E-commerce overtakes total manufacturing shipment value across multiple industries

Are online sales driving most manufacturing industries? The clear answer is yes.

By Natalie Huggins

E-commerce, or electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods online. From the years 1999 to 2017 the value of E-commerce shipments through electronic transations has increased across multiple U.S. manufacturing industries. The first table below visualizes the different of E-commerce shipment values in 1999 and how they've expanded in 2017.

In the year 2017, the value of E-commerce shipments has at it's overall historic high. This means that across multiple manufacturing industries, the total value of manufactured shipments was made up of over 50% E-commerce, and in some indutries made up a higher percentage of the total value shipments for that year. From the bar graph below, total shipment values of manufacturing industries such as the beverage and tobacco industry and the transportation industry were made up of over 80% sales from E-commerce in 2017.

The total value of shipments for the year 2017, across multiplt manufacturing industries was $5,587,964. $3,729,525 of the total shipment value came from E-commerce. Visualized below, E-commerce made up over 65% of the total manufactured shipments across multiple manufacturing industries in 2017.

The following table displays the total and E-commerce value of U.S. manufacturing shipments. The data can be found in the U.S. 2017 Census. The information was sourced from the U.S. government's open data source.

Manufacturing Industry Year Total value of shipments Value of shipments from E-commerce
Manufacturing Industry Years Total value of shipments Vaue of shipments from E-commerce