Forecast Report

2021 Online Retail Forecast, US

COVID-19 Is Accelerating Online Penetration Across Many Categories

June 29th, 2021
With contributors:
Fiona Swerdlow , Ashley Villarreal

Summary

As the pandemic forced nonessential retail stores to close, US e-commerce grew 30% in 2020. Online food and drink grew more than twice as fast as US e-commerce overall. The popularity of click-and-collect and curbside pickup means 10% of food and drink purchases will occur online by 2024. Despite strong e-commerce growth, stores will continue to capture most retail sales by 2024, including 71% of all US retail sales and 64% of US non-food-and-drink sales. Retailers will focus on reconfiguring store networks, clarifying store online sales attribution, promoting COVID-safe retail practices, and improving online margins for food and drink. This report presents our US online retail forecast for 2020 to 2024.

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