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U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce shared their latest update on e-commerce. In a nutshell, Q3 2020 metrics are:
- US retail sales: $1,468.9 billion (+12% QoQ)
- US e-commerce: $209.5 billion (-1% QoQ)
- E-commerce as a % of total retail sales: 14.3%
E-comm YoY growth, however, from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020 is +36.7%.
Restaurant sales are part of US retail sales and do not overlap with U.S. e-comm unless the transaction occurred online.
With Holidays approaching, here’s a snapshot of retail e-commerce. Inflection point in 2019 and then concave upwards.
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This rate of change is exhilarating for operators in e-commerce. As infrastructure improves, last mile deliveries become ubiquitous in the coming decade, online payment solutions move to .coms versus in-store, we shouldn’t be surprised if e-commerce becomes 50%+ of US retail by 2025 (on the US census).
2020 is a black swan year, where we experienced decades in weeks. E-commerce as a vertical is perhaps the greatest beneficiary of that.