A Look Inside The Online Retail World
Web sales growth is accelerating. From 2019 to 2024, the growth was fueled by new buyers entering the world of the internet or online sales. It is estimated that in 2024, 5.5 million new shoppers entered the market. This drove the increase in online retail sales. New shoppers are merely one component that drove growth. The second one is existing shoppers who are spending more online and also shopping for items that in the past were high-touch items, like furniture. The second factor was responsible for 70% of the growth in online sales in 2024.
Total Retail Sales grow
E-Commerce as a percentage of total retail sales grows each year, and in 2024, that growth was reported to be 8%. However, if you look at the real numbers, retail sales include the grocery business. Drop out those numbers and you are closer to an 11% penetration. Some retailers do not separate out online sales from what they report, which further skews the number downward. So it is obvious that online sales are here to stay and each year new buyers enter the marketplace and existing buyers who have become more comfortable shopping online do more and more shopping. Some categories have had increases of up to 50%. Those include computers and software.
Easy Setup of the Online Store
Online stores are getting easier and easier to set up. With turn-key packages from some online companies, you can be up and running in one day. Just imagine, you can be competing with companies like Amazon and eBay tomorrow and reaching the same customer base that they do. Buyers are looking for convenience, pricing, and service, and know they get all three online. The variety of merchandise available, the ability to access the internet anytime from the comfort of home, and the improved security for online funds transfers are factors that keep buyers coming to the web to buy goods and services. About 44% of all retail sales in traditional channels are driven by the web.
When you find Mopar Parts and Nissan parts for your car, and buy goods from any country in the world, all without ever leaving the comfort of your couch or recliner, where are you going to shop? You save time and you save money. In this busy world, time and convenience are big. Technology has made a lot of things easier and at the same time seems to have made our lives busier. So when you can shop anytime you want and your store never closes things look a lot better.
Are there downsides to all this?
Of course, there are downsides, just like anything else. But the pluses far outweigh any downsides in this new economy. We see new jobs created, and we see innovation from every sector of the retail, advertising, and marketing world, which in turn creates more opportunities for everyone. It’s like a machine in perpetual motion or a train coming down the tracks. There’s just no stopping the growth that will happen in the next 5-10 years.
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