Statistics from the Census of Retail Trade make it look like online retailing had only about a 14% share at the end of 2020. However, when you factor out things you can’t buy easily online (gas, food and cars), that share goes up to about 21%. And that share hasn’t really dropped that from the peak of pandemic lock-down. Soon, with Amazon’s push into groceries, online could soon be a quarter of all retailing.
This shift may finally push regional malls over the cliff (since anchor department stores now sell only about 1/13th of wholesale clubs), and put “for sale” signs on a lot of the commercial strip retail. Don’t count on lifestyle retail coming back any too quickly either, since consumers have learned how to buy and return shoes and clothing online.