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E-commerce orders in the United States jumped 147% year-over-year in 2025, with more than half that growth spurred by top-performing brands, 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 Omnisend’s email and marketing platform.
The top 5% of brands accounted for 54% of total order growth, indicating gains were concentrated among a relatively small group of high-performing businesses, the e-commerce marketing study noted.
Two contributing factors to the surge in orders were more intentional buying — purchasing made thoughtfully and aligned with personal goals, rather than on impulse, habit, or marketing pressure — and pre-buying. “We’re seeing a lot more intentional shopping,” said Omnisend E-Commerce and Retail Advisor Greg Zakowicz.
“We’ve been seeing that for probably 18 to 24 months now, but I think last year it really escalated,” he told the E-Commerce Times.
“During the first part of the year, tariffs and logistics bottlenecks causing prices to go up were the main talking points,” he explained. “So during the early part of the year, we had a lot of pre-buying to offset expected price increases.”
“I think between those two things coming together, it just exploded the increase in purchases overall,” he said.
“What we saw in 2025 reflects the broader U.S. economy,” added Omnisend E-Commerce Expert Marty Bauer.
“Growth came back, but it didn’t reach everyone,” he said in a statement. “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,” he continued, “had a clear advantage, while others found it harder to keep up.”
Drivers of Order Growth
The ease of buying products online is also contributing to greater order volumes, maintained Mike Emiliani, VP of marketing at Freight Right, a freight forwarding and e-commerce technology company in La Crescenta, Calif.
“Right now, it has never been easier to buy something online,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “It’s the easiest it’s ever been to discover something, add it to a checkout flow, submit an order, and receive it, sometimes, the same day, and do it on most, if not all, common social platforms and search networks.”
“Because almost all of the products transacting and powering these numbers are parcel-sized goods, that’s where the effort to develop ways to make it easier to buy is going, and the reward for doing so is coming from,” he said.
“Once time-consuming, high-friction activities like setting up a Shopify store, unifying the shopping feed between Google Ads and TikTok Shop and Etsy, and making a detailed email drip campaign to engage any segment of customers further towards a sale can now be done in an afternoon,” he added.
Social media sales and flexible shipping are also driving higher order volumes, added Andre Inverdale, the founder and managing consultant at Ardinal Strategy Group, a management consulting firm in Atlanta.
“Many e-commerce brands have been leveraging user-generated content-driven social media platforms that are integrated with direct sales,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “Platforms such as TikTok Shop have been a massive driver of direct sales and shipping for smaller brands whose customer bases are 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 solely purchased in-store or posed a high risk for shipping, such as groceries and industrial equipment,” he added. “This convenience with online shopping has forced companies to reduce their in-person operations and integrate delivery options for at least 90% of their products.”
Clicks Fell, Spending Rose
The Omnisend report also found that while shoppers engaged with marketing less often, they bought more when they did.
It noted that, year-over-year, average order value rose from $149 to $182, a 22% increase; average revenue per marketing email increased by 17%, from $0.08 to $0.10; and email click-to-conversion increased by 51%, rising from 5.0% to 7.69%.
The marketing performance data shows that quality mattered more than quantity for U.S. brands, the report explained. While it became harder to earn clicks, each interaction was more valuable. Brands generated more revenue from fewer engagements, reflecting a shift toward more intentional shopping behavior.
Omnisend’s researchers also reported a 33% decline in email click-through rate. “Clicks became harder to get in 2025, but they also became more valuable,” observed Omnisend’s Bauer. “Shoppers were more selective, but when they did engage, they were ready to spend more.”
“That’s why fewer interactions still produced more revenue,” he explained. “Each click carried more intent than it did before. That shift rewarded brands that focused on efficiency and relevance, rather than volume.”
Zero-Click Search Squeeze
Clicks are also getting harder to get because of “zero-click searches,” added Freight Right’s Emiliani.
“Zero-click searches are searches where the user runs a search but doesn’t click through to anything, usually because the result is provided to them in-application,” he explained.
“Zero-click has been rising for years, and figures in the marketing community have been raising awareness about it for a long time,” he continued. “With generated overviews and answers from Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and others, zero-click searches are expected to increase all the more.”
Ardinal’s Inverdale argued that Americans are not interacting less with all marketing.
“Their ultimate decisions are more influenced by product content, UGC, and testimonials as opposed to more traditional PPC campaigns,” he explained. “If they are convinced upon discovery of your product and related content, their likelihood of spending more and purchasing again increases.”
Automation Pays Off
Automation can be very effective in corralling shoppers, according to the report. It revealed that automated emails — such as cart abandonment reminders, recommendations based on past purchases, website sign-ups, guide downloads, and customer inquiries — generated 25% of total email revenue while representing just 1.7% of email sends and generated greater revenue per email sent, US$2.01, compared to 10 cents for scheduled email.
Click-to-conversion rates were also higher. For email, they were 27.05%, compared to 7.69% for scheduled mail; for SMS, 3.61% compared to 0.89%; for push notifications, 17.88% compared to 3.22%.
Brands that relied on automation weren’t trying to convince people to buy. They were responding when customers had already shown intent, Omnisend’s Bauer explained. “In a year when attention was limited, and shoppers had more options than ever, that approach worked better.”
“Automated messages performed well because they fit naturally into how people shop today, rather than interrupting them,” he added.