E-commerce around the globe has been steadily increasing over the past few years and is not going to stop any time soon. In 2017, e-commerce sales were responsible for $2.3 trillion worldwide, and the number is expected to nearly double by 2021. The projected global sales for 2020 come out to a predicted $3.9 trillion. We are still looking for the final statistics to come out for 2019 both (World Wide) WW and US, but the estimates are showing we will end up at around 3.4 T for 2019 WW. Source
Here’s a look as to how it breaks out:
While the United States has a booming e-commerce sales world, and our Millennials and younger generations have been spending more and more on online shopping, surprisingly we are not the leading country when it comes to e-commerce. Source
Below are the top 10 countries that are spending money online (in billions):
China – $656.3
United States – $500.47
United Kingdom – $83.83
Japan – $78.64
Germany – $68.01
South Korea – $62.69
France – $45.54
India – $29.47
Canada – $28.63
Australia – $19.33
Now Let’s take a glance into just the US e-commerce sales through third quarter of 2019:
The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce recently put out the following statics that estimates U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2019, adjusted for seasonal variation but not for price changes, was $154.5 billion. This is an increase of 5.0 percent (±0.4%) from the second quarter of 2019. Total retail sales for the third quarter of 2019 were estimated at $1,380.5 billion, an increase of 1.4 percent (±0.2%) from the second quarter of 2019. The third quarter 2019 e-commerce estimate increased 16.9 percent (±1.4%) from the third quarter of 2018 while total retail sales increased 4.0 percent (±0.4%) in the same period. E-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2019 accounted for 11.2 percent of total sales. All eyes are going to be on the quarterly retail e-commerce sales estimate for the fourth quarter of 2019. It’s scheduled for release on February 19, 2020. There are sure to be some eye-popping numbers.
It’s more than important; it’s critical to be up on the latest e-commerce and omnichannel marketing trends. This is not just for the online businesses, but also for those whose business is predominantly in-store based. Many brick and mortar retailers may not have kept up. We see the following filing for bankruptcies: Forever 21, Z Gallerie, Gymboree, Charlotte Russe, Diesel, Barneys New York, Forever 21, Sugarfina and Destination Maternity. These are just a few of the retailers that filed for bankruptcy this year. Some companies were returning to bankruptcy court for the second time.
As these latest e-commerce statistics show, the world’s commerce continues to move online at a steady rate, supported by several factors like improvement in infrastructure and the availability of affordable devices.
AMS Fulfillment has kept up with the e-commerce boom by a continuation of process improvement, systems design and re-engineering. It’s e-commerce software platforms, along with systemic operational upgrades in the distribution centers that keep the company as one of the top performers in the industry today.
We’ll end with a few interesting statistics according to KPMG cited on 99firms.com.
Men spend more online than women do.
While men and women shop with about equal frequencies, on average, men spend more per transaction ($220 for men vs. $151 for women). This can be attributed to the fact that many of men’s purchases are in high-value categories like luxury goods or electronic items while those for women are in lower-value categories like cosmetics or food.
Generation X consumers are the most active online shoppers, averaging 19 transactions per year.
What age group shops the most? According to a comprehensive report called “The Truth About Online Consumers 2017,” released by KPMG, contrary to the popular perception that global e-commerce is largely driven by tech-savvy Millennials (born between 1982 and 2001), it is the Generation X (born between 1966 and 1981) that is the most active in online shopping. Factors like being more settled in their careers and building a home with a family drove Gen X consumers to make 20% more online purchases than their younger counterparts.
Baby Boomers spend more per online transaction than Generation X and Millennial shoppers do.
According to the same report, Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) not only come close to Millennials in terms of average online transactions per year, they outrank their younger counterparts in terms of average amount spent per transaction. Baby Boomers spent an average of $203 per transaction in the survey period, compared to $190 by Generation X and $173 by Millennials.
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About the Freight Freak:
John Bevacqua is the VP of Logistics at AMS Fulfillment. His area of excellence is in creating distribution and fulfillment operations that function as a capable interface between suppliers, retailers, and wholesale distributors. His experience includes developing and leading FedEx/ Kinko’s Distribution Services into the FedEx post acquisition, USA Wireless Technologies, and a top Logistics Management company. He has also worked with third party fulfillment companies, preparing him for his current position with AMS Fulfillment.