U.S. E-Commerce Share of Retail Sales

## What this measures

The share of U.S. retail sales made online (goods ordered over the internet or another electronic network), as a percent of all retail sales, quarterly, seasonally adjusted.

## Why it matters

It is the long shift from stores to screens in one number. It jumped in 2020 when stores closed and has since kept climbing at its older pace.

## How to read it

Read the trend across years; a quarter moves it only a little. Total retail includes car dealers and gas stations, which sell little online, so the share of what people actually shop for online is higher than this.

## What it does not say

It counts the channel the order came through, not who sold it: an online order from a store chain counts as e-commerce. It excludes restaurants, travel and services.

## Source

U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, series ECOMPCTSA. Palanor pulls it from the FRED API (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) nightly. Works of the U.S. government are in the public domain.