📊 Pandemic's impact on eCommerce

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.

Lets’ dive in.

Pandemic boost on e-commerce didn’t last

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 by 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.

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💡 Business Quiz 💡

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.

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

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