Over the years, US online retailing has been at the forefront of the public’s eyes. With the boom of technology development happening in the world today, many people in the country are finding it more convenient shopping from the comfort of their home. The US online retailing industry therefore, is a growing niche that keeps on getting bigger over the years.
2015 performance
For most countries, online retailing in 2015 proved to be a good year with increased profits showing. In the US, more ecommerce stores came online during the year and customer registration soared. The nation registered different profit margins during the year, but the overall picture is that the industry is soaring.
The industry grew based on the type of demands made by consumers and the type of goods available for sales online. Physical stores are fighting hard to stay in the market against the onslaught of the online stores. In fact, many physical stores are now embracing online shopping and are moving a part or in some cases, all of their business to the worldwide web in an effort to catch up with the boom.
The US ecommerce sector grew 14.6 percent in 2015, thus, proving that the industry is still a viable one. The industry registered web sales to be $341.7 billion in the year 2105 from $298.3 billion compared to 2014 figures. This is saying that the US online industry increased by 14.6 percent over the period of 2014-2015.
Ecommerce sales in the country went up 96 percent in late December 2015 to early January 2016 when smartphone sales in all selling industries accelerated. The Black Friday sale had a resounding effect on the US economy as well.
Walmart is moving into place a strategy to increase online shopping so that more sales can reach them. The giant store reported that in 2015, the retail store’s fourth quarter earnings pushed internet sales up 8 percent. Although the 8 percent is still a good enough profit, the store reported that it showed a much lower rate of growth than what was anticipated, seeing that the growth rate in 2014 fourth quarter was 24 percent.
To continue on the road of a steady increase, companies like Walmart and others are getting ready to introduce more products to the public so that many more options are available for customers to choose from. In addition, they are seeing to it that their organization properly expand its online business so that their revenue can accelerate more.
To continue facilitating growth, Walmart announced recently that it would be investing $900 million into its online program within the next two years. Furthermore, to get more customers to register with their site, the company started in December their own online platform known as Walmart Pay.
Criteo, which is a global digital marketing vendor, saw its company raking in 60 percent revenues in 2015 and they attributed their success mainly because of mobile advertising. The company’s December 31 revenue showed an impressive 361.7 million euros or US$404.9 million coming from 232.8 million euros or US$260.6 million in the same period last year and this amount is showing that the company made an increase of 55.4 percent.
2016 performance
Since the beginning of 2016, online shopping has seen growth happening in most sectors. Online sales in January may have taken a hit in the alcoholic niche, however, in other areas sales were booming and companies had to keep up with orders.
In January 2016, sales went up 15 percent and driven mainly by the use of mobile devices. Tablets sales went up 13 percent. Another sector that benefited from the increase is clothing, which saw an increase of 15 percent, while accessories settled for 12% growth.
Electronics registered a high growth of 15 percent, which came to be the highest so far since 2014. Unlike 2015 when Black Friday sales showed some setback, experts are predicting that this will not happen in 2016 since online sales are still showing massive growth potential.
An ecommerce trend to keep an eye on in 2016 is smartphones as they have begun to show signs of outdoing desktop computers. Site owners that do not take the precaution to ensure that their site is user friendly and running smoothly will have to experience the terrible loss of revenue.
As 2016 continues, online retailers are confident that they will see an increase in sales taking place, mainly because of the demands of the public. For some experts in the business, 2016 might be the best time in online sales and therefore retailers should take full advantage of consumers’ confidence by putting more products on the market.
While the online industry is picking up at a fast rate, site owners are making sure to take advantage of the boom. Will sales start dropping down in the year, no one really knows, but until then it is a wait and see game being played by all key players in the industry.