December 2025 online sales in the U.S. reached their highest monthly total to date while boasting one of the highest ecommerce penetration rates to date, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis of advanced estimates from the Department of Commerce.

Furthermore, December capped off a year with the highest ecommerce sales to date, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis. In 2025, annual ecommerce sales in the U.S. exceeded $1.5 trillion for the first time, Commerce Department data indicates. That’s more than double what they were in 2019 ($717.05 billion).

2025 also featured the highest percentage of sales to come from ecommerce in a single month since April 2020. That sales penetration reached 17.69% in October 2025, which so far is second only to April 2020’s 18.77%. Each month in 2025 sustained 17% ecommerce sales penetration. None reached 18%.

Total retail sales in December 2025 reached $734.97 billion. They increased by about 2.4% compared to December 2024. That’s the slowest year-over-year growth rate in December since the start of the 2020s, per Digital Commerce 360 analysis. The next-slowest was December 2020, at 4.4% growth compared to December 2019.

December 2025’s total retail growth rate was less than half that of 2022 (5.13%) and 2023 (5.3%). It was also less than one-seventh of 2021’s growth rate (15.11%, an outlier because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

December 2025 ecommerce sales

Online retail sales in December 2025 reached $129.4 billion. That’s about 5.3% growth compared to December 2024, when they were $122.94 billion.

In both 2024 and 2025, December benefited from the Cyber 5 dipping into the month. The Cyber 5 refers to the five-day period of Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, some of the busiest ecommerce-spending days of the year. That was not the case in 2023, when all five days fell in November.

Similar to total retail sales, year-over-year ecommerce sales growth in December was at its lowest rate in 2025 (5.25%) since the 2020s began. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a 40.52% year-over-year growth rate in 2020. Since then, the year-over-year growth in December has worked its way up from 7.96% in 2021 to a peak 12.1% in 2023. After that, the growth rate has shrunk in back-to-back years.

At the same time, total monthly ecommerce sales still continue to grow, with December 2025 the closest they have been to reaching $130 billion.

December ecommerce sales in 2025 more than doubled those of 2019, when they were $61.75 billion. They were also $42.64 billion more than in December 2020, when they reached $86.77 billion.

However, ecommerce sales have remained mostly flat at around $129 billion since August 2025, with a slight dip to $128.37 billion in September. Since 2022, each December has logged at least $1 billion more in consumer ecommerce sales than the November of that same year — except for 2025, when it was an increase of less than $80 million. 

And since 2019, only that year and 2021 experienced fewer ecommerce sales in December than in November.

December 2025 capped off the first year in which each month’s ecommerce sales exceeded $120 billion. Average ecommerce sales by month were about $126.37 billion.

Ecommerce sales calculations

Digital Commerce 360 studies non-seasonally adjusted commerce department data and excludes spending in segments that don’t typically sell online. These segments include:

• Restaurants
• Bars
• Automobile dealers
• Gas stations
• Fuel dealers

U.S. ecommerce penetration reflects the share of dollars consumers could potentially spend online.

The Commerce Department defines ecommerce sales as the sales of goods and services where an order is placed by the buyer or price and terms of sales are negotiated over:

• Internet
• Extranet
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network
• Electronic mail
• Other online system

Payment may or may not be made online. The Commerce Department publishes estimates that it adjusts for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Click here to read last month’s update on U.S. online retail sales.

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