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Generative AI is set to have far-reaching implications for the $5.920 trillion global ecommerce sector. Here's our take on the top three areas where the technology could have the greatest impact.

Amazon’s 2023 is off to a difficult start: The retailer said it would lay off over 18,000 workers as it prepares to weather global uncertainty.

The ecommerce search experience is ripe for reinvention: Pinterest, Walmart, Etsy, and others are relying on AI to deliver more relevant results and drive sales.

Amazon will capture more than half (51.1%) of all retail ecommerce sales in Germany this year, according to our forecast. Canada will have the second-highest share of Amazon ecommerce sales among the countries we track, at 41.5%, followed by the US, UK, Japan, and Mexico.

Stability and predictability have returned to the global ecommerce market after three years of uncertainty. Digital sales will increase by 8.9% this year and 9.4% next year—exactly the same projections generated in our last forecast. Total retail sales growth will be in the mid single digits.

Ecommerce sales growth worldwide is poised to increase by 8.9% in 2023 after increasing by 6.5% in 2022, according to our forecast. While this growth trend will continue in 2024—reaching 9.4%—ecommerce sales growth worldwide will fall to 8.6% in 2025.

Internet use is growing the fastest in the Middle East and Africa, where about 80 million more people will go online at least once per month between 2023 and 2027, according to our forecast. Roughly 60% of the global population will use the internet regularly.

Amazon turns to Meta, Snap partnerships to keep TikTok at bay: As the retailer moves in on social commerce, TikTok is beefing up its supply chain.

Given the sheer size of China’s ecommerce market, that means it now represents over half of all retail ecommerce sales globally. South Korea followed soon after in 2015. South Korea held the third-highest penetration of ecommerce in the world up until 2022, when it was surpassed by Indonesia. The US took far longer to reach the milestone in 2019.

Digitally native D2C brands embrace traditional retail strategies: More are inking partnerships with retailers like Amazon and Walmart to expand their reaches and offset soaring acquisition costs.

H&M will sell more third-party brands to head off competition from Shein: The fast-fashion company is the latest in a long line of retailers to turn to marketplace sales for growth.

Adidas will rely on wholesale to help dig it out of its Yeezy hole: But weak demand from retail partners could delay its comeback.

Similarly, Zalando plans to reduce its global brand assortment to focus instead on offering consumers more curated, relevant products and achieving profitable growth, per Fashion United.

Watch the on-demand replay of our webinar, Industry KPIs, to learn how our premium benchmarking tool can help guide your budgeting and planning processes.

eBay’s consignment business is its latest play for luxury shoppers: The marketplace is betting on luxury to turn its fortunes around.

Carvana shed 12% of its workers in May, while Allbirds recently laid off 8% of its global workforce. Warby Parker announced this week it would cut 63 corporate employees, while Glossier’s latest round of layoffs earlier this month affected roughly two dozen staff members. In June, Carvana completed a sale-leaseback for a facility in Indiana, giving it a $30 million cash boost.

Amazon’s ad business powered the retailer to a better-than-expected Q1: A 21% increase in ad revenues helped offset flat sales growth in its ecommerce business.

Amazon continued to dominate ecommerce in 2022: But advertising, not retail, was the company’s biggest success story this year—although not enough to prevent the layoffs of 20,000 employees.

The retailer reversed its quarterly loss streak with $2.87 billion in net income, but its North America and international segments both reported operating losses. Advertising revenues grew by 25% YoY to $9.55 billion, above StreetAccount’s estimate of $9.48 billion. Amazon now expects Q4 net sales to grow between 2% and 8%, which is less than some analysts anticipated.

Watch the on-demand replay of our webinar, The Great Realignment, as our analysts showcase how ecommerce, social media, fintech, and more are being transformed amid the market turmoil of 2022.

Too Faced and Huda Beauty shuttered their shops on Alibaba’s Tmall Global, with the latter also closing all 38 of its physical stores. The big takeaway: Although China is no longer the juggernaut it used to be, it remains the second-largest retail market in the world.