The E-Commerce Boom Continues
In April 2021, I wrote an article titled "Is the E-Commerce Boom Here to Stay?" In that article, I explored the changes the e-commerce boom has induced and what the future of commerce could look like. I was cautiously optimistic that the e-commerce boom would continue and suggested preparing for its transformative power. However, there were no data to back up my prediction - until now.
Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released the survey results for its August 2021 Sales Report for Retail and Food Services.
The Census Bureau reports that Non-Store Retailers - we also refer to them as e-commerce stores - grew in August 2021 by 7.5% compared to the same month last year.
But one month alone can be an outlier. Instead, I prefer to look at a longer time interval.
Fortunately, the Sales Report contains data comparing the first eight months of 2021 to the first eight months of 2020. The growth rate for that 8-month period is even higher, coming in at 15.7%.
The two growth rates are nominal. That means that price increases may have been a contributing factor - but not the only one - in the rise in non-store sales.
Even after considering a certain amount of inflation, these growth rates impress me because unlike store retailers, which are catching up from last year's reduced pandemic sales, e-commerce stores already experienced a phenomenal 2020 and, therefore, compare to a higher base.
Here is one more interesting data point: The share of e-commerce to the total of retail and food services has barely changed from last year's 14% despite the strong sales recovery by store retailers.
So, is the e-commerce boom here to stay?
Looking at these growth rates, I feel optimistic that e-commerce is becoming an integral part of the way we shop.
