Top Online Shopping Categories

Why do stores need to know the top online shopping categories?

By performing market research about the most sought after online shopping categories, e-commerce business owners can optimize their inventory, boost their revenues, and mitigate their risks. In addition to delivering these benefits, this practice also leads online stores to serve their target audience in a better manner.

Manage operations more effectively

By learning about top online shopping categories, you can plan and execute your business activities in a way that helps you serve these popular segments. As a result, you can manage your operations in an optimized and targeted manner, while staying away from redundant activities that slow down the progress of your business.

Organize inventory with popular items

Once you determine the most popular online shopping categories, you can populate your inventory with relevant products and services. In addition to optimizing your spend, this also allows you to obtain or offer only those solutions that come with a higher chance of selling than many other options.

Increase consistent income

When you organize your operational activities as well as your inventory with the intention to serve popular markets, it allows you to cut back on unnecessary expenditure. At the same time, it leads you towards improving your overall income and profits through consistent sales of your goods or services.

Reduce financial risks

By being mindful of shopping categories list, you can also make sure to decrease your expenses on inventory that doesn’t have many chances to move or services that don’t significantly appeal to your audience. This also optimizes your marketing spend and lets you invest only in those solutions that have a high ROI.

Connect with target audience

No matter if you are establishing your online business or revamping your existing operations, knowing about popular e-commerce categories allows you to serve specific groups of consumers. Once you mold your services to cater to this target audience, it lets you master the aspects of conversions and customer retention.

Establish business presence

By focusing on a certain niche of goods or services, businesses can increase their chances for success. You can also reap the rewards of this approach by establishing your status as a specialized provider in your field. This goes a long way towards ensuring that your online business reaches the heights that you aspire to achieve.

Scale the business

Once you put together the factors of high ROI and optimal audience outreach, they lead to an ideal environment for growth in almost every sector. This enables you to scale your online business in a viable, sustainable, and trouble-free manner. As a result, you can easily achieve your short-term and long-term goals to expand your operations.

Due to these benefits, it is absolutely imperative for online businesses to know what type of shopping categories can offer the most sustainable business model. If you want to leave no stones unturned while turning your business into a success story, you can also adopt this practice for your website.

Most popular online shopping categories

In the United States, the top online shopping categories can differ in terms of total revenue and overall popularity, especially when compared to other countries. While the top performing e-commerce categories by commercial success are gathered by total sales, the most sought after e-commerce segments by popularity assess purchases made by individuals within a 12-month period.

Since both of these perspectives are highly important and allow you to make an informed decision, it is crucial that you look into both of these aspects. After understanding which categories can perform well in terms of financial success and which ones have already surpassed others in terms of popularity, you can choose how to adopt them for your business model.

Top e-commerce categories by popularity

This looks at the most popular online shopping categories in the U.S. This ranking is defined by the percentage of Americans who purchased something from a respective e-commerce category in the past 12 months of the respective survey (between April 2021 - March 2022).

This includes the following shopping categories list and percentage of consumers who bought at least one item from the respective segment.

• Clothing - 53%
• Shoes - 42%
• Consumer Electronics - 30%
• Books, Movies, Music, and Games - 28%
• Personal Care and Beauty - 28%
• Food and Beverage - 28%

As outlined by the statistics above, the topmost e-commerce category in terms of popularity is clothing. It stands tall with 53% of Americans purchasing at least one article of clothing during the past 12 months.

This is closely followed by shoes. This category highlights that 42% of Americans bought footwear within the past year of participating in the survey. The top-third category is consumer electronics, which saw these products fetching the attention of 30% of Americans.

Meanwhile, the categories of books, movies, music and games; cosmetics and body care; as well as food and beverage stood with an equal 28 percent of Americans purchasing something from them. This makes these three e-commerce categories stand at a tie.

Top e-commerce categories by revenue

Revenue numbers show us exactly where Americans spend their money when shopping online. Unlike popularity stats that just count how many people buy from each category, revenue figures reveal the actual dollar value each market generates. Here's a look at which online shopping categories earn the most money in the U.S.

The top revenue-generating online shopping categories in the U.S. include:

• Fashion and accessories: $162.9 billion in projected annual revenue, securing its position as America's highest-earning e-commerce category.
• Food: $125.6 billion expected revenue.
• Electronics: $120.1 billion in forecasted revenue from smartwatches, mobile phones, tablet computers, digital cameras, and other electronics.
• Beverages: $111.6 billion in projected sales.
• DIY and hardware: $108.6 billion in expected revenue.
• Furniture: $74.5 billion in projected sales.
• Media: $37.7 billion in expected revenue from books, movies, music, and other media products.
• Beauty and personal care: $28.4 billion in projected sales.

Overview of top product categories

After taking a look at the most popular online shopping categories, you may want to learn more about the general description of each category. Gathering this information can help you get your ducks in a row and be ready to elevate your business with proper planning.

To assist you with these tasks, here is an overview of shopping categories list that make the cut for their popularity as well as projected income.

Apparel and accessories

This category bundles clothing, shoes, and other apparel accessories. If you want to start your online store in an industry that shows consistent consumer demand and significant revenue projections, this could be a great fit for you.

Some of the items that are sold within this category include but are not limited to summer dresses, skirts, t-shirts, jeans, formal wear, sleepwear, and swimwear. The popular category of shoes also falls under this label and allows you to sell sought after sneakers and trendy heels to your target audience.

Consumer electronics

Together with apparel and accessories, it has also become the reigning champion of all e-commerce categories with its sky-high amount of sales since at least 2010.

Since consumer electronics is a vast segment, the products that you sell under this label can vary greatly in terms of their type and price. The best approach for you is to assess what your target audience may expect from you and decide upon the kind of products you want to offer.

DIY & hardware items

The DIY and hardware category has surged in popularity as more homeowners tackle renovation projects themselves. With projected revenue of $108.6 billion, this segment represents a substantial opportunity for online retailers.

This category covers everything from basic home tools to specialized equipment for serious DIY enthusiasts. Popular items include power tools, hand tools, building materials, paint supplies, and home improvement fixtures. Many customers do extensive research before purchasing, making detailed product information and comparison features essential for online stores in this space.

The success of DIY and hardware stores online often comes down to inventory depth and the ability to ship bulky or heavy items efficiently. Retailers who can offer competitive shipping rates or local pickup options tend to perform particularly well in this category. Additionally, video tutorials and how-to guides can significantly boost sales by giving customers confidence in their purchase decisions.

Media: Books, movies, music, and games

As outlined by the various labels of product types, this category has become one of the most expansive selection of items in e-commerce. However, it does not include streaming or digital downloads for media.

Instead, it refers to hard copies of books, movies, music, and games in the form of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray. This could make a great addition to your electronic or hobby store, depending upon what type of audience you want to entertain and which groups of products you want to sell.

Health, personal care, and beauty

This category is all about helping consumers take care of themselves while also providing them with health and fitness equipment.

This makes it a top category to have for many online stores. For instance, large retailers who offer everything under the sun could benefit from it just as much as small businesses that offer niche skincare products on their website.

Food and beverage

The food and beverage sales exclude any activity at restaurants for food delivery. Instead it only looks at edible products and drinks that are sold through online websites. In case you plan to succeed with your food products, you may want to go all in on this category.

For food and beverage, you can go through a variety of grocery, confectionery, and specialty drinks inventory. Depending upon your service areas and your partnership with shipping companies, you can learn how to deliver food items to your audiences’ doorsteps while prioritizing their health and safety.

Furniture and decor

The furniture and decor category had a boost during the pandemic where consumers were using these purchases to spruce up their homes. Now that people are getting back to work, the sales for these products still appeal to those who either love decorating or want to enhance their surroundings.

The products that you can offer under this label may include offerings such as couches, coffee tables, bed frames, and bookshelves. Apart from furniture, decor items could include products such as rugs, paintings, plants, and lighting fixtures.

How consumer behavior shapes top categories

The success of online shopping categories is directly influenced by how consumers browse, decide on, and purchase products. Shopping habits continue to evolve as technology advances and lifestyle preferences change. Understanding these behavioral patterns helps retailers anticipate market shifts and position their businesses for future growth.

Trends in mobile shopping

Mobile commerce now dominates online shopping as consumers increasingly complete purchases through smartphones and tablets. The rise of one-click purchasing, digital wallets, and shopping apps has made buying on mobile devices faster and more convenient than ever before.

Retailers who optimize their sites for mobile shopping with responsive designs, streamlined checkout processes, and app-based shopping experiences are capturing a growing share of e-commerce revenue.

Subscription-based product growth

The subscription model has expanded well beyond traditional media into everyday essentials, specialty foods, clothing, and beauty products. Consumers value the convenience of regular deliveries that eliminate the need to remember and reorder frequently used items.

Online stores offering subscription options benefit from predictable revenue streams, improved inventory management, and stronger customer relationships through repeated engagement.

Impact of social media on category demand

Social platforms have become shopping destinations. Product discovery is increasingly happening on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, where visual content and influencer recommendations drive category trends and purchasing decisions.

Categories that excel in visual presentation or benefit from demonstration, like fashion, beauty, and home goods, have seen particularly strong growth through social commerce channels.

Online shopping in 2025

With a slew of online shopping trends in 2025, you can execute a variety of approaches to make money online. Besides boosting your revenue, this could also help you optimize your spend and strengthen your connection with your target audience.

Fast delivery requirements

With the growing need for quick fulfillment by customers, ensuring faster delivery of orders is causing many retailers to go all in on optimizing their delivery channels. This has given way to new delivery methods that could make fulfillment faster, while also decreasing the spend that goes towards delivery mechanisms. You can also test out these innovative methods to ensure that you are fulfilling customers’ expectations without any compromise.

Fast growth categories

Two of the top online shopping categories in terms of revenue projection are also set to experience fast growth. This includes the segments of auto and parts with year-over-year growth of 30.1%, as well as food and beverage with year-over-year growth of 20.7%. If you have interesting offerings or simply feel confident in becoming a strong reseller, looking into these segments could be beneficial for you.

Livestream shopping

Livestream shopping refers to the mechanism where influencers or celebrities use social media livestreams to sell products in real time. The industry is massive in China, but in the United States, it’s still spreading its wings with social media channels testing its viability. By looking into this mode of selling, you can benefit from a new stream of revenue earlier than many of your competitors.

Digital ads reign supreme

With Gen-Z’s buying power now making its presence known, it is high time for businesses to find ways to reach this new generation of consumers. That is where using digital ads to connect with Gen-Z comes into the picture. By looking into this strategy, you can push for your most popular online shopping categories to be noticed by these younger consumers and strike possibly lifelong connections with this growing segment of audience.

As long as you keep an eye out for the latest trends and smartly utilize them within your approach, you can get the most out of your efforts. This not only applies to leveraging trending e-commerce categories, but also holds true for every other aspect of your online business.

Niche categories on the rise

Beyond the major e-commerce sectors, several specialized product categories are growing steadily. These niche markets offer opportunities for retailers to serve dedicated customer groups with specific needs. Three categories showing strong growth potential include pet products, eco-friendly goods, and hobby supplies.

Pet products

The pet products market is expanding as more Americans bring pets into their homes. Pet owners now spend significantly on quality food, durable toys, comfortable bedding, and health supplements.

Online stores offering subscription services for recurring pet needs, specialized dietary products, and innovative pet care items are finding success in this growing market.

Eco-friendly goods

Sustainable products continue gaining market share as environmental concerns influence purchasing decisions. Consumers increasingly choose reusable household items, plant-based alternatives, and products with minimal packaging.

Online retailers that verify their environmental claims, use sustainable shipping materials, and clearly explain product benefits are attracting environmentally conscious shoppers.

Hobby and DIY supplies

The hobby and craft market remains strong as people invest in creative activities and home improvement skills. Materials for crafting, gardening, home brewing, and specialized DIY projects sell well online.

Retailers who offer complete starter kits, clear instructions, and helpful resources are particularly successful in this category, as customers often need guidance when beginning new hobbies.

Tips for choosing a category for your online store

Selecting the right product category is one of the most important decisions when starting an e-commerce business. This choice affects everything from your inventory costs and profit margins to your marketing strategy and customer base. Here are three practical approaches to help you identify a promising category for your online store.

Research demand and competition

Before committing to a product category, thoroughly analyze both customer demand and the competitive landscape. Study search volume data for product-related keywords, examine seasonal buying patterns, and identify whether demand is steady, growing, or declining.

Also assess the number of established competitors, their market share, and pricing strategies to determine if there's room for a new entrant. Balancing high demand with manageable competition often leads to the most viable opportunities.

Consider your personal knowledge or passion

Your existing expertise or strong interest in a product category can provide significant advantages. Personal knowledge helps you understand customer needs, identify quality products, communicate effectively with suppliers, and create valuable content for your audience.

A genuine passion for your products also sustains motivation during challenging business periods and often translates into more authentic marketing and customer service.

Look for gaps in the market

Identifying underserved customer needs can reveal profitable niches within larger categories. Pay attention to customer complaints about existing products, features that buyers frequently request, or specific customer segments that feel overlooked by current options.

Even in crowded markets, addressing a specific pain point or bringing a fresh approach to a traditional product can help your store stand out and attract loyal customers.

Start your own e-commerce business

By using the knowledge of popular shopping categories list and beneficial business trends, you can set up a strong foundation for your own e-commerce business. This helps you start your online store with confidence, and also enables you to take it to the next level with your hard work and dedication.

The journey might seem tedious at first. But following the right spaces and taking informed advice can turn this challenge into an enthralling adventure.

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Key Takeaways

• Fashion, food, and electronics are the highest-earning categories in American e-commerce.
• Understanding which product categories perform best helps businesses optimize inventory, reduce financial risks, and connect more effectively with target audiences.
• Emerging niche markets like pet products, eco-friendly goods, and hobby supplies offer promising growth potential.
• When selecting a category for your store, success depends on balancing market demand with competition levels, leveraging your personal expertise, and identifying underserved customer needs.

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