3PL, shipping and ecommerce statistics
Reference pages on the numbers behind fulfillment: 3PL counts and costs, Amazon's network, ecommerce returns, and the ships, canals and trucks that move freight.
Ecommerce and returns
- Average Ecommerce Return Rate: 19.3% of Online Sales (2025)The average ecommerce return rate is 19.3% of online sales, the National Retail Federation and Happy Returns' estimate for 2025. That is how much of their online revenue large US retailers expect to see come back, against 15.8% for retail as a whole. We set NRF's figure beside Appriss Retail's count of $706 billion in 2025 returns, then break returns down by channel, fraud, cost and season.Updated October 10, 2026
- Cost of Ecommerce Returns: 30% of Each Item's Value (2025)Processing a return costs US retailers an average of 30% of the item's value, Appriss Retail's figure for 2025, or $211 billion across $706 billion of returned goods. That average folds postage, handling, customer service and markdowns into one number. We price the 2 lines a brand can quote for itself, the return label and the 3PL's fee, then show how item price, shipping zone and fraud move the total.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Many Orders Does TikTok Shop Process? 2025 Order MathTikTok Shop processed an estimated 1.2 to 1.6 billion orders outside China in 2025, about 3.4 to 4.4 million a day, with 274 to 358 million of them in the US. TikTok reports sales rather than orders, so these counts are our division of ECDB's $64.4 billion sales estimate by its order values. ECDB's own 12.58 billion orders also includes Douyin, TikTok's Chinese sister app, which made 90% of the sales.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Many Shopify Stores Are There? 3.1 Million in 2026Store Leads counts 3,103,755 live Shopify stores worldwide in its report updated October 2, 2026, and 1,186,833 of them are in the United States. Shopify publishes no store total of its own: its 2025 annual report places its merchants across more than 175 countries, counts them only as millions, and puts the orders they processed through it at $378.4 billion. Here is each count with its unit, then stores by country, category, catalog size and year.Updated October 10, 2026
Amazon
- FBA vs FBM Seller Percentage: 82% Use FBA, 34% Use FBMIn Jungle Scout's 2024 State of the Amazon Seller survey of nearly 2,000 sellers, 82% use Fulfillment by Amazon and 34% fulfill at least some orders themselves through FBM. The shares overlap, so at least 16% run both. Amazon publishes no split by seller; its own figure is that third-party sellers, FBA and FBM together, sold 61% of its paid units in the second quarter of 2026.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Many Amazon Orders Per Year? 6.9 Billion US ParcelsAmazon does not publish how many orders it receives in a year. The closest measured count is parcels: Pitney Bowes puts Amazon Logistics at 6.9 billion US parcels in 2025, 29.9% of the country's parcel volume. Amazon's own figure is items: over 13 billion reached Prime members around the world on the day they ordered or the day after. Below are each count with its unit, the daily rates, the carrier and sales splits, and Prime Day peaks.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Many People Work for Amazon? 1,595,000 in 2026Amazon employed 1,595,000 people worldwide on June 30, 2026, according to its second-quarter results, up 3% in a year and 19,000 higher than at the end of 2025. The count covers its own payroll, part-time staff included; contractors and temporary personnel are left out, and so are the 390,000 drivers who work for Amazon's Delivery Service Partners. Here is the count by quarter since 2021, then drivers, robots, job cuts, pay and holiday hiring.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Many Warehouses Does Amazon Have? 819.7M Sq Ft in 2025Amazon does not publish a warehouse count. Its annual report lists 819.7 million square feet of facilities at the end of 2025, and 726.4 million of that is fulfillment, data center and other space. Amazon describes hundreds of facilities without a total, and MWPVL International, the consultancy that listed its buildings one by one, stopped updating that list online after early 2025. Below: the footprint by use, region, building type and year.Updated October 10, 2026
3PL market
- How Many 3PLs Are There? 70,879 US Businesses in 2026IBISWorld counts 70,879 businesses in its US third-party logistics industry for 2026, up 0.5% on 2025. No government agency counts 3PLs as a category, but Bureau of Labor Statistics data show 25,241 freight arrangement and 23,848 warehousing establishments in early 2026, and Armstrong & Associates profiles 875 3PL companies worldwide. Here is each count with its definition, then the breakdowns by warehouse type, size, year, segment and region.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Much Does a 3PL Cost? $3.21 an Order Plus PostageA 3PL costs about $3.21 to pick and pack a 1-item online order and $19.37 a month to store each pallet, the 2026 averages in The Fulfillment Advisor's survey of US and Canadian warehouses. Postage is billed on top: a 1 lb USPS Ground Advantage commercial parcel costs $8.01 to $11.22. Receiving, setup, returns and a monthly minimum fill out the invoice.Updated October 10, 2026
Shipping and freight
- How Many Cargo Ships Are There? 115,649 Ships in 2026UNCTAD counts 115,649 merchant ships in the world fleet at the start of 2026, able to carry 2.53 billion deadweight tons between them. Of those, 56,266 fall in its 4 cargo categories: 21,661 general cargo ships, 14,630 bulk carriers, 12,931 oil tankers and 7,044 container ships. Here is the fleet by type, size, flag and year, and what the container count means for a brand that imports.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Many Shipping Containers Are Lost at Sea? 1,478 in 2025The World Shipping Council estimates 2025's losses at 1,478 shipping containers, against about 280 million moved, or 0.0005%. That is 2.6 times the 2024 count of 576, and a single vessel loss accounts for 640 of the boxes. WSC's survey is the only long series, running back to 2008, and from 2026 the IMO collects mandatory loss reports too. Below: losses by year, rate, cause, route and recovery.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Much Cargo Goes Through the Panama Canal? 2026 DataThe Panama Canal carried 262.3 million long tons of cargo on 13,404 transits in fiscal 2025, the year to September 2025, by the Panama Canal Authority's count. Its headline measure, PC/UMS tonnage, puts the same traffic at 489.2 million tons. Of that cargo, 69.9% began or ended in the United States. Here is each count, the 2026 drought limits, and the breakdowns by ship type, commodity, lock and country.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Much Cargo Goes Through the Suez Canal? 464M Tons (2025)The Suez Canal carried 464.4 million tons of cargo in 2025 on 12,758 ship transits, according to the Suez Canal Authority. That is about 35% of the 1.32 billion tons that crossed in the record year of 2023, before attacks in the Red Sea sent much of the container fleet around Africa. IMF PortWatch estimates put 2026 cargo 11% ahead of 2025 through September, with container ships the slowest to return.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Much Freight Goes Through the Strait of Hormuz in 2026?About 85 ships a day crossed the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, 31,218 transits in all, by IMF PortWatch's satellite count. Tankers made 56% of them and moved about 20 million barrels of oil a day, by the IEA's estimate; container ships, bulk carriers, general cargo ships and car carriers made the rest. After fighting began on February 28, 2026, traffic from March to September ran at 6.8% of the same months of 2025.Updated October 10, 2026
- Is There a Truck Driver Shortage? 2026 Counts and TurnoverNot of licensed drivers, on the federal evidence in 2026. BLS counts 2,221,200 heavy and tractor-trailer truck driver jobs in 2025 and projects 214,500 openings a year, nearly all of them replacing drivers who leave. ATA's shortage estimate hit a record 80,000 in 2021, and FMCSA now expects a licensing rule to push about 194,000 drivers with non-domiciled licenses out of freight over 5 years. Below: the counts, turnover, the rule and pay.Updated October 10, 2026
Parcels and postal
- How Many Packages Are Delivered Each Day? 63.3M US ParcelsAbout 63.3 million parcels a day were delivered in the US in 2025, by the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index: 23.1 billion for the year across every carrier, up 3.3%. Amazon Logistics delivered the most, about 18.9 million a day. Each carrier's own daily figure runs higher because it divides by working days rather than 365. Below are the carriers on both bases, the peak season, the trend since 2016 and the global count.Updated October 10, 2026
- How Many Post Offices Are in the US? 26,147 in FY2025The US had 26,147 Post Offices on September 30, 2025, the last day of the Postal Service's fiscal year, by its annual report to Congress. Add its 4,825 stations and branches, carrier annexes included, and USPS runs 30,972 retail units itself; add 1,935 counters that contractors run and the network reaches 32,907 locations. Below: each count, the trend since 1789, the states, and what the network means for shipping.Updated October 10, 2026