Feb 27, 2021 - Economy & Business

E-commerce sales rose to more than $211 billion in Q2 of 2020

 Retail Indicators Branch, U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Axios Visuals
Retail Indicators Branch, U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Axios Visuals

As e-commerce sales spiked during the pandemic, backroom warehouse labor rose to meet the demand.

Why it matters: With more Americans employed in the warehouse sector, the quality of those jobs — and the effect automation will have on them — will be increasingly important.

By the numbers: E-commerce sales rose to more than $211 billion in the second quarter of 2020 as the pandemic shifted consumers online.

  • That represented an all-time high of 16.1% of total retail.
  • Though total e-commerce and the percentage of all sales fell slightly by the end of 2020 as the pandemic slowed somewhat, e-commerce sales were still up more than 5,000% from when tracking began at the end of 1999.
 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Axios Visuals
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Axios Visuals

Behind the scenes: Employment in warehouses and storage — the backbone of the e-commerce industry — rose to more than 1.4 million workers by last month, more than double the total from a decade ago.

Go deeper