Some 22% of beauty retail sales worldwide will take place online this year, the most of any sales channel, per McKinsey. Physical specialty stores, such as Sephora and Ulta Beauty, will come in a close second (20%), while department stores will rank last (8%).

US retail marketplace ecommerce sales will reach $603.20 billion in 2027, representing 34.8% of total retail ecommerce sales, per our forecast.

Key stat: In the US, 71% of Gen Z adults say they are likely to make a purchase directly via Instagram, according to Jungle Scout. Just 40% of adults overall say the same, with the caveat that older generations are less likely to buy from social networks in general.

Smart TVs are used by 61.9% of US connected TV (CTV) households, making them the top CTV device by far, per Comscore CTV Intelligence. In second and third place are Amazon Fire TV (29.1%) and Roku (28.4%), respectively.

US alcohol off-premises retail ecommerce sales will reach $6.85 billion this year, growing 6.1% over 2022, according to our forecast. Growth will reach double digits come 2026.

Over half of US and UK adults research and buy products online via a retailer’s website, per Coveo. More than a third (37%) take a slightly different approach, researching products on a retailer’s website but waiting to buy them in a physical store.

Digital D2C disruptors, like Peloton and Casper, will bring in about $100 billion less in US ecommerce sales than the $134.55 billion of their established counterparts this year, according to our forecast.

Close to a third of US digital buyers will purchase from a company located outside the country in 2024, for a total of 71.8 million cross-border ecommerce buyers, per our forecast.

Half of US B2B marketers say that social media contributes most to achieving top-of-funnel goals, per Ascend2. Email (43%) and in-person/live events (34%) were the second- and third-most effective top-of-funnel tactics.

Retailers worldwide will spend $4.09 billion advertising on YouTube this year, per WARC Media. Next year, that figure will increase by nearly half a billion to $4.56 billion.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of loyalty program professionals, across industries, say their biggest challenge is offering deep enough discounts to attract customers, per a global survey by Eagle Eye. Another 23% have a hard time balancing margins with attractive discounts, and 21% find it difficult to deliver offers to customers at the right time.

Key stat: Google’s share of US nonretail search ad spend has declined since 2021, when the company saw $57.49 billion in US search ad revenues, according to our forecast. Among Google’s rivals outside of retail, both Microsoft and Apple are growing their search revenues faster.

This year, US social network ad spending will grow at its slowest pace since we began tracking it, at just 3.4%, to reach $68.45 billion, according to our forecast.

Key stat: The top way US internet users discover new mobile apps is by searching or browsing app stores, cited by 44% of those surveyed for Airship by Sapio Research.

Key stat: Among US adults who are very trusting of generative AI, 60% are men and 40% are women, according to Morning Consult. People who trust AI also tend to be millennials and have less than a college education.

Ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services will gain more than triple the US viewers that subscription OTT video will this year, per our forecast. AVOD will add 13.3 million viewers, including 4.3 million from free premium platforms, for a total of 157.1 million. Meanwhile, subscription OTT services will gain 4.3 million viewers to reach 222.2 million.

There will be 90.0 million monthly users of augmented reality (AR) in the US this year, a figure that, despite decelerating growth, will cross the 100 million mark in 2025, according to our forecast. Virtual reality (VR) will hit 68.9 million users this year, though growth has also tapered off.

Lack of people and process training is the biggest obstacle to leveraging AI, cited by 42% of B2C professionals worldwide in a Twilio survey. Other barriers to AI adoption include security or compliance (36%), poor organizational processes (34%), and poor-quality data (31%).

Data security is the most important feature to adults worldwide when deciding whether to transact with a business online, according to TransUnion. An easy payment process is the second most important, followed by ease of login or authentication.

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.