US Ecommerce Sales (2011–2021)
Data from the US Department of Commerce shows that US ecommerce sales have been growing steadily for over a decade, with significant growth in the previous year.
In 2020, total US ecommerce sales reached $759.47 billion, a 31.73 percent year-over-year increase from 2019’s $576.53 billion. It’s also the fastest US ecommerce growth rate in ten years, nearly doubling the second-highest growth rate of 17.81 percent in 2011.
That marks an impressive increase from the start of the decade. In just nine years, annual US ecommerce sales multiplied by nearly four times.
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Get Started FreeUS Ecommerce Sales: COVID-19 Impact
The coronavirus pandemic that swept across the world in 2020 has had a profound impact on US ecommerce sales.
The latest figures show that in the second quarter of 2021, online sales in the US totaled $222.5 billion. This marks a 3.3 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 9.1 percent year-over-year rise.
In the first half of 2021 alone, $437.8 billion worth of merchandise was purchased online in the US—22.1 percent more than the same period last year.
This year’s figures also follow a record-breaking year in 2020, during which consumers worldwide had to resort to purchasing items online as brick-and-mortar stores shut to stem the spread of the virus. In fact, analysts say this accelerated the shift to ecommerce by as many as five years.
The pivot to online shopping was most evident in the second quarter of last year, during which US ecommerce sales hit a (then) record-high of $203.8 billion—an impressive 31.9 percent quarterly increase. This is noteworthy growth, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic as US consumer confidence fell to its lowest point around this time of the year.
With that said, not only are ecommerce sales increasing but so is the US ecommerce market share of total retail sales. The ecommerce market share in 2020 came in at 13.6 percent of overall retail sales. This is a 2.9 percentage point increase from 2019’s 10.7 percent.
As it stands, the US ecommerce market share of total retail sales in 2021 is keeping pace with 2020’s share. Online sales from the first two quarters of the year make up 13.5 percent of overall retail sales.