The US Commerce Department reported on the second quarter retail sales this week. In it they found that ecommerce sales within the United States grew by 14.1% year over year. This brought the total ecommerce sales to $83.9 Billion for the second quarter. This 14.1% growth is quite impressive given the fact that the retail sales as a whole only grew by 1% YOY.
The growth in this area brings ecommerce up to 7.2% of total US retail sales, which is quite a jump. Last year at this time it was at 6.3%.
Of course, any growth in retail ecommerce is going to be good for performance marketers. As more and more people are spending more money online, it is opening up many great opportunities. Continued growth in this area is expected for the coming years, opening up many more opportunities.
One of the best things about ecommerce growth is that even though large companies such as Amazon generate the biggest percentage of total sales, individual marketers can still get their ‘piece of the pie’ through the very successful affiliate programs that are used by Amazon and other major ecommerce companies.
One thing to keep in mind, however, is that as a growing percentage of total retail sales moves to ecommerce, more and more larger companies will enter the market in a bigger way. Hopefully they adopt the affiliate sales model, but it will have to remain to be seen. For now at least, this fast growth is going to present many opportunities for smart marketers.
