Data: U.S. Census Bureau, Haver Analytics, Deloitte; Chart: Simran Parwani/Axios
This holiday season, don’t look for e-commerce growth to slow down,
Driving the news: Economists at Deloitte forecast growth of 13.5% in e-commerce sales this holiday season, pushing sales up to $262 billion, according to a new report out this morning.
That's an even bigger increase than last year when e-commerce grew 8.4% (2020 was the watershed year when online sales jumped a whopping 50%).
Why it matters: Online shopping was turbocharged by the pandemic, and it's one trend that's not going away.
"Holiday shopping in the last six or seven years has largely gone from being an in-store experience to an online experience," Rod Sides, Deloitte Insights Leader, tells Axios.
The bottom line: The expected e-commerce growth is in stark contrast to overall holiday sales, which Deloitte estimates will grow by a smaller 4%–6% — less than the current annual inflation rate (8.5%).