Online sales to hit major milestone this holiday season

According to eMarketer’s holiday sales preview forecast, ecommerce will surpass 10% of total U.S. holiday retail sales for the first time this year.



Total retail sales will increase 3.3% over the same period last year, to $884.50 billion, according to the report. Holiday retail ecommerce sales will jump to $94.71 billion, representing 10.7% of total holiday retail sales.



“Amazon continues to be powerful driver of ecommerce,” said eMarketer retail analyst Yory Wurmser. “Last year, it accounted for over a quarter of online holiday sales, according to NetElixir. It should be even higher this year, as Amazon’s revenue growth continues to outpace ecommerce growth as a whole.”



MOBILE: Mobile also continues to propel ecommerce growth rates. Mobile commerce sales in the U.S. will increase 43.2% in 2016 to $115.92 billion, representing 29.1% of total ecommerce sales and 2.4% of total retail sales for the year.



By 2020, eMarketer expects, retail mobile commerce will represent nearly half of all retail online sales.

The bulk of mobile growth is occurring on smartphones. Mobile commerce sales on smartphones will exceed those on tablets for the first time in 2016, totaling $67.23 billion for the entire year. While retail sales on tablets are still growing, they will represent a shrinking percentage of overall ecommerce sales.



“We’re still in the early part of the smartphone commerce revolution, and the development of better app search, payment systems and commerce on new platforms should propel sales strongly in 2017,” said Wurmser.