What Impact Will E-commerce Have on the US Economy in 2022?

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For many decades businesses have worked hard to bring consumers closer to producers and retailers. This remained an impossibility until the internet revolutionized the business sector. It brought consumers closer to producers through online connections. The first 20 years of the 21st century brought further evolution as more gadgets and applications were created. 

The rebirth of e-commerce was the answer to a long-awaited solution. Consumers today can directly connect with any type of business online. The US e-commerce is many strides ahead, and it is headed to hitting the $1 trillion mark within 2022.

Understanding headless commerce 

To understand better how e-commerce is moving the US economy, it is good to understand the headless commerce definition first. For many centuries, the traditional business has purely operated in physical stores or offices. Whenever a customer visits the office, the first place they access is the front office. 

This is where they find the reception, front office attendants, tellers, or store front where products are displayed. If the visitor needs further assistance, they are directed to the back office. This is where they find managers, accountants, CEOs, and HRs. 

In e-commerce, the arrangement is the same, but the only difference is that there are no real people but applications. The visitor accesses the front office on their device screen to view products and shop. If they need to make an order, it is sent to the back office and processed by an application. 

In e-commerce, the front office is known as the front end, while the back office is known as the back end. Before headless commerce, the front end was one unit with the back end. In e-commerce, this is called monolith software or application. If something goes wrong in the back end, the front end is affected, too and vice versa. To eliminate such challenges, developers created software that separates the back end from the back end. 

This is what is called decoupling in eCommerce. After decoupling, whatever happens in the back end can never affect the front end and vice versa. This helps increase speed and the addition of more applications in the front end to make the shopping experience better. Today, headless commerce is moving e-commerce to levels never experienced before. 

How sellers are connecting with buyers online

The period between 2021 to 2022 is significant in modern US e-commerce. These are the critical years when the highest number of online applications were created, giving shoppers unlimited shopping opportunities and experiences. 

They are the same years when the highest migration from traditional to digital business systems was recorded. The number of online shoppers ever recorded in the US was experienced within these two years.

E-commerce is never the same due to the latest technologies in use. The online business back office has been decoupled from the front office through headless e-commerce. The front office is now connecting with the back office through multiple APIs and from different channels. Ecommerce is changing the US economy in a way that has never been experienced. 

An overview of the e-commerce situation in the US today

The latest figures from Statistica show over 263 million shoppers in the US are buying online. This accounts for over 80% of the US population. The report further says that online shoppers will increase to 291.2 million by 2025. These shoppers connect to online stores using smartphones and computers. 

Online business owners, on the other hand, provide multiple ways to help shoppers seamlessly connect with them. Through developers, they provide e-commerce platforms, digital payment/processing applications, tracking systems, CRM software, and social media apps. 

All these systems, platforms, and applications work seamlessly through headless commerce, where the front end is decoupled from the back end. E-commerce in the US is leveraging three key components:

  • Customers who own different online shopping gadgets

  • Availability of a large number of applications, platforms, APIs, and secure systems

  • Modern digital technology that enables headless commerce architecture

Current e-commerce growth prediction in the US

Online retail 2022 is recording significant growth and is currently standing at 75% of all retail sales done in the US. Retailers are seeking to expand this figure by deepening their reach in the local consumer market. Through various technologies, the retail market expects to hit double-digit growth in 2022. 

In 2021, the US online business revenue was $599.2 billion. This was a rise of 11% compared to 2020. On a worldwide scale, the US online market recorded a 15% growth rate. Online sales increased by 6.7% in the first four months of 2022. For every five dollars used in retail buying, one dollar goes to online buying. 

Ecommerce growth and new employment opportunities

Technological growth has created new opportunities for the US online business sector. The consistent growth its recording means more sales and profits. It also creates wider gaps in several areas, including shipping, warehousing, and application development. Many online retailers deal with consumer goods. 

Customers need their orders delivered to their doors. Already, there is a shortage of delivery and warehouse workers, which has led to a huge backlog of order deliveries. Online businesses need more workers to manage their online systems, online security, remote customer service, and software development. Due to competition, they use affiliate marketers and social media marketers to complement their marketing team. 

Close to 800,000 people are directly employed by the US e-commerce sector. Another large portion is indirectly employed by the sector. The people directly or indirectly employed by this sector pay taxes promptly. They spend the money they earn on food, fashion, entertainment, education, development, and health. With a predicted more than $1 billion market share in 2022, the sector is significantly contributing to the economy. 

The US economy 2022 overview

The US GDP is expected to grow by 2.4 percent in 2022. The labor market is still struggling with supply chain disruptions experienced over the last two years. However, unemployed people are finding jobs fast, which is important to citizens’ purchasing power and economic growth. The drivers of the growth are domestic investments by private companies and an increase in personal expenditure. 

Conclusion

Ecommerce in the US is going through tremendous changes. The key drivers are technology, a wide variety of goods/services, a wider global market, and a recovering national economy. The sector has recorded consistent growth for the last three years. It has opened many new opportunities to job seekers, developers, and B2B opportunities. The sector will be a major contributor to the growing US economy in 2022.

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