50 Powerful Retail Statistics You Need to Know
Photo of woman in a shopping mall
Here is a list of statistics you can use to inform your decision making in 2020. From the growth rate of eCommerce to online sales penetration to the habits of millennial and generation Z shoppers this list has all of the statistics you need.
Overall Retail Sales
1. Total retail sales in the United States are expected to increase by 3% in 2019
Bricks and Mortar Shopping
2. Non eCommerce sales are expected to grow by 2% in 2019 in the United States
3. By late December of 2019 there were 9,302 store closures and 4,392 store openings in the United States
4. The top five retailers in the United States ranked by the number of store openings in 2019 are: No 1: Dollar General (975), No 2: Dollar Tree (348), No 3: Family Dollar (202), No. 4: Aldi (159) and No. 5: Five Below (136)
5. Out of the 2,780 store openings that had already occurred by June of 2019 in the United States, 1,800, or more than half of them, came from discount chains
6. The top five retailers in the United States ranked by the number of store closings in 2019 are: No 1: Payless ShoeSource (2,100), No 2: Gymboree (749), No 3: Charlotte Russe (500), No 4: Ascena Retail (400), No 5: Shopko (371)
7. The United States has the highest store space square footage per person in the world at 23 sq. ft. per person. The United Kingdom has five sq. ft per person, Spain has four sq. ft per person and Germany has two sq. ft. per person
8. Close to 75% of sales generated in malls were generated by the top 20% of malls in the United States
9. Between 2007 and 2018 the largest increase in store count in the United States came from: dollar stores (+12,535), convenience / gas stores (+6,943) and drugstores (+4,296)
10. Between 2007 and 2018 the largest contraction in store count in the United States came from: consumer electronics stores (-6,507), apparel stores (-4,630) and department stores (-1,159)
11. Department store visits fell by 10.3% in 2018 in the United States
12. Visits to apparel stores declined by 1.7% in 2018 in the United States
13. The retailer with the greatest number of locations in the United States is Subway (26,932), followed by Dollar General (15,472), then Dollar Tree (15,012)
14. Between 2007 and 2018 the majority of stores that opened were small format stores
15. An average of 13% of purchases made in-store are returned
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eCommerce Shopping
16. Online sales represent 11.2% of total retail sales in the United States
17. eCommerce sales are expected to grow by 14% in 2019
18. The three fastest growing eCommerce categories in 2019 will be food and beverage (+17.9%), health, personal care and beauty (+ 17.2%) and furniture and home furnishings (+17.1%)
19. The five largest eCommerce retailers in the United States are: Amazon (37.7% share), eBay (6.1%), Walmart (4.6%), Apple (3.8%) and Home Depot (1.7%)
20. Amazon has a 6% share of total retail sales in the United States
21. The three largest eCommerce categories in the United States are: books, music & video (50.8% share), computer & consumer electronics (39.3%) and office equipment and supplies (32.4%)
22. The categories with the lowest eCommerce penetration rate include: food and beverage (2%), auto & parts (4.2%) and health, personal care and beauty (9.6%)
23. 4.9% of eCommerce sales are made on a mobile device
24. The country with the highest eCommerce sales is China ($2 trillion), followed by the United States ($600 billion) and then the UK ($140 billion)
25. Out of the top ten countries that have the largest eCommerce sales, India’s eCommerce sales are growing the fastest at 31.9%.
26. It is estimated that the return rate for returns of online orders is three times that of orders made in store
27. The category with the highest return rate is clothing and shoes purchased online which has a return rate of 30% to 40%
Bricks and clicks
28. 85% of shoppers buy something in-store after they pick up an order in-store
29. On average when a customer spends $100 online and then shortly thereafter goes into the retailer’s store he or she spends an additional $131 on average
30. When a retailer opens a new store, on average, the retailer experiences a 37% increase in website traffic
31. When an apparel retailer’s store is closed, website traffic drops by 9.5%
32. 60% of the purchases made at digitally native retailers are now made in the stores of those retailers
33. The number one reason for buying online and picking up in store is to avoid shipping fees, the second reason is to save time by not having to shop in store and the third reason is to get a purchase on the same day
eCommerce Shipping and Delivery
34. For orders under $50, 75% of consumers expect delivery to be free
35. 39% of consumers expect two-day shipping to be free
36. The average order value for a one day shipping order from Amazon is $8.32. It costs $10.59 to fulfill and ship that order which means Amazon loses money on many orders
Consumer Behaviour
37. The percentage of people by generation that visited a physical shopping centre in 2018: more than 90% of generation Z, 75% of millennials, 58% of generation X and 53% of baby boomers
38. On average in a three-month period, Gen Z makes 8.6 trips to the mall
39. Nearly 49% of millennials make the majority of their purchases in-store
40. 75% of generation Z believes brick and mortar stores provide a better shopping experience than online shopping
41. Top factors that would cause a digital customer to shop at another store: No. 1: shipment never arrives (55%), No. 2: fake reviews (34%) and No. 3: item received does not look like photo online (34%)
42. The number one reason for leaving a bricks and mortar store is: “couldn’t find the product I was looking for” (55%), followed by “checkout line was too long” (23%), then “sales staff are too aggressive or too pushy” (11.3%)
43. In a survey, when respondents were asked: who do you trust for recommendations when shopping, 93% of generation Z, 86% of millennials, 87% of gen X and 87% of baby boomer shoppers said family, friends and colleagues and 28%, 27%, 24% and 25% respectively said an in-store employee
Sales and Marketing
44. The most effective retail platforms for sales are: No. 1: Search , No. 2: Amazon and No.3: Facebook
45. The platform that provides good or very good ROI is: No 1: Amazon (80%), No 2: Search (66%), No 3: (tie): Facebook and Instagram (35%)
46. The most effective platform for brand awareness is: No. 1: Instagram, No. 2: Facebook, No. 3: Search
47. 30% of retailers have used micro influencers
48. 34% of Instagram users in the United States have purchased a product based on the recommendation of an influencer/blogger
49. In 2016 17.8% of the US population used ad blockers and that number is expected to increase to 23.7% of the population by 2020.
50. 79% of consumers say that experiences are just as important as a brand’s products and services