Pandemic's impact on e-Commerce

Charting 22 years of Physical vs. e-Commerce retail sales

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In today’s post we look at the impact of the pandemic (Covid-19) on US e-commerce sales.

First set of Covid-19 led lockdowns in March 2022 caused a big spike in e-commerce sales in US (As it did so, worldwide).

As consumers couldn’t visit stores, they were forced to shop online.

In Q2-22, Quarterly e-Commerce sales jumped 32% to $211 Billion. At the same time, physical retail sales dropped by 9% to $1.075 Trillion

Many, including CEOs of large companies, thought that the pandemic will accelerate the adoption of e-Commerce (boosting the steadily growing trend)

However, the reality has been much more sober since then.

In the 2.5 year since Q2-20, physical retail sales has grown at 41% compared to only 24% for e-commerce.

The relative share of e-Commerce appears to be reverting to the long-term trend.

Overall, 14.7% of $1.8 Trillion of quarterly retail sales in Q4-2022 was through e-Commerce.

This chart is a sober reminder that consumer preferences change slowly.

We are excited to introduce a new section to this newsletter!

Each week, we will have one quiz question in this section, related to that week’s topic / theme. A fun way to test your knowledge and learn more!

This week’s question is present below. Tune into next week’s email to see the Answer.

(i.e. e-Commerce sales as % of total retail sales)

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! 👋

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