At the height of the pandemic, online shopping skyrocketed, but it has since taken a backseat to in-store shopping for overall retail sales, according to new market research.
NPD Group reports today that in-store retail shopping in the US accounted for 64% of all retail sales in September, which is close to pre-pandemic levels. E-commerce sales made up 36%.
US shopping patterns were moving in the opposite direction in April 2020, when e-commerce made up nearly half of all retail sales in the US, putting it neck and neck with in-store shopping.
That trend continued during the 2020 holiday shopping season. But once the COVID-19 vaccines began to roll out, shoppers returned to stores. Year-over-year revenue growth in e-commerce, on the other hand, dropped from 40% per month between April 2020 and March 2021 to less than 10% every month thereafter.
“Consumers are no longer buying primarily out of necessity and limited to online shopping which fell short of some expectations—choice has reentered the equation and they are hungrier than ever for the experience of in-person shopping,” says Marshal Cohen, NPD Group’s chief retail industry advisor.
However, in-store sales haven’t returned completely to pre-pandemic levels. Retail shopping tracking firm Sensormatic Solutions found that traffic to US stores during this year's Black Friday sales event was down by 28% from 2019. Nevertheless, more Americans were back at shopping centers during on Black Friday, when comparing the data to 2020. The company’s data showed a 47.5% increase in foot traffic.
“While in-store shopping is still not back to 2019 levels, more shoppers felt comfortable visiting stores in person this Black Friday than in 2020,” said Brian Field, Sensormatic’s senior director of global retail consulting. “One driver of this increased traffic could be ongoing supply chain challenges and shipping delays, which are resulting in consumers shopping earlier to ensure their gifts arrive on time.”