The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the development of electronic commerce in different countries of the world. Three countries - Italy, the USA, and China - were chosen for the analysis of the features of the development of e-commerce. The first one is the most classical country of the Old World by many criteria, the second one – the most characteristic representative of the countries of “migrant capital”, the third one – the brightest representative among the Asian countries due to the high growth rates of economic indicators and a planned development system that is almost unique in the modern world. The most popular types of e-commerce transactions in Italy are business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and consumer-to-consumer (C2C). Italy is lagging behind other European countries in the development of e-commerce due to the country’s aging population, a low percentage of people with bank accounts and bank cards, the low percentage of people with high-quality Internet access, and the fact that only a little more than half of the country’s population uses smartphones. The US e-commerce market is characterized by two main directions of B2B and B2C formats. The e-commerce market in the US is moderately fragmented. Amazon, Walmart.com, and BestBuy.com are the leading online stores in the US e-commerce market. They account for 35% of all online revenues in the US. The mobile shopping category is a growing trend. The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the shift to online consumption as consumers practice social distancing, and e-commerce orders for food and medical supplies have become a survival and convenience tool for the American family. E-commerce in China, despite its rapid development, also faces a number of problems, such as the lack of a security system, insufficiently developed intellectual property institutions, illegal trade, and fraud. The resale of personal information seriously damages the possibilities of sustainable development of e-commerce. Nevertheless, the government is developing measures aimed at solving these challenges and strives to develop stable and safe online trade in the country. 

e-commerce, digitalization, COVID-19 pandemic, e-trade, Internet trade