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Total retail sales increased year over year by the highest dollar amount in a quarter since Q4 2021.

Ecommerce sales in Q2 2026 grew more than 10% year over year for the first time since the same quarter in 2021, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

That was also more than double the rate of total U.S. retail sales growth, which reached 5.3%. Q2 marked the fastest total retail sales growth since Q1 2023. The last time U.S. total retail sales grew at least 10% year over year was in Q4 2021. As such, that was also the last time offline retail sales in the U.S. grew by double digits.

Total retail sales increased by about $71.14 billion in the U.S. during Q2. That was the highest increase by dollar amount in a quarter since Q4 2021. In Q4 2021, total retail sales in the U.S. increased by about $141.91 billion year over year.

“Q2 2026 represents the strongest quarter of ecommerce growth since the cool-down period of extreme ecommerce growth experienced during COVID-19,” said Jon Love, research data manager at Digital Commerce 360. “While total retail sales grew over 5% for the first time in any quarter since 2022, ecommerce sales grew over 2.3 times faster than total retail sales in the quarter.”

U.S. ecommerce sales growth in Q2 2026

In Q2 2026, U.S. ecommerce sales reached $329.530 billion. That marked 12.4% year-over-year growth from $293.140 billion in Q2 2025 ecommerce sales. Additionally, ecommerce sales in Q2 2026 increased about 9.4% compared to Q1 2026.

U.S. ecommerce accounted for 23.5% of sales in Q2 2026. It was one of five quarters to date that reached that threshold. The others were Q1 2026 and Q4 in each of the past three years. The highest ecommerce sales penetration to date was in Q4 2025, when it reached 25.0%.

By dollar amount, Q2 also saw the largest year-over-year increase in ecommerce sales since Q1 2021. In Q2 2026, U.S. ecommerce sales increased by $36.39 billion compared to the prior year’s quarter. Only four other quarters saw ecommerce sales increase by at least $30 billion year over year — and in each case, it was by at least $60 billion.

Those four quarters were Q2 2020 through Q1 2021. Q4 2020 had the highest increase at $76.94 billion more than Q4 2019. Q1 2021 saw $67.50 billion more ecommerce sales than Q1 2020.

Q1 and Q2 in 2026 were also the first times that U.S. ecommerce sales exceeded $300 billion outside of Q4. Since 2023, ecommerce sales in each Q4 have surpassed $315 billion.

Furthermore, in Q2 2026, U.S. ecommerce accounted for more than half (51.2%) of total retail sales growth. That was the highest share of retail growth since Q1 2024 (52.6%).

How is ecommerce penetration calculated? 

Digital Commerce 360 analysis indicates ecommerce represented 23.5% of total retail sales in Q2 2026. The highest quarterly ecommerce penetration rates to date were 25.0% in Q4 2025 and 24.5% in Q4 2024.

Including all retail and food-service sales, U.S. ecommerce accounted for 17.1% of total sales in Q2 2026, according to the Commerce Department. Unadjusted figures show U.S. ecommerce sales represented 16.4% of total sales in Q1, the Commerce Department said. It estimates that total, unadjusted U.S. ecommerce sales in Q2 2026 reached $329.5 billion.

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. Here’s last quarter’s update on U.S. ecommerce sales.

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