Worldwide e-commerce sales surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time in 2012, according to a new eMarketer estimate out today.

The research firm estimates that B2C online sales grew 21.1 percent last year to $1.097 trillion. Leading the way was the US e-commerce industry, which grew 13.9 percent to an estimated sales total of $364.66 billion. EMarketer expects that to grow in 2013 to just above $409 billion.

Despite that growth, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow even faster and take over the top spot in online sales in 2013 – with an estimated 33.4 percent of all e-commerce activity.

EMarketer says that China is leading the surge in e-commerce activity in the Asia-Pacific region, and will surpass Japan as the No. 2 country this year (behind the US).

Overall, global B2C e-commerce sales are expected to reach $1.298 trillion in 2013, a gain of 18.3 percent over this year’s record.

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | E-Commerce | Statistics: General | Statistics: Online Behavior

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