E-Commerce Continues to Grow

Under stay-at-home orders, U.S. consumers shopped heavily online, as expected: In Q2 2020, U.S. retail e-commerce sales grew by almost a third (31.8 percent) from the previous quarter, or 44.5 percent year over year, per the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce (DOC). That’s $211.51 billion in Q2 2020, up from $160.41 billion in Q1 2020. This strong e-commerce growth was not enough to offset losses from brick-and-mortar store closures, however, as total retail sales dropped 3.9 percent from the prior quarter.