The title of this post is a bit… well, optimistic. You see, it’s hard to get an accurate read on the size of the e-commerce market. Part of the problem is defining the term. It is a large, nebulous thing, this e-commerce market. It is a growing market that covers a large range of products and its participants vary greatly. Some are “bricks and mortar” stores that also sell online. Others are entities that do business through the Internet exclusively. And the systems needed to track all of this are only being created and fine tuned so it is early days for getting a clear picture of what is actually going on. But, there is plenty going on, that much we do know. What we present here are the data that the Census Bureau has tracked under the industry title “Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses,” [NAICS 45-411].

As we have time, we will try and present a few more detailed slices of this industry and clarify exactly what it does and does not include.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1997 and 2007
Market size: Number of Establishments: 10,013 and 21,795 respectively.
Market size: Sales: $69.03 and $215.96 billion respectively. Please note, these figures include e-commerce sales as well as mail-order house sales.
Market size: Employment: 218,406 and 342,138 respectively.
Source: “Sector 44: EC0744I2: Retail Trade: Industry Series: Preliminary Comparative Statistics for the United States (2002 NAICS Basis): 2007 and 2002,” 2007 Economic Census, available online here. The data from 1997 are from the 1997 Economic Census, after conversion of the data to a NAICS 2002 basis.
Original source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.