Saying that e-commerce shipping has had an eventful two years would be an understatement. The pandemic accelerated the shift toward online retail by five years, reports the 2020 IBM U.S. Retail Index. E-sales hit $211.5 billion in the second quarter of 2020 alone, a 44.5% increase from
the year prior, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
There were notable fluctuations within that trend as well. Prior to 2020,
e-commerce had mostly been the purview of small items, such as books or apparel. Once consumers started working from home, however, sales in those verticals gave way to larger, more complex purchases—furniture, home offices, exercise equipment, and appliances.
A 2021 uShip survey found that 64% of
Americans purchased a “big and bulky” item online in 2020 (see chart); 73% of respondents bought these products at a higher frequency than they had before COVID, and 45% said they would continue to shop for large products online after the pandemic ended.
Source: Inbound Logistics
August 29 2022
