US online retail sales will reach more than $500 billion by 2020, up from $373 billion in 2016, according to Forrester’s latest eCommerce forecast. Drivers of this growth include better blocking and tackling by web merchants, more omnichannel efforts, an improved US economy, and more growth from Amazon. For example, Forrester estimates that Amazon captured $23 billion more in US eCommerce sales in 2015 — around 60% of total online retail sales growth in the US — than in the prior year.

Other key findings include the following:

  • More than $1.5 trillion of total US retail sales are web-impacted, and omnichannel offers reduce costs and enable store merchants to compete with pure plays.
  • Some 78% of consumers have been frustrated by purchasing on their mobile phones due to download times and the size of the screen. Consumers are more likely to use their phones to research and purchase, but mobile is still largely a challenge, rather than a catalyst, for sales for most retailers.

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