US ecommerce sales reach 15.6% in Q3 2016

This is slightly behind the Q2’s 15.9% year-over-year growth, which was the largest increase posted in nearly two years, internetretailer.com reports.

Factoring out the sale of products not usually conducted online, ecommerce accounted for 11.3% of retail sales during the period.

Total retail sales excluding foodservice (or sales in restaurants or bars) reached USD 1.22 trillion during the three months ended Sept. 30, a 2.3% increase. During Q2 2016 total retail sales grew 2.1% year over year.

That means ecommerce accounted for 7.7% of total retail sales excluding foodservice, up from 7.5% in Q2 2016, but in line with the same percentage in Q1.

The Commerce Department estimates Q3 2016 web sales reached USD 101.25 billion, up 15.7% from USD 87.53 billion in 2015. Ecommerce accounted for 12.0% of total Q3 retail sales excluding foodservice, automobiles and fuel, up from 10.7% in Q3 2015.