Retail sales to reach $4.9 trillion in 2015

New York - Retail sales in the U.S. will reach $4.87 trillion for the full year 2015. According to EMarketer analysis, this represents a 4% increase from 2014.



U.S. retail e-commerce sales will total approximately $350 billion in 2015, up 14% from $305.7 billion the prior year. Despite rapid growth, retail ecommerce will still account for just 7% of total retail sales in the U.S. during the current year, EMarketer estimates.



E-commerce had a banner 2014 holiday season in the US, increasing 16% year-over-year to $72.03 billion for the months of November and December. Overall retail sales grew 3.5% to $850.58 billion during the core holiday season months of November and December, roughly on par with growth in 2013 but below EMarketer’s pre-holiday forecast of 5% growth.



Globally, retail sales surpassed $22 trillion in 2014 and are expected to increase 6% to $23.9 million in 2015.



"Retail ecommerce sales growth in November and December accelerated more than in each of the past three years, and e-commerce continues to take a larger and larger share of retail sales during the holiday season," said Yory Wurmser, retail and ecommerce analyst at EMarketer. "Consumers' increase in comfort in shopping online, and in particular shopping on mobile, led to an extraordinary holiday shopping season on digital channels and created a headwind for strong ecommerce growth overall in 2015."