Reference desk
U.S. apparel &
online retail statistics
A concise, citable set of U.S. figures for writers, researchers, and people trying to make sense of the clothes-and-commerce machine without opening twelve tabs.
Last updated October 28, 2026 · Sources include the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
What this covers
The numbers behind the rack.
These figures put independent apparel and graphic-tee retail in context: how much U.S. households spend, how quickly online retail is moving, and what the public record says about textile waste. Every figure links directly to its primary source. Dates matter here, because a stat without one is just a confident little ghost.
$340.2B
U.S. retail e-commerce sales in Q2 2026
The seasonally adjusted estimate rose 3.8% from the prior quarter.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Q2 2026 ↗+12.2%
year-over-year growth in U.S. e-commerce sales
Q2 2026 online retail growth outpaced total retail sales growth of 6.7% over the same period.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Q2 2026 ↗$2,001
average household spending on apparel and services
The 2024 figure includes clothing, footwear, and related services, and was 2.0% lower than 2023.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024 ↗$655
average household spend on women's apparel
This was the largest selected apparel category reported in the 2023 BLS apparel breakdown.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023 ↗14.7%
of U.S. textiles were recycled
EPA estimates 2.5 million tons of textiles were recycled in 2018, the latest year in this series.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2018 ↗11.3M tons
of textiles went to U.S. landfills
The EPA's 2018 material-flow estimate provides the latest figure in its textile series.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2018 ↗Methodology & sources
Built for quoting,
not hand-waving.
This page only uses published figures from public U.S. sources. The date beside each statistic is the reporting period for that number, not a claim that every data series updates at the same speed. Census online-retail figures are quarterly. Household-spending figures come from annual consumer surveys. EPA's textile material-flow series currently runs through 2018.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditures in 2024
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Apparel Data in Fashion
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Textiles: Material-Specific Data
Cite this page
“U.S. Apparel & Online Retail Statistics,” T.M. Skye Print Co., updated October 28, 2026, tm-print-co.com/apparel-and-online-retail-statistics. Link to the specific statistic above when you can, so the number keeps its context.
From the reference desk