W.W. Grainger Inc. recorded $2.332 billion in e-commerce sales for the first half ended June 30, up from $1.985 billion a year earlier, marking the first time it reached $2 billion in first-half sales.

First-half e-commerce sales increased 17.5% year over year, accounting for 46% of total sales of $5.070 billion, up from 40% of total sales of $4.962 billion.

As they have in the past, e-commerce sales helped to offset declines in total United States segment sales, which accounted for 78% of total first-half company sales, and Canada sales, which accounted for 9%. U.S. segment sales—comprised of sales through Grainger.com, the company’s more than 550 stores and an army of sales reps—declined 1.6% for the first half and 2.6% for the second quarter; Canada sales, which Grainger said suffered a continued drop-off in energy industry sales, fell 21.3% for the first half and 18.8% for the quarter.

Grainger didn’t break out online sales for the U.S. and Canada segments, but it noted that online sales increased 34% year over year in the second quarter in its Other Businesses segment, which grew overall Q2 sales 49%. Grainger attributed the organic online growth in the segment to its web-only off-price business Zoro.com in the U.S. and its Japan-based MonotaRO.com, which it refers to as its “single-channel online” businesses. “A bright spot for the quarter was the continued strong performance of our single-channel online businesses,” Jim Ryan, chairman, president and CEO, said today.

Grainger’s Other Business unit also includes online and offline sales to customers in Canada, where it operates ZoroCanada.com, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The Other Businesses segment further includes United Kingdom-based Cromwell, which operates the e-commerce sites Cromwell.co.uk and Cromwell-industrial.co.uk and sells more than 80,000 industrial products to more than 35,000 industrial and manufacturing customers worldwide. Cromwell, which Grainger acquired last fall, contributed 31 percentage points in the segment’s 49% increase in sales.

Grainger doesn’t break out online sales for any of its e-commerce sites.

In the United States, Grainger said its Q2 sales were strongest to customers in its Government and Retail categories, up in “low single digits,” and in its Heavy Manufacturing category, up in “mid-single digits.” It said sales were flat in Light manufacturing, and down in Commercial, Contractor and Natural Resources and Reseller categories.

Grainger, No. 34 in the B2B E-Commerce 300, won the B2B E-Commerce Website Design of the Year award in the 2016 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards program at IRCE 2016 in Chicago.

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