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E-commerce sales hit $25.6 trillion globally in 2018, up 8 per cent from 2017, according to the latest available estimates released on April 28, 2020, by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
    
According to UNCTAD’s analysis, the estimated 2018 e-commerce sales value, which includes business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, was equivalent to 30 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) that year.

The value of global B2B e-commerce in 2018 was $21 trillion, representing 83 per cent of all e-commerce, comprising both sales on online market platforms and electronic data interchange transactions. B2C e-commerce was valued at $4.4 trillion, up by 16 per cent from 2017. Cross-border B2C e-commerce sales amounted to $404 billion in 2018, representing an increase of 7 per cent over 2017.

The United States continued to dominate the overall e-commerce market. It remained among the top three countries by B2C e-commerce sales, alongside China and the United Kingdom.

The leading B2C e-commerce companies are based mostly in China and the United States. The world’s top 10 B2C companies in 2018 generated almost $2 trillion in gross merchandise value (GMV), according to the report. Alibaba (China) was far ahead with a GMV of $866 billion in 2018, followed by Amazon (United States) with $277 billion.