By Simon DavisThe ecommerce industry is growing rapidly and growth is expected to continue. To be competitive in this market, you need to develop a product that interests the most people around the world. Check out these 10 stats to see why this industry is the place to be today. Careful though; there’s a strong chance you’re going to want to create your own product and find an enterprise ecommerce software to host it after reading this!

1. E-commerce sales are expected to grow to almost $500 billion by 2018, with eMarketer projecting a sales amount of $491 billion. This is an increase of approximately $200 billion over four years.

2. You want to make sure you reach all your customers and that includes those who shop on mobile phones and other devices. Consumers using mobile devices made up 70 percent of the time spent on retail sites in 2016, and were 20 percent of online sales.

3. Another reason why you want to make your product available through an app: 13 percent of shoppers in 2015 only accessed online retailers through their mobile device. Retailers expect this number to continue to increase, making this group an attractive market to target.

4. According to eMarketer, online sales of books, music and video grew by 5 percent in 2013, compared to 16.9 percent growth in overall retail. Sales of these products are expected to be more than 46 billion in 2018, making these good options to consider when setting up an online store.

5. Computers and related products are another area you can consider. These products are expected to comprise 21.1 percent of the market in 2018.

6. Are you concerned that you will lose sales by not having a brick-and-mortar store? The 2016 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide reports that online sales for web-only retailers accounted for 50.3 percent of the $39.31 billion in 2015 overall sales.

7. E-commerce is a great way to get customers to view your product. Global traffic is expected to reach 1.1 zettabytes in 2016, and 2.3 by 2020. You want to consider intentional marketing because 40 percent of that traffic is from Asia.

8. Why do people buy internationally? Ipsos and PayPal found that 54 percent of consumers felt their information was safer when they bought internationally, and 49 percent stated they received purchase protection. These are two aspects you will want to consider when setting up your store.

9. Another thing to consider is how to get customers to pay for your product. Studies show that B2B ecommerce customers prefer to pay instantly with a credit card, with 50 percent paying with this method.

10. You may be wondering whether ecommerce sales in the United States have grown. In quarter 2 of 2016, U.S. sales grew 15.8 percent. Online sales were 10.9 percent of total retail sales during this same quarter, when items not typically bought online, such as fuel, were removed from the total.

Now that you know more about this market, it's time to get your product online and reach customers. Before you know it, you will be connecting with customers and seeing your product fly out of your store.[author]About the Author: Simon Davis has been a full-time business writer since the last 4 years and has had the privilege of attending some of the most renowned business conclaves held across the world. When not on business he loves spending time with his girlfriend and a bit of adventure sports. [/author]