As restrictions around the Covid-19 pandemic have eased globally, observers have been predicting that explosive growth in e-commerce fueled by widespread lockdowns would attenuate. A new report from eMarketer said 2022 will see overall e-commerce growth return to its pre-pandemic state, but some categories will still see accelerating growth.
According to US E-Commerce by Category, overall e-commerce sales will exceed $1 trillion globally for the first time this year and account for 15.2 percent of total retail sales. The report also identified cars and groceries as the fastest-growing e-commerce segments.
E-commerce will continue to enjoy double-digit annual growth between now and 2026, but won’t see the more than 30 percent growth of 2020. eMarketer predicts overall annual growth will average 13.5 percent per year and, by 2026, total online sales will reach $1.7 trillion globally.
While food and automobiles will see the fastest growth during that time period, online’s overall share of total sales in those categories will remain relatively low (6.4 percent and 5.2 percent respectively). The books, music and video segment (68.4 percent) and computer and consumer electronics segment (56.3 percent) will continue to have the highest share of their total sales come from the digital channel.
