Did 'Clicks' Really Surpass 'Bricks' for Share of US Retail Sales? Not Exactly

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By Lucy Koch
From eMarketer

A couple weeks ago, headline after headline heralded the moment when US e-commerce (“clicks”) finally surpassed in-store sales (“bricks”), per slightly misconstrued data from the US Census Bureau.

This seemed to confirm what many perceive as reality: Brick-and-mortar stores struggle as e-commerce continues to grow at double-digit rates every year.

But the headlines didn’t tell the full story, and many people got the wrong impression as a result. What the stories should have clarified was that online sales across all categories accounted for 11.813% of retail spending in February, while sales from general merchandise retailers via their brick-and-mortar stores accounted for 11.807%.

(And while “general merchandise” sounds like it could account for everything, it actually represents a more specific segment of retail that excludes auto, food, beverage, apparel, and accessory sales.)

We forecast that retail e-commerce will account for 10.9% of total US retail spending across all merchants in 2019—about one-eighth the size of brick-and-mortar retail. Online sales will increase 14.8% year over year, compared with brick-and-mortar growth of 1.9%.

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