Electronics consumer spending can mean several different things: industry retail revenue, household survey spending, retailer sales, e-commerce, device shipments, or company revenue. The figures below keep those measures separate, with geography, periods and forecast or survey status stated explicitly.
Key Electronics Consumer Spending Statistics
These highlights span market scale, household context, retail activity, product trends and company measures:
- In the United States, CTA forecast $537 billion in 2025 consumer-technology retail revenue.
- In the United States, CTA forecast $520 billion in 2024 consumer-technology retail revenue.
- CTA estimated $508 billion in 2023 U.S. consumer-technology retail revenue.
- CTA forecast $353 billion in 2025 U.S. consumer-technology hardware retail revenue.
- CTA forecast $184 billion in 2025 U.S. consumer-technology software or service retail revenue.
- CTA projected 3.2% year-over-year growth in 2025 U.S. consumer-technology retail revenue.
- CTA reported software and services at 31% of 2024 U.S. consumer-technology industry revenue.
- U.S. consumer units averaged $2,508 of household furnishings and equipment spending in 2023.
- Household furnishings and equipment represented 3.2% of average U.S. consumer-unit expenditures in 2023.
- U.S. consumer units averaged $77,280 in total annual expenditures in 2023.
- U.S. electronics and appliance stores reported $13.781 billion in 2024 e-commerce sales.
- U.S. electronics stores reported $63.769 billion in 2024 sales, value of shipments or revenue in the Census AIES summary.
- Best Buy reported more than $43 billion in fiscal-2024 revenue.
- CTA expected more than 750 million connected consumer-technology devices to ship to the U.S. market in 2024.
- CTA expected 53 million laptops to ship to the U.S. market in 2024.
- CTA reported 4K Ultra HDTV prices fell 12% from 2022 to 2023.
- CTA forecast nearly $11.8 billion in 2024 U.S. live-TV streaming spending, up 11% from 2023.
- Apple reported $90.8 billion in fiscal Q2 2024 quarterly revenue worldwide.
- BEA estimated $56,202 in 2023 per-capita personal consumption expenditures across the United States.
Contents
- Key Electronics Consumer Spending Statistics
- U.S. Electronics Consumer Spending Market Size and Direction
- Hardware, Software and Services Spending Trends
- Household Electronics-Related Spending Data
- Electronics Retail, E-Commerce and Store Footprint Statistics
- Electronics Prices, Shipments and Category Forecasts
- Company Revenue and Geographic Spending Context
U.S. Electronics Consumer Spending Market Size and Direction
CTA’s January 2025 U.S. Technology Industry Outlook provides a broad industry view. Its retail-revenue series includes hardware and software or services, so it is not identical to household purchases of physical electronics.
| Period | CTA U.S. consumer-technology retail revenue | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $471 billion | Estimate |
| 2021 | $530 billion | Estimate |
| 2022 | $517 billion | Estimate |
| 2023 | $508 billion | Estimate |
| 2024 | $520 billion | Forecast |
| 2025 | $537 billion | Forecast |
Source: CTA, U.S. Technology Industry Outlook: Consumer Technology One-Year Industry Forecast, 2020-2025. The 2024 forecast implies 2.5% year-over-year growth, while the 2025 forecast implies 3.2% growth; neither is a household survey result.
CTA’s July 2024 midyear forecast instead put total 2024 U.S. consumer-technology retail revenue at $505 billion. That is a different forecast vintage and should not be merged with the January 2025 series: CTA midyear forecast.
Hardware, Software and Services Spending Trends
The CTA category split shows why the definition of electronics spending matters. Hardware is physical technology, while software or services captures non-hardware retail revenue in the CTA taxonomy.
| Period | Hardware retail revenue | Software or service retail revenue |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $332 billion | $139 billion |
| 2021 | $377 billion | $153 billion |
| 2022 | $363 billion | $154 billion |
| 2023 | $340 billion | $168 billion |
| 2024 | $344 billion forecast | $176 billion forecast |
| 2025 | $353 billion forecast | $184 billion forecast |
Source: CTA industry forecast. These are U.S. consumer-technology retail-revenue categories, not audited household expenditure totals.
CTA’s separate 2024 software-and-services report described software and services as 31% of total U.S. consumer-technology industry revenue and valued the 2024 opportunity at $163 billion. The report’s category is software and services, not physical-device spending: CTA, 2024 State of the U.S. Consumer Technology Software & Services Industry.
Household Electronics-Related Spending Data
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey does not isolate electronics in the supplied household series. Its household furnishings and equipment category is broader, and the values are nominal average consumer-unit amounts based on integrated Diary and Interview components.
| Year | Average household furnishings and equipment spending | Share of average expenditures |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $2,346 | 3.8% |
| 2021 | $2,701 | 4.0% |
| 2022 | $2,606 | 3.6% |
| 2023 | $2,508 | 3.2% |
Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023. These figures should be read as broad household furnishings-and-equipment context, not electronics-only spending.
BLS reported average annual expenditures of $77,280 for all U.S. consumer units in 2023. Average annual expenditures rose 5.9% from 2022 to 2023, a nominal change covering all spending categories rather than electronics: BLS, Consumer Expenditures–2023.
The household series therefore answers a different question from CTA’s industry forecast. It describes average consumer-unit outlays, while CTA describes retail revenue across the U.S. consumer-technology industry.
Electronics Retail, E-Commerce and Store Footprint Statistics
Census business statistics add a retail and distribution perspective, but they measure employer businesses and business activity rather than household-level purchases.
- The Census 2024 e-commerce table reported $13.781 billion in e-commerce sales for electronics and appliance stores.
- The same table reported $978.003 billion in e-commerce sales for electronic shopping and mail-order houses across all primary business activities.
- Nonstore retailers accounted for $725.906 billion of 2024 e-commerce sales in that broader activity table.
Source: Census, Retail Trade: Supplemental Total and E-commerce Sales for Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses. The electronics-and-appliance figure is by primary business activity, while the broader electronic-shopping and nonstore figures are not electronics-only.
The 2024 Census AIES summary for U.S. electronics stores, NAICS 443142, reported $6.499 billion in annual payroll, $63.769 billion in sales/value of shipments/revenue, and $47.012 billion in the table’s total receipts/sales-related measure. These are business measures, and the Census column labels should be retained when interpreting them: Census, Annual Integrated Economic Survey 2024.
Best Buy offers a single-retailer context rather than a market total. Its corporate overview reported more than $43 billion of fiscal-2024 revenue, more than 1,000 North American retail stores and more than 85,000 employees: Best Buy Corporate Overview.
Electronics Prices, Shipments and Category Forecasts
Shipments and prices help explain market movement, but neither is the same as consumer spending. A shipment forecast concerns units entering the market, while a price change does not establish a spending change unless purchased quantities are also known.
CTA expected more than 750 million connected consumer-technology devices to ship to the U.S. market in 2024, including 53 million laptops. It projected laptop shipments 4% above 2023 and computing-unit shipments 3.6% higher than 2023: CTA midyear forecast.
Other CTA 2024 shipment forecasts were 1.2% growth for digital-health devices and 6.2% growth for digital cameras, both compared with 2023. These are forecast unit changes, not spending growth.
| Category or service | Reported or forecast measure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| 4K Ultra HDTV | Prices down 12% | 2022–2023 |
| Smart doorbells | Prices down 6% | 2022–2023 |
| Wireless earbuds | Prices down 5% | 2022–2023 |
| Home gaming consoles | Prices down 5% | 2022–2023 |
| Live-TV streaming | Nearly $11.8 billion; up 11% | 2024 forecast vs. 2023 |
| Gaming | Above $50 billion; up 3% | 2024 forecast vs. 2023 |
Source: CTA midyear forecast. Live-TV streaming and gaming include services or software and therefore extend beyond physical electronics.
Consumer Electronics Company Revenue and Geographic Spending Context
Company revenue can illustrate the scale of major participants, but it is not a direct measure of consumer electronics spending. Apple reported fiscal Q2 2024 revenue of $90.8 billion for the quarter ended March 30, 2024, down 4% year over year: Apple reports second quarter results.
BEA’s state personal-consumption-expenditure data provides broad purchasing-power context. It covers goods and services purchased by or on behalf of households and nonprofit institutions, not electronics alone, and current-dollar values reflect both prices and quantities.
| Geography | 2023 per-capita personal consumption expenditures |
|---|---|
| United States states and District of Columbia | $56,202 |
| Massachusetts | $69,101 |
| Mississippi | $42,131 |
| District of Columbia | $92,037 |
BEA reported that per-capita PCE rose from $53,082 in 2022 to $56,202 in 2023 across the 50 states and District of Columbia. The national and geographic figures are context for overall consumption capacity, not electronics-specific demand: BEA, Personal Consumption Expenditures by State, 2023.