The pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce sales in the U.S. market this year. Shockingly, it has even surpassed what experts estimated online sales to reach in 2022. According to forecasts by foreign media, the growth rate of the top ten e-commerce platforms in the retail industry will increase in the third quarter.
With the pandemic still on the rise, consumers are still shopping online now more than ever. The GMV of U.S. e-commerce will reach 794.5 billion US dollars this year, a yearly increase of 32.4%. Andrew Lipsman, chief analyst at eMarketer said, “In view of the transformation of the economy, the e-commerce industry has ushered an incredible growth this year. Although the sales of daily necessities such as groceries dominate the growth, the sales of non-essential products such as electronic products and household items also showed a surprisingly strong momentum during the pandemic."
It is estimated that e-commerce sales will account for 14.4% of total U.S.retail sales by the end of this year, and this figure will reach 19.2% by 2024. Cindy Liu, the senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer, said: “The pandemic will have a profound impact and will fundamentally change the way people shop. Many offline stores, especially department stores, maybe permanently closed. In addition, we believe that consumers’ shopping behavior will undergo a permanent change. Many consumers are either shopping online for the first time or spending on categories that have not been consumed before (such as groceries). New users of online consumption and the increase purchase frequency will have a lasting impact on the retail industry." Online shopping is so strong that it can offset the 3.2% decline in physical store consumption this year, therefore, the total retail amount in the U.S. market will essentially remain unchanged this year.
Analysts said that the entire e-commerce market is expanding faster than expected, and the stock prices of the top 10 e-commerce companies have risen accordingly. These companies will account for 63.2% of all online sales this year, an increase from 57.9% in 2019. Among the top ten companies, Amazon's market share will grow to 39.0% in 2020, and Wal-Mart's share will reach 5.8%. Wal-Mart will replace eBay as the second-largest e-commerce company in the United States this year. In addition, the GMV of Best Buy and Target will grow more than double. Although Macy's is also expanding its online business this year, Kroger Co. will replace Macy's as the 10th largest retailer based on GMV.
