E-commerce accounted for 30.2% of computers/electronics retail sales in the U.S. in 2017, according to Internet Retailer data.

This is up roughly 2.5 percentage points from 2016, when Internet Retailer estimates that 27.6% of sales in the category were online. There are 48 online retailers in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 500 that sell in the computers and electronics category.

The computers/electronics category had the third-highest e-commerce penetration in 2017 out of all the retail categories Internet Retailer analyzed. The books/music/video category had the top spot, as 70.1% of sales in the category were online, and office supplies was No. 2 at 65.9% online penetration.

Computers/electronics category analysis

As a category, online sales are growing at a much faster pace for computers/electronics than total retail sales in the category. In 2017, computers/electronics online retailers grew sales as a category 11.3% year over year. Total retail sales for computers/electronics (both offline and online) only grew 1.8% year over year.

The median online average order value in the computers/electronics category was a whopping $331 in 2017, nearly double the Top 500 median of $130. This is similar to 2016 when the median average ticket was $265 for the computers/electronics category and the Top 500 median was $125.

The category’s median conversion rate, however, was a bit less at 2.0% compared with the Top 500 median of 2.68%.

Leading online retailers in the computers/electronics

The category is dominated by six large online retailers:

  • Dell Inc. (No. 4 in the Top 500 Guide)
  • Best Buy Co. Inc. (No. 8)
  • CDW Corp. (No. 15)
  • Newegg Inc. (No. 22)
  • HP Home & Home Office Store (No. 45)
  • PC Connection Inc. (No. 57)

Each of these six of these merchants generated more than $1 billion…To view the rest of this article and its related research charts you must be Digital Commerce 360 member. Sign up for free access.

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