E-commerce as percentage of US retail Q3 2020
Plus short essay, Shopify BFCM, Book recommendation
Hello.
I took a short break from writing last few weeks. I recently became a dad and work has been fairly busy.
I am making a few adjustments to my writing cadence: I will publish less frequently but more intently. Weekly letters are a commitment and content quality can get diluted if I focus on publishing on a schedule; esp since I’m writing for fun, not for work.
U.S. Census For E-Commerce Q3 2020
U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce shared their latest update on e-commerce. In a nutshell, Q3 2020 metrics are:
US retail sales: $1,468.9 billion (+12% QoQ)
US e-commerce: $209.5 billion (-1% QoQ)
E-commerce as a % of total retail sales: 14.3%
E-comm YoY growth, however, from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020 is +36.7%.
Restaurant sales are part of US retail sales and do not overlap with U.S. e-comm unless the transaction occurred online.
With Holidays approaching, here’s a snapshot of retail e-commerce. Inflection point in 2019 and then concave upwards.
This rate of change is exhilarating for operators in e-commerce. As infrastructure improves, last mile deliveries become ubiquitous in the coming decade, online payment solutions move to .coms versus in-store, we shouldn’t be surprised if e-commerce becomes 50%+ of US retail by 2025 (on the US census).
2020 is a black swan year, where we experienced decades in weeks. E-commerce as a vertical is perhaps the greatest beneficiary of that.
Is the Phillips Curve dead?
If you’re interested in monetary policy, then check out my latest short essay (2-min read) on the Phillips Curve.
Shopify’s BFCM sales per minute
Cool graphic by Shopify’s team showing real-time revenue. Link
Book recommendation: The Psychology of Money
Morgan is a great thinker. I’ve been a fan of his writing for a while. You can explore his blogs here. In his book, he makes the abstract concrete and the complex simple. He breaks down how we think about money, greed and happiness in a way that I haven’t seen before.
Until next time.