Even In A Year Of Lockdowns, We’re Still Mostly Shopping In Physical Stores

Some more data that serves as a rejoinder to the narrative about brick-and-mortar’s demise: according to the U.S. Census and Retail Geek, the market share of e-commerce rose from 13% in Jan 2020 to 19% in Apr 2020 but fell back to 16% by Nov 2020, meaning that amidst all of the shutdowns and capacity restrictions, the shift in the balance amounted to a mere 3% – a far cry from the “10 years of e-commerce growth packed within 3 months” that we were being told. With the long-term trend of 1-2% per annum, it is more like 2 to 3 years. Which is not nothing, mind you – COVID has no doubt had an impact in this regard, just not a cataclysmic one. And why not, you ask? Well, again, I suspect that we are butting up against the limits of what we as consumers are willing to buy online as well as what our nation’s shipping infrastructure can currently handle. For so many reasons, we are clearly headed for a world of “clicks AND bricks.”