It took about 20 years, but e-commerce sales may be approaching a tipping point. Online sales grew 15.1% in first quarter of this year and accounted for 11.1% of retail sales when factoring out items not normally bought online. That’s the highest e-commerce penetration in history, as web sales totaled $86.3 billion for the period ended March 31, according to non-adjusted estimates released by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
And according to Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester Research, US online retail is expected to reach $373 billion in 2016. That figure will grow to more than $500 billion by 2020
US online retail sales topped $100 billion only in 2006, but by 2020, Forrester expects online retail sales will have grown five-fold, exceeding half a trillion dollars. Amazon is estimated to capture $23 billion more in US eCommerce sales in 2015 than in 2014 (including its third-party marketplace). That accounts for approximately 60% of the total growth in US online sales in 2015, says Forrester.
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