Six years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, online retail (ecommerce) sales for the month of March have only continued to grow in 2026 — benefiting from shifts in 2020.
Online retail grew year over year at more than double the rate of total sales in March 2026, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Total retail sales in March 2026 increased by 3.96% year over year. They grew to $752.06 billion in March 2026 from $723.35 billion in the same month of the previous year. The March 2026 total was also about $100 billion more than the volume of March retail sales during the same month in 2022.
Following a year-over-year dip in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, March retail sales in the U.S. have only grown annually since 2022. There was no decline in year-over-year ecommerce sales in March 2020, though. Rather, consumers increasingly turned to the web for purchases as pandemic restrictions tightened.
Piyush Patel, chief ecosystem officer at Algolia, called consumer spending “more intensive.” Algolia provides website search technology. In March, Algolia announced enhancements to its Shopify AI search integration.
45 retailers that currently rank in the Top 2000 Database use Algolia for site search. In 2025, those retailers combined for more than $32 billion in ecommerce sales, according to Digital Commerce 360 data.
“Consumers are still spending, but they aren’t sure if their hard-earned dollar will still be in their wallet next month, so the ever-intentional American consumer that we got to know in 2025 still represents most U.S. shoppers,” Patel said. “Most are doing more intensive research, concentrating their purchases on higher-quality, longer-lasting products.”
March 2026 ecommerce sales
U.S. online retail sales for the month of March 2026 grew year over year at their second-fastest rate since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. March 2026 ecommerce sales grew 10.1% compared to the same month in 2025.
Year-over-year ecommerce growth for the month of March spiked in 2020 (18.65%) before jumping even further in 2021 (33.91%). Since then, the fastest year-over-year growth rate for March was in 2025, when it was 10.26%.
Online retail sales in March 2026 reached $135.43 billion. In addition to being more than 10% greater than ecommerce sales in March 2025, that was also more than double the online retail sales from the same month in 2020.
Furthermore, the Commerce Department’s March 2026 data indicates online retail sales that month exceeded those of each month in 2025. Neither November nor December, the months with the highest ecommerce spending in 2025, reached $131 billion, according to Commerce Department figures.
Algolia data indicates that 44% of consumers now use generative AI platforms to determine which items are worth paying more for.
“At the same time, many pragmatic consumers are embracing second-hand and rental options, as the resale and subscription markets continue to make these options more accessible than ever,” Patel said.
He noted that some consumers are opting to spend more in the grocery sector, calling it “a brighter spot.” Those consumers are “shifting toward more home-centered experiences,” he said. “More people are opting to cook and entertain at home, turning meals into shared activities. In response, many of our grocery clients have deployed agentic, conversational recipe tools.”
Patel said Algolia has seen an increase in search queries along the lines of “Give me a recipe that multiple people can cook together for a dinner party.”
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 the previous month’s update on U.S. online retail sales.
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