US digital commerce topped $1 trillion for the first time in 2022

Digital commerce crossed a key milestone in 2022, according to a new report.

The news: U.S. spend on digital commerce exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2022, according to a new report from media measurement firm Comscore. The record-breaking year saw 21% year-over-year growth, according to the 2023 State of Digital Commerce Report. The report measured spending across desktop and mobile devices.

Forecasts come true: This appears to confirm projections from a variety of analysts that ecommerce would reach $1 trillion in 2022.

Pull-forward sticks? The new data also adds evidence that ecommerce continues to have an upward growth trajectory, even as 2022 saw a pullback from the runaway growth of the two peak-pandemic years.

It shows there remains a chance that some of the pandemic gains may also prove to be sticky. Digital commerce was at $705.4 billion during the pandemic’s first year of 2020. A year later, it reached $904.3 billion. Now, it crossed the trillion-dollar mark.

“That level of growth previously took four years to achieve. Consumers are clearly doubling down on what works best for them--seamless, convenient, online purchasing across many different verticals and product types,” said Comscore’s Ian Essling, senior director of survey insights at Comscore, in a statement.

Mobile rising: Mobile phones are continuing to drive growth of digital commerce. During the key holiday period of Q4, dollars spent on mobile devices grew 26%, while desktop grew 14%. Now, mobile’s share of commerce is mobile’s share of total digital commerce is approaching 40%.

More key stats:

• Holiday growth: Online retail spending during the two months of the 2022 holiday season crossed $230 billion. This represented growth of 20% year-over-year.
• The top spending categories were online grocery and apparel. By category, there was $219 billion spent on grocery, baby, pet items. Further, $175 billion was spent on apparel and accessories. Another $117 billion was spent on computers and peripherals.
• The top growing digital commerce categories year-over-year were event tickets (75%), digital content (60%) and apparel and accessories (37%).