Survey: Consumers over 45 make up growing share of U.S. e-commerce market
E-commerce is no longer just for younger generations that are more online savvy.
New data from Brazilian FinTech company Ebanx and consumer research firm World Data Lab's Beyond Borders 2026 Report revealed that American consumers over 45 years old account for 50% of the total value of all online purchases. By 2035, the over-45 cohort will represent 54% of all U.S. digital transactions, while those over the age of 65 will make up for nearly a quarter (23%) of online purchases.
This trend among U.S. consumers closely mirrors other developed countries. Japan (60%), Italy (60%), South Korea (55%), Germany (54%), France (54%), the Netherlands (50%), Canada (50%), and the United Kingdom (49%) all have a strong portion of their online transactions made up by those over the age of 45.
Across most of the countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, e-commerce is dominated by younger buyers. Consumers under 30 drive 65% of online spending in Nigeria, 62% in Kenya, 52% in Egypt, 51% in the Philippines, 47% in India and 44% in Malaysia.
In Latin America, the distribution is more balanced, but younger cohorts still claim a larger share in Mexico (41%), Argentina (34%) and Brazil (32%) than they do in the U.S. (26%).
“The world's largest economies built their digital commerce on cards, high disposable income, and decades of retail maturity – a system shaped by consumers who were already adults when e-commerce began,” said Estelita Hass, head of market intelligence at Ebanx. “Most emerging markets leapfrogged that cycle entirely, going straight to mobile and instant payments. The result is an entire generation entering online commerce with no attachment to traditional retail, fully digital from the start of their consumption lives.”
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According to the Ebanx report, 84% of American online spending is driven by high-income and upper middle class consumers, or spending more than $90 per day. That's the highest level of concentration among the 184 countries analyzed, and is expected to reach 88% by 2035.
Meanwhile, the share held by core middle and lower middle segments, defined by daily spending between $13 and $90, is projected to shrink from 15% to 12% in the same period.
“The data in our report paints a consistent picture across both age and spending: the digital consumer that American and European companies know at home — older, affluent, card-native — is an outlier in the global landscape,” added Hass. “The vast majority of the world's online buyers are younger, earn less, and pay differently. They are entering the digital marketplace for the first time, and they are doing so on their own terms.”
