In February 2026, U.S. online retail sales were more than double what they were at the start of the decade, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The more than doubling of ecommerce sales from 2020 to 2026 — in both January and February — shows the role of online channels in the modern retail environment. Also in February 2026, U.S. online retail sales grew 7.5% year over year.
At the same time, total retail sales in February 2026 reached $738.37 billion, according to Commerce Department data. That’s 0.6% growth compared to total retail sales in January 2026.
Additionally, total retail sales in February 2026 grew 3.7% compared to the same month in 2025. That’s a slightly faster year-over-year growth rate than January 2026, when it was about 3.2%.
In both January and February 2026, ecommerce accounted for just under 18% of total retail sales (17.98% and 17.99%, respectively). Those are the two highest single-month instances of U.S. ecommerce penetration of total retail sales since the record-holding month of April 2020 (18.77%).
Online retail sales in February 2026
In February 2026, U.S. ecommerce sales reached $132.85 billion. That 7.5% increase in online retail sales compared to February 2025 slowed relative to January’s growth rate of 10.9%.
After ecommerce sales had been in the $50 billion range in February 2019, they went on to exceed $100 billion in each February from 2023 onward.
For most individual months, the largest single-year growth in ecommerce sales was from 2019 to 2020. However, for January and February, which were not as limited by COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, the growth truly showed in a spike from 2020 to 2021.
Ecommerce sales in February 2021 were more than $20 billion greater than the same month in 2020. Since then, each February has grown online retail sales by about $10 billion or $11 billion year over year.
The first two months of 2026 have each recorded more ecommerce sales than any individual month in 2025 did. November 2025 had the most online retail sales in a single month that year.
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.
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the online retail industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.