As online retailers enter the second quarter of 2025, the ecommerce trends that matter most relate to market dynamics, technology disruptions and trade policies that continue to cloud predictions and influence consumer activity. Already, the year has seen tariffs impact ecommerce planning, renewed interest in mergers and acquisitions and a wave of new ecommerce technology deployments using artificial intelligence (AI).
Among the trends already driving ecommerce shifts in 2025, here are 10 that appear in Digital Commerce 360’s data and reporting to date. Some involve the industry’s biggest names. Others stand to be most relevant to specific sectors and merchant types. Nevertheless, all characterize changes that have already arrived to online retail.
1. Ecommerce leader Amazon’s quarterly revenue trends past Walmart in 2025
The question of whether Amazon is the largest online retailer may seem simple to answer at face value. But the ongoing Amazon vs. Walmart faceoff in online retail is full of nuance. Look no further than these companies’ latest quarterly earnings results to see how Walmart — up until recently — maintained the lead in a key area.
2. Online furniture sales continue to struggle
While Housewares & Home Furnishings retailers approached 2025 with optimism, the year has thus far introduced new challenges that continue to cause problems for online furniture sales. Notably, online sales fell 0.4% year over year in 2024 for the 193 U.S.-based online retailers in Housewares & Home Furnishings within Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000 Database.
3. Online sales powering growth for grocers
Food delivery is fueling growth for leaders in the grocery space in 2025. Kroger and Albertsons, which lead the Food & Beverage category in the Top 2000 Database, are prime examples, leveraging their physical stores, delivery partnerships and fulfillment capabilities to strengthen their positions as online grocery sales growth outperforms growth in traditional sales.
4. Gen Z demand for omnichannel options
Omnichannel capabilities can be table stakes for retailers who want to reach young Millennials and Gen Z shoppers. In fact, Gen Z’s omnichannel fulfillment preferences were on full display in recent survey results, painting their choices in stark contrast with Boomers’ desires for delivery.
5. Apple and Nike’s outsized dependence on international online sales
As trade policy disputes between the U.S. and other countries heat up, retailers are addressing tariffs through strategy, technology and business planning. So, which online retailers depend most on international sales? Among those with the most at stake are five U.S.-based online retailers that Digital Commerce 360 identified with more than $1 billion in online sales from 2024 and more than half of their totals coming from outside their home country.
6. Rise of agentic commerce
Agentic commerce now appears alongside generative AI in offerings from ecommerce platforms and integrations, as well as consumer-facing chatbots powered by Amazon, OpenAI and other tech companies. As more names get involved, expect to see competition intensify for agents to deliver better user experiences and results.
7. Fanatics challenging Nike in online apparel
For years, Nike enjoyed the No. 1 spot in Top 2000’s Apparel & Accessories category unchallenged. However, Fanatics has found a path to expansion and entrenched the No. 2 spot, just as Nike began work to execute a turnaround plan. If the two companies’ current trajectories continue, Nike and Fanatics could soon switch places in the online sales rankings.
8. Online retailers prizing AI and supply chain tech
Survey responses showed online merchants continued to invest in tech in 2024. As they did, retailers named two areas atop their best ecommerce technology investments of the year. Those are AI and supply chain tech, which are helping realize efficiencies at scale and respond to disruptions that can otherwise threaten inventory levels.
9. Walgreens’ dependence on online growth
Retail pharmacy chains have had a rough decade. The announcement in March that Walgreens reached a $23.7 billion deal to go private underscored the severity of its situation. Nevertheless, online sales have been a source of growth, cementing its No. 1 spot among Health & Beauty’s leading online retailers in the Top 2000.
10. Top retailers boosting conversion rates with omnichannel offerings and personalization
Amazon and Walmart didn’t get to where they are by accident. The No. 1 and No. 2 online retailers in the Top 2000, as well as the database’s Mass Merchants category, are in their own tier when it comes to persuading consumers to make purchases. That dominance was on display in recent polling that ranked them as the two top brands overall — not just among retailers — at converting brand recognition into buying activity. Conversion rates for Amazon and Walmart stand at 77% and 60%, respectively, according to YouGov, when measuring the percent of consumers aware of those brands who intend to buy from them. The average rate among retailers in the same report? Just 12%.
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