US Online Retail Sales To Surpass $700B By 2022

A recent study says that U.S. eCommerce will exceed $506 billion this year. By 2022 online retail sales will go beyond $712 billion.

According to news from Retail Dive, the study, released this week by Forrester Research, shows that 98 percent of American adults already go online at least once a day.

Many shoppers are choosing eCommerce because the information they find online is often more helpful than what’s available in the store. And, by shopping online, consumers don’t have to deal with certain frustrations, such as not being able to locate sales help.

In fact, 6 percent of all possible sales are lost because of a lack of service, according to a report last year from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.

The Forrester study also found that more than half — 53 percent — of the $3.7 trillion U.S. retail market will be driven through digital touchpoints by the end of the year.

In addition, more than $1.3 trillion of U.S. retail sales will be impacted by smartphones in 2018. As a result, 71 percent of retailers last year planned to increase their investment in web optimization.

Of course, retailers are also scrambling to boost their online presence due to competition from Amazon. Late last year, it was reported that the eCommerce giant would end 2017 controlling roughly $0.44 of every dollar spent online, an increase from $0.38 the year before. It was also predicted that the company’s sales will increase 32 percent year over year, reaching $196.8 billion in 2017.

And Amazon doesn’t appear to be slowing down: Amazon Prime has reached a milestone number of subscribers, with CEO Jeff Bezos saying the service now has more than 100 million members.

Beyond the subscriber count, Bezos said in a letter to investors that Amazon has shipped more than 5 billion items to Prime customers, and that 2017 saw the highest number of new Prime sign-ups.

Despite last year’s accomplishments, the eCommerce giant will continue to invest in growing its customer base, along with Amazon’s infrastructure and brand.