E-commerce order volume across all channels in the United States grew 147% year over year in 2025, according to Omnisend’s eighth annual e-commerce marketing study, but that growth was uneven: the top 5% of brands accounted for 54% of total order growth.
Digital gains were concentrated among a relatively small group of high-performing businesses, partially due to a shift in shopper behavior as consumers interacted with marketing less often, the email and SMS marketing platform indicated. However, when they did, consumers demonstrated greater purchase intention. Those who clicked on promotions were 51% more likely to buy than in the previous year, and they spent 22% more per order.
Brands that can respond to purchase intent in real time can capture more of the demand in the marketplace. Behavior-based automated emails, for example, generated 25% of total email revenue from just 1.7% of sends and consistently outperformed scheduled campaigns.
Among the study’s other findings:
- Average order value rose from $149 to $182, up 22%
- Average revenue per email grew 17% from eight cents to 10 cents
- Email click rates decreased by 33%
- Email click-to-conversion, up 51%, rose from 5% to 7.69%
- Automated emails generated 25% of total email revenue but represented only 1.7% of email sends
- Revenue per automated email send was $2.01
- Revenue per scheduled email send was 10 cents
“What we saw in 2025 reflects the broader U.S. economy: growth came back, but it didn’t reach everyone,” says Marty Bauer, Omnisend e-commerce expert, in announcing the study results. “After years of inflation and uncertainty, people were still willing to spend, but they were much more intentional about where they spent their money. Brands that were able to react quickly to customer behavior had a clear advantage, while others found it harder to keep up.”
