Brick-and-Mortar Sales Growth Will Likely Lag DTC: Study

Global e-commerce growth Is expected to achieve a 9 percent compound annual growth rate through 2027, more than double the projected brick-and-mortar retail growth of 4 percent, a new study from Boston Consulting Group concludes.

“After tremendous acceleration throughout the pandemic, many retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies faced a marked slowdown of online sales growth in 2022,” the report notes. “And while consumers are returning to brick-and-mortar shops, e-commerce is still forecast to constitute 41% of global retail sales by 2027, a significant increase from its share of just 18 percent in 2017.”

“While e-commerce is gradually reverting to its pre-COVID trajectory, the landscape has undergone a notable and lasting transformation,” remarked Martin Barthel, a partner and managing director at BCG and a co-author of the study. “The rivalry between emerging entrants and established incumbents has heightened, driven by the purchasing patterns of Baby Boomers and Gen-X, who collectively wield substantial influence over today’s e-commerce sales.”

The survey, which was conducted in the second quarter of 2023, included respondents from 410 retail and 415 CPG companies around the world with revenues ranging from $50 million to more than $10 billion.

Click here for more from the Boston Consulting Group study.