UK ecommerce statistics
Key figures for UK online sales, B2C, B2B, omnichannel and Click & Collect, plus marketing channels, international markets and Scotland.
Data to October 2026, from the ONS and other linked sources
Headline figures
£537bn
retail sales in Great Britain in 2025
House of Commons Library
£127.4bn
UK online retail sales in 2024
Retail Gazette, from ONS data
28.8%
of retail sales made online, August 2026
ONS
69%
of UK shoppers use Click & Collect (2024)
Clix, 2024, via Retail Insight Network
01UK ecommerce and retail overview
The United Kingdom has the most advanced ecommerce market in Europe and is the third-largest globally, following China and the US.
Overall retail landscape (ONS data)
£537bn
Total retail sales value (2025)
Retail sales in Great Britain totalled £537 billion in 2025, up 4.3% on 2024. For every £1 spent, 40p went in food shops, 11p in clothing shops, 8p on fuel and 7p in household goods shops.
Source: House of Commons Library, Retail sector in the UK, 24 July 2026
+1.9%
Total retail sales growth (June 2026)
UK total retail sales grew 1.9% year on year in June 2026, in line with the 12-month average of 1.9%.
Source: British Retail Consortium, BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor: Online sales shine in the heat
£117bn
Retail economic output (2025)
The retail sector contributed around £117 billion in economic output (Gross Value Added) in 2025, 4.3% of the UK’s total economic output and up 2.3% on 2024.
Source: House of Commons Library, Retail sector in the UK, 24 July 2026
Where £1 of GB retail spending goes (2025)
Each £1 spent with retailers in Great Britain in 2025, by type of store: food shops, clothing shops, fuel, household goods shops and all other retail.
Ecommerce market size and growth (ONS data)
£127.41bn
Total UK online retail sales value (2024)
Analysis based on ONS figures indicates that the value of online retail sales in the UK reached £127.41 billion in 2024. This is a 3.4% increase from £123.3 billion in 2023.
Source: Retail Gazette, citing analysis of ONS data, February 2025
£2.8bn
Weekly online spend (May 2026)
The average weekly value of internet sales was £2.8 billion (excluding fuel) in May 2026, equal to 28.8% of all retail sales.
Source: House of Commons Library, Retail sales: Economic indicators
Ecommerce market (wider estimates and projections)
£170bn+
UK ecommerce market (estimate)
eMarketer describes the UK as “an ecommerce market worth over £170 billion” and forecasts that growth “will peak at 6.2% in 2026 before decelerating through 2030” (forecast).
Source: eMarketer, The State of UK Ecommerce, 26 February 2026
US$185.97bn
Projected growth (forecast to 2029)
UK ecommerce revenue is projected to reach US$185.97 billion (£141.95 billion, the ITA’s own conversion) by 2029, at 7.01% average annual growth (forecast).
Source: International Trade Administration, UK Country Commercial Guide: eCommerce, updated 3 February 2026
Online share of total retail (ONS data)
28.8%
Latest data (August 2026)
The proportion of retail sales made online was 28.8% in August 2026, up from 28.4% in July 2026.
Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Retail sales, Great Britain: August 2026, 18 September 2026
+10.1%
Online spending growth (to August 2026)
Online spending values rose 1.9% in the three months to August 2026 compared with the three months to May 2026, and 10.1% compared with the three months to August 2025. August 2026 alone was 8.9% higher than August 2025.
Source: ONS
37%
Historical context
The current online share remains significantly above the pre-pandemic level of approximately 20% in 2019. Online sales peaked at 37% in February 2021 during lockdowns.
Source: House of Commons Library, Retail sector in the UK, 24 July 2026
Online share of GB retail sales
Internet sales as a share of all retail sales in Great Britain. The share peaked in February 2021 and has stayed well above its 2019 level.
Source: ONS; House of Commons Library, July 2026
02B2C ecommerce in the UK
The business-to-consumer (B2C) market is mature but continues to see steady growth.
£151bn
Projected growth (forecast to 2030)
Mintel forecasts UK online retail sales will “reach £151bn by 2030”, after 3.1% growth in 2024 and a forecast 1.7% for 2025 (forecast).
Key sectors
Nearly 25%
Fashion
Mintel says “Fashion continues to account for nearly a quarter of online sales”.
7p
Household goods, including electronics (2025)
Household goods shops, including electronics, took 7p of every £1 of retail spending in Great Britain in 2025.
Source: House of Commons Library, Retail sector in the UK, 24 July 2026
03B2B ecommerce in the UK
The business-to-business (B2B) sector continues to digitalise, but there is no reliable public figure for the size of the UK B2B ecommerce market: commercial estimates differ roughly threefold, so we no longer quote them. For an official European benchmark, see the Eurostat enterprise e-sales figures in section 07.
96%
Buyer behaviour (2020 survey)
Digital self-service is becoming the norm. “Fewer than 25% of B2B buyers in the UK ever want to interact with reps in person again... The vast majority (96%) claim they will make a purchase in a digital self-serve, end-to-end portal, spending $50,000 or more in one transaction.”
Source: McKinsey, 2020
04Omnichannel retail in the UK
The integration of physical and digital channels is essential: UK shoppers move between stores and screens, and online’s share of non-food sales keeps rising.
38.0%
Non-food online penetration (May 2026)
The BRC online penetration rate for non-food reached 38.0% in May 2026, up from 36.0% in May 2025.
Source: British Retail Consortium, Retail sales hot up in May, 2026
61% / 39%
Channel balance (2023)
When considering primary shopping channels, 61% of shoppers favour in-store shopping overall, while 39% shop mostly online.
Demographic differences
69%
Online and in-store shopping (Black Friday 2025)
69%
Shopping online for Black Friday
69% of UK adults planned to shop online for Black Friday 2025, while younger shoppers aged 18–27 were the most likely to shop in person (40%).
8 in 10
Black Friday purchases made online (forecast)
PwC expected eight in ten Black Friday 2025 purchases to be made online, with total Black Friday spend of £6.4bn (forecast, November 2025).
Source: PwC UK, Retail Outlook 2026
05Click & Collect in the UK
Click & Collect is a key part of omnichannel strategy, valued for convenience and its ability to drive incremental sales.
69%
Adoption (2024)
69% of UK shoppers use Click & Collect services, according to a Clix Technologies survey from April 2024.
Source: Retail Insight Network, UK consumers call for evolution of Click + Collect technology (Clix, 2024)
12.9%
£42.4bn
Market value (2022)
The click-and-collect economy was worth £42.4bn, representing 8.4% of the UK’s total retail spending.
Source: Barclays Corporate Banking, 2022
Impact on sales
85%
Extra items (2018 survey)
85% of shoppers reported buying additional items when collecting their orders in-store, in a 2018 Barclaycard survey.
Source: DJS Research/Barclaycard, 2018
79%
Challenges (2024)
79% of consumers believe the service needs improvement, citing issues such as queues (23%) and inconvenient opening hours (14%).
06Marketing channels
Digital marketing influence and spend
£40.5bn
UK digital advertising market (2025)
The UK’s digital ad market reached £40.5bn in 2025, up 10% year on year, with video up 20% to £9.3bn. Looking ahead, PwC forecasts digital advertising will hit £50 billion by 2029, with digital formats now 84% of total ad spend (forecast).
Source: IAB UK, Digital Adspend; PwC UK, From screen to stream, 2025
£46.7bn
Advertising breakdown (2025)
Total UK advertising spend was £46.7bn in 2025, up 6.4%. Search took 38.3% of the total (£17.88bn), social media (including YouTube) £11.5bn, retail media £3.7bn and other online display £2.5bn. AA/WARC forecasts £50.5bn in 2026 (+8.2%) and £53.5bn in 2027 (+5.9%). AA/WARC changed its method in April 2026 (search now excludes retail media), so these figures aren’t like-for-like with earlier years.
Source: Advertising Association/WARC, April 2026; AA/WARC Q1 2026 release, 30 July 2026
13%
Affiliate marketing (Cyber Weekend 2024)
Contributed 13% of all UK online retail revenue during Cyber Weekend 2024.
Source: Raconteur, Cyber Weekend 2024
UK advertising spend
Total UK advertising spend across all media. Figures for 2026 and 2027 are forecasts.
Note: AA/WARC changed its method in April 2026. The 2024 figure comes from before the change, so it isn’t like-for-like with 2025 onwards.
Source: AA/WARC, April 2026 and July 2026
UK ad spend by channel, 2025
UK online advertising spend by channel in 2025. Under AA/WARC’s new method, retail media is counted separately, so search no longer includes it.
Source: AA/WARC, April 2026 (new method)
Average Retail & eCommerce conversion rates by channel (2026)
Share of sessions that convert, by traffic source. Ruler’s 2026 benchmarks use a new basis (over 5 million conversions, including forms and calls), so they aren’t comparable with earlier years.
Source: Ruler Analytics, 2026 benchmarks (Retail & eCommerce)
07International ecommerce statistics
Europe
€911bn
European B2C ecommerce turnover (2025)
European B2C ecommerce turnover reached €911 billion in 2025, up 7% from €842 billion (4% after inflation).
Source: Ecommerce Europe & EuroCommerce, European E-commerce Report 2026, 22 September 2026
€961bn
Forecast (2026)
European B2C ecommerce turnover is forecast to reach €961 billion in 2026 (+5% nominal, about +3% after inflation). For the EU-27 alone, €715.8 billion in 2025 is forecast to rise to €757.3 billion in 2026. No 2027 forecast has been published.
Source: Ecommerce Europe & EuroCommerce, European E-commerce Report 2026; Packmedia (EU-27 split)
57%
Regional breakdown (2025)
Western Europe accounts for 57% of total European B2C ecommerce turnover (€523.1 billion in 2025) and grew the slowest, at 5%. The source and country coverage differ from earlier estimates, so this is not a like-for-like fall.
Source: Ecommerce Europe & EuroCommerce, European E-commerce Report 2026
€565bn
Europe-5 forecast (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain)
Consumers in these five economies will spend €565 billion on online purchases by 2029, accounting for nearly 21% of total retail sales in these markets (forecast made in 2024).
Source: Forrester forecast, 2024
23.59%
Enterprise e-sales (2024)
23.59% of EU enterprises made e-sales in 2024, generating 19.49% of total enterprise turnover.
Source: Eurostat, E-commerce statistics
North America (US)
US$1.72tn
US retail ecommerce sales (2027 forecast)
eMarketer forecasts that “US retail ecommerce sales will reach $1.720 trillion by 2027” (about £1.31 trillion), “hitting a milestone of more than 20% of overall retail sales”.
Global
US$7.375tn
Retail ecommerce sales (2027 forecast)
Global retail ecommerce sales are forecast to reach US$6.88 trillion (about £5.25 trillion) in 2026 and US$7.375 trillion (about £5.63 trillion) in 2027, growth of 7.2% a year (forecast).
US$7.89tn
Projected retail growth (2028 forecast)
Expected to reach US$7.89 trillion (about £6.02 trillion) by 2028 (forecast).
21.1%
Share of total retail (2026 forecast)
Ecommerce is forecast to make up 21.1% of retail sales worldwide in 2026, reaching 22.5% by 2028 (forecast).
08Ecommerce in Scotland
ONS retail sales data covers Great Britain as a whole and doesn’t split out Scotland, so Scotland-only ecommerce figures are scarce. These two official statistics show the size of Scotland’s retail workforce and how connected its households are.
8.2%
Retail jobs (2024)
8.2% of jobs in Scotland were in retail in 2024, in line with the Great Britain average.
Source: House of Commons Library, Retail sector in the UK, 24 July 2026
91%
Home internet access (2023)
91% of households in Scotland had home internet access in 2023, a record high, and 91% of adults used the internet.
Source: Scottish Government, Scottish Household Survey 2023 results: internet
Be the first to hear when tickets go on sale
Ticket prices for 2027 are still to be confirmed. Join the waiting list or sign up for ticket news.
TBCMAY 2027
IMAX, Glasgow Science Centre
09:00 to 17:00
Prices TBC