Dive Brief:
Consumer purchasing habits from 2020 could continue to linger in 2021. A new report from eMarketer projects that retail e-commerce sales in the U.S. will increase by 13.7% to $908.73 billion — lower than last year's 18% to $709.78 billion surge, but still exceeds pre-pandemic estimates of 12.8%.
The report predicts that apparel and accessories e-commerce sales will grow by 18.9% once the coronavirus pandemic subsides, followed by food and beverage (18.1%) and healthcare, beauty and personal care (16.1%).
Per eMarketer's projections, the top two categories that will generate the most e-commerce sales in 2021 will be books, music or video (69.1%) and computer and consumer electronics (53.2%). But toys and hobbies will take the next top spot in 2022.