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Ecommerce Best Practices|Online Shopping Trends

What a Difference a Decade Makes in Retail

January 28th, 2016 | 1 min. read

What a Difference a Decade Makes in Retail Blog Feature

Zmags Blog Author

Sharing perspectives on the latest trends and tips to help eCommerce brands stay ahead to engage and drive revenue.

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As we enter a new year, many retail professionals reflect on past accomplishments and future plans. The past ten years have seen sweeping changes in retail and in how ecommerce providers have evolved to support those changes—not only in how retailers do business, but also in the ways that consumers shop. Here are just a few of the surprising changes that we have witnessed over the past decade:

The Rise of eCommerce

In 2005, the majority of people in the U.S. did their shopping primarily in retail stores. Only 40 percent shopped online, and eCommerce accounted for just 2.8 percent of total retail sales. Fast-forward to 2015 and 78 percent of U.S. consumers now shop online, which accounts for 7.8 percent of total retail sales. This means that in just ten years the number of people who shop online has nearly doubled, and the percentage of total sales has nearly tripled.

This article was first published in the January 2016 edition of Retail Minded magazine.