JUNE 5, 2017 — Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released a new supplemental e-commerce table from the Annual Retail Trade Survey. This table provides information on estimated annual sales for U.S. electronic shopping and mail-order houses (North American Industry Classification System [NAICS] 4541) including total and e-commerce sales by primary business activity from 2011-2015 in an effort to respond to data users’ needs.

Highlights include:

• Reallocation of previously published Annual Retail Trade total sales and e-commerce sales based on the primary business activity, such as a physical store included in the NAICS 4541 estimates.
  • For example, if an electronics company has a separate e-commerce division that does not primarily fulfill orders from their brick-and-mortar stores, the online sales from the e-commerce division would be tabulated as part of the electronic shopping and mail-order houses industry, and the brick-and-mortar sales would be tabulated in electronics and appliance stores (NAICS 443).
  • The new supplemental table redistributes those online sales for the electronics company into their primary NAICS 443, rather than being grouped into NAICS 4541.

The table can be viewed here. For more information on e-commerce statistics, visit <www.census.gov/programs-surveys/e-stats.html>.

No news release associated with this report. Tip Sheet only.

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