Retail e-commerce sales are tracking higher despite inflation fears. The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2022 rose 2.7 percent to $257 billion. E-commerce sales accounted for 14.5 percent of total retail sales in the second quarter of 2022. 

Traditional retail sales for the second quarter rose by 1.9 percent to $1.7 billion. A similar report by Morgan Stanley found that despite waning COVID numbers and a return to in-person shopping, the trend for e-commerce is here to stay, predicting growth to $5.4 trillion by 2026. 

“We believe that the COVID-driven bump will not flatten future e-commerce growth,” said Brian Nowak, an equity analyst covering the U.S. internet industry. He sees e-commerce reaching 27 percent of retail sales by 2026. “Across the world, we have yet to see a ceiling for e-commerce penetration.”

The driving factor behind the increase is logistics, mobile device ownership and marketplace expansion. It’s expected this will increase growth across multiple industries, regions and verticals. 

“While the rise of e-commerce during the first year of COVID-19 in 2020 is easily explained, the fact that growth persisted in 2021 is evidence of a real behavioral shift to shopping online,” said Nowak. 

It’s believed this trend will also continue to grow with improved payment technology and stabilization of the supply chain.