Online sales will reach $523 billion by 2020 in the U.S.

BY MATT LINDNER Associate Editor

Forrester says the number of consumers using mobile devices to shop will grow by 26 million, and mobile influenced $1 trillion of 2015 U.S. retail sales.

Online sales in the United States are expected to reach $523 billion in the next five years, up 56% from $335 million in 2015, and mobile devices are expected to be a key driver in that growth, Forrester Research Inc. says.

A new report from Forrester, titled “U.S. Cross-Channel Retail Forecast, 2015 To 2020,” predicts online sales will grow by an average annual rate of 9.32% over the next five years.

More importantly for retailers, however, is the expected increase in the number of shoppers browsing and buying on their smartphones and tablets in the coming years. Forrester projects an additional 26 million shoppers will be both browsing and buying from retail sites on their smartphones by the end of this decade as bigger smartphones and faster wireless networks make it easier for consumers to use the Internet to shop on their phones. Forrester did not specify in its report how many people are currently browsing and buying from retail sites on their mobile devices.

Mobile is more than a driver for online purchases, however.“Screen sizes for mobile phones have gradually increased in size and wireless networks are better than before, which has made web browsing easier than ever,” report author and Forrester principal analyst Sucharita Mulpuru writes. “Additionally, consumers are more accustomed to using their phones everywhere and shopping is a byproduct of that ubiquity.”

Forrester’s data projects that mobile devices influenced more than $1 trillion in total purchases in 2015 between online and offline transactions. Forrester doesn’t offer any projections for how much in total purchases mobile is expected to influence by 2020.

“We expect the speed and availability of mobile networks to continue to grow rapidly, which should significantly catalyze how much people use their phones to shop and how quickly they can retrieve information,” Mulpuru writes.