E-commerce orders in the United States will jump 147% year over year in 2025, with top-performing brands driving more than half of that growth, according to research released today by Omnisend.
The research analyzed e-commerce performance across 150,000 brands based on 27 billion emails, 321 million SMS messages and 458 million push notifications sent globally using the Omnisend email and marketing platform.
The top 5% of brands accounted for 54% of total order growth, suggesting gains were concentrated among a relatively small group of high-performing businesses, the e-commerce marketing study noted.
Two factors that contributed to the increase in orders were more intentional shopping – buying thought out and in line with personal goals, rather than based on impulse, habit or marketing pressure – and pre-buying. “We’re seeing a lot more intentional purchases,” said Omnisend e-commerce and retail consultant Greg Zakowicz.
“We’ve been seeing it for about 18 to 24 months now, but I think it really escalated last year,” he told the E-Commerce Times.
“During the first part of the year, the main talking points were tariffs and logistics bottlenecks driving up prices,” he explained. “So we had a lot of advance buying during the beginning of the year to offset the expected price increase.”
“I think between those two things coming together, it just exploded the overall increase in purchases,” he said.
“What we saw in 2025 is reflective of the broader US economy,” added Omnisend e-commerce expert Marty Bauer.
“Growth has returned but has not reached everyone,” he said in a statement. “After years of inflation and uncertainty, people were still willing to spend, but they were much more thoughtful about where they spent their money.”
“Brands that were able to respond quickly to customer behavior,” he continued, “had a clear advantage, while others found it harder to keep up.”
Drivers of order growth
The ease of buying products online also contributes to higher order volumes, according to Mike Emiliani, vice president of marketing at Freight Right, a freight forwarding and e-commerce technology company in La Crescenta, Calif.
“Right now, it’s never been easier to buy something online,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “Easiest ever to discover something, add it to your checkout flow, send an order and receive it, sometimes the same day, and do it on most, if not all, mainstream social platforms and search networks.”
“Since almost all of the products that transact and drive these numbers are parcel-sized items, that’s where the drive to develop ways to make it easier to buy comes from, and the payoff comes from that,” he said.
“Previously time-consuming and laborious activities like setting up a Shopify store, unifying the buying channel between Google Ads and TikTok Shop and Etsy, and creating a detailed email campaign to reach any customer segment further down the line can now be done in an afternoon,” he added.
Social media sales and flexible shipping are also driving order volume, added Andre Inverdale, founder and managing consultant at Ardinal Strategy Group, a management consulting firm in Atlanta.
“Many e-commerce brands are using user-driven social media platforms that are integrated with direct sales,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “Platforms like TikTok Shop have been a massive engine of direct sales and traffic for smaller brands whose customer base is existing users of the platform.”
“Consumers’ comfort with online shopping has created opportunities for brands to provide shipping and delivery options for products that were once purchased exclusively in-store or posed a high risk for shipping, such as food and industrial equipment,” he added. “This convenience of online shopping has forced companies to reduce in-person operations and integrate delivery options for at least 90% of their products.”
The tap went down, it was spent
The Omnisend report also found that while shoppers engaged with marketing less often, they bought more when they did.
He noted that year-over-year, the average order value rose from $149 to $182, a 22% increase; average email marketing revenue increased 17%, from $0.08 to $0.10; and email click-to-conversion increased by 51%, from 5.0% to 7.69%.
Marketing performance data shows that quality is more important than quantity for American brands, the report explains. Even though it was harder to get clicks, each interaction was more valuable. Brands generated more revenue from fewer interactions, reflecting a shift toward more intentional shopping behavior.
Omnisend researchers also reported a 33% drop in email click-through rates. “Clicks have become harder to get in 2025, but they’ve also become more valuable,” noted Omnisend’s Bauer. “Shoppers were more selective, but when they engaged, they were prepared to spend more.”
“That’s why fewer interactions still produced more revenue,” he explained. “Each click delivered more intent than before. This shift rewarded brands that focused on efficiency and relevance rather than volume.”
Squeeze search with zero clicks
It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to get clicks because of “zero-click search,” Freight Right’s Emiliani added.
“Zero-click searches are searches where a user starts a search but doesn’t click on anything, usually because the result is provided to them in the app,” he explained.
“Zero-click has been growing for years and figures in the marketing community have been raising awareness about it for a long time,” he continued. “With generated insights and responses from Google Gemini, ChatGPT and others, click-free search is expected to grow even more.”
Ardinal’s Inverdale argued that Americans are less engaged with all marketing.
“Their final decisions are more influenced by product content, UGC and testimonials than traditional PPC campaigns,” he explained. “If they’re convinced when they discover your product and related content, they’re more likely to spend more and buy again.”
Automation pays off
Automation can be very effective in acquiring customers, according to the report. Automated emails—such as cart abandonment reminders, referrals based on past purchases, website sign-ups, guide downloads, and customer inquiries—were shown to generate 25% of total email revenue while accounting for only 1.7% of emails sent and generating higher revenue per email sent, $2.01, compared to 10 cents per planned e-mail.
The click-through conversion rate was also higher. For email it was 27.05% compared to 7.69% for scheduled mail; for SMS 3.61% versus 0.89%; for push notifications 17.88% versus 3.22%.
Brands that relied on automation weren’t trying to convince people to buy. They responded when customers had already expressed intent, Omnisend’s Bauer explained. “In a year when attention spans were limited and shoppers had more options than ever, this approach worked better.”
“Automated messages worked well because they fit naturally into how people shop today, rather than interrupting them,” he added.