Recently, a comprehensive report on the state of ecommerce in 2026 was released, and it highlighted several key insights, facts, and stats about the industry. Specifically, it mentions growth drivers, challenges, and the fact that while growth is widespread, scaling it isn’t always easy.
Growth is Widespread, But Scaling This Growth is Key
One of the main points that the recent report makes sure to highlight is that while growth is widespread, scaling this growth is the key to success. According to the research, 89.6% of UK retailers and 88.8% of U.S. retailers report moderate to significant year-over-year growth.
However, the report mentions that this growth isn’t just based on customer demand. While demand is clearly still a part of growth for ecommerce businesses, the defining factor is execution. If a company isn’t able to coordinate things like its systems and processes as scale increases, sustaining growth will be a challenge.
Retailers finding the most success don’t simply have the most demand or are the most aggressive about their growth. Oftentimes, the companies that can scale successfully and have the strongest foundation will succeed.
These companies may use automation to speed up processes, AI to handle mundane tasks and boost decision-making, and integrate all platforms and systems to maintain full operational visibility.
Speaking of visibility, the report mentions inventory visibility as a major scalability bottleneck that holds companies back, as only around a third of all companies report excellent inventory visibility.
The majority of companies operate with gaps that are initially small, but as the company attempts to grow and scale, these small gaps grow too, and may lead to major challenges in the future.
As a result, while all brands have growth ambitions, this report shows that it’s crucial to ensure these ambitions don’t outpace operational readiness. Ecommerce brands most likely to succeed and truly take advantage of their growth are the ones with a strong foundation and those that have properly prepared to scale.
Drivers of Growth in the Ecommerce Industry
The report also touches on several of the growth drivers that are pushing the ecommerce industry forward. According to the research, automation is the most consistent growth driver. In fact, retailers that have invested in automation report smooth order flows, fewer errors, and a better ability to handle seasonal demand.
However, simply having automation in place is no longer enough to differentiate yourself, as 64.8% of UK retailers and 60% of U.S. retailers report operations that are majority or highly automated. As a result, how you use automation and how it’s integrated in your systems is what’s important.
Another major growth driver in the space is multichannel expansion. Retailers across the USA and UK are continuing to add new marketplaces, regions, and sales channels, in hopes of reaching even more potential customers. The report finds that retailers in both the USA and UK sell on an average of more than 4 marketplaces.
Other research shows that 86% of brands are already selling on two or more channels, and 75% expect to add at least one more sales channel in 2026.
However, there are also some risks and challenges associated with selling on multiple channels or in multiple places, such as managing international returns, complying with customs, duties, and tax rules, processing payments and converting currencies, and the complexity of shipping internationally in general.
Lastly, the report finds that fulfillment execution also plays a role in your growth. Retailers that report strong growth often highlight things like fulfillment accuracy, delivery reliability, and carrier flexibility.
Operational Challenges and Pressure Points
Finally, the report also covers some operational challenges and pressure points for ecommerce brands in 2026. Some of the most common points of failure, according to businesses, include inventory accuracy, system reliability, and fulfillment execution.
Other challenges noted in the research include data accuracy issues, difficulty managing delivery times, fragmented reporting and analytics, and coordination between warehouses and fulfillment.
Shipping was also mentioned frequently as an ecommerce pressure point. Of course, the rising shipping costs make life hard for ecommerce brands, but so do the growing expectations in terms of shipping times.
Shipping and delivery often define the customer experience, as many customers want to pay less for shipping but also expect shipments to arrive quickly. With both shipping speed and cost being very important to consumers when deciding where to shop, ecommerce brands need to find the right balance between the two.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I feel this report contains a huge collection of useful information for ecommerce brands to learn about the ecommerce industry itself, what’s driving it, and some challenges that they need to deal with or prepare for.
Specifically, I like how the report didn’t only focus on the positives of the industry, such as widespread growth, but also covered potential negatives like operational challenges, scaling issues, and more.
While focusing on these positives and looking solely at the growth in the industry may make a company feel good, to truly find long-term success, you need to be aware of the challenges or pressures you may face, and ensure you’re prepared to take them on.
