E-Commerce Market Has a Big Quarter

In the first quarter of 2016, the e-commerce market had large gains. Online sales for companies in the industry had grown 15.1 percent. 11 percent of that was from e-commerce sales that could also have been purchased in stores. That is the highest percentage e-commerce has seen. The web sales amounted to gains of $86.3 billion at the end of March. That is an increase of $75 billion from March 2015.

E-Commerce Continues to Grow

This has been a huge quarter for the e-commerce market and the companies that work within it. But why has it had such a great quarter and made huge gains? According to Internet Retailer, both desktop e-commerce and mobile commerce are far outpacing the growth in sales by physical retail stores.

Of course the sales of online commerce is becoming a more and more dominant form to buy and sell things. The e-commerce industry made $341.7 billion in 2015. This amount is up from in 2005 when sales were only $91 billion and 2.5% of total retail sales. According to ETF.com, “Most analysts believe that e-commerce sales will continue to grow by double-digit percentages annually, gaining market share at the expense of brick-and-mortar sales.”

Amazon part of E-Commerce Market Growth

The other reason the e-commerce market has grown so much is because of Amazon. This might be obvious, but the company and its influence on the markets cannot be ignored. Amazon was the biggest winner this quarter with nearly 26% of all the web sales attributed to them. With those numbers Amazon has surpassed Wal-Mart in sales. Wal-Mart once dominated the markets and industry, but not any more.

Overall, this shouldn’t be too surprising, as the e-commerce market has made gains each year. Now, as mobile commerce begins to grow as well, people will shop at physical stores less frequently. The e-commerce market and mobile commerce market will both make large gains.