountability Office, Sales Taxes: States Could Gain Revenue from Expanded Authority, but Businesses Are Likely to Face Compliance Costs.
Because requirements depend on current law and the seller’s facts, a business should check the rules that apply to its locations and sales rather than relying on a historical national estimate.
Online and store-based retail can coexist
E-commerce changes how retailers reach customers and manage transactions; it does not make every store obsolete or every online expansion worthwhile. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 17.1% figure is one national snapshot using its own definition and reference period, while the UK Office for National Statistics reported that internet sales represented 28.0% of total UK retail sales in the second quarter of 2026 and 27.5% for 2025. Those national series are separate measures and should not be treated as directly interchangeable. UK Office for National Statistics, Internet sales.
The useful question for a retailer is not whether e-commerce is replacing retail, but which channel mix serves its customers at a sustainable cost. An online channel can extend reach; its value depends on whether the business can operate it well and whether the orders it brings in contribute to the business’s goals.
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