Visual Data

Juan Rodriguez

New Jersey City University August 19, 2020

EDTC 803 – Data Analysis and Report Writing

Memorandum

To: Dr. Amerman From: Juan Rodriguez Date: August 18, 2020 Re: Visual Aids

Dear Dr. Amerman

As requested, the following is an assessment of the quarterly changes in e-commerce operations in the United States. The period covers the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, the evaluation results, and a brief statement on the e-commerce activity of the era mentioned above are included in this memorandum.

All data used for this trend analysis was collected from; Retail Indicators Branch, U.S. Census Bureau. (https://www2.census.gov/retail/releases/historical/ecomm/10q1.html).

E-commerce is defined as an act of buying and selling of products and services via the internet (Banda, 2019). E-commerce is a platform that allows the transaction of goods and services over the internet, extranet, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network, electronic mail, or other online systems. The terms and conditions of the transaction are negotiated through the medium mentioned above, and payment can be made online or offline (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The potential of e-commerce to stimulate the growth of any economy is considerably high. It provides an enabling environment for the development and growth of new business, trade, or activities (Albastroiu, 2009). The United States have the biggest e-Commerce market globally, but the rate of growth has not been on par with the projected expectation (United Nations, 2002).

All quarterly data were adjusted for seasonal variation, and the data showing the total sales were adjusted for trading-day differences and moving holidays.

Table 1 shows the quarterly e-commerce sales and the total retail sales from the first quarter of 2009 through to the last quarter of 2010. The table shows the percentage of the total retail that covers the e-commerce sales and the percentage difference of the e-commerce and total retail sales quarter on quarter.

 

Table 1: Estimated Quarterly U.S. Retail Sales: Total and E-commerce

As seen in figure 1 and table 1, the retail sales in the United States were on an increasing slope from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, and there was no drop in the total retail sales accrued. The sales rose from 903.713 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2009 to 960.474 billion dollars in 2010. As shown in table 1 and figure 2, e-commerce retail sales have been on an upward trend since the first quarter of 2009, it rose from 33.865 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2009 to 38.707 in the billion dollars in the first quarter of 2010.

Despite the increased figures shown in Figures 1 and 2. Further analysis of the quarterly percentage change as shown in figure 3 and 4 reveal the following;

There was a steady increase in the rate sales that happen in e-commerce from the first quarter of 2009 through to the fourth quarter of that year, however, there was a decrease of 0.1% in the first quarter of 2010, an indication of a drop in the number of people that embraced e-commerce in that quarter.

Comparing the quarter by quarter rate as shown in figure 4 revealed an increase in the rate from the first quarter of 2009 through to the third quarter the e-commerce sales, the e-commerce experienced a steady drop in the rate of increase in the fourth quarter of 2009, the rate of increase decreased from a previous 5.1% in the third quarter to 4.2% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and a steeper decline was experienced in the first quarter of 2010, the rate of increase moved from a former 4.1% to 1.5%.

Conclusively, the analysis revealed that the e-commerce sales in the first quarter of 2010 were well below the expected trend, despite an increase in the total amount spent on e-commerce trade in that quarter, there was a steep decline in the rate of increase from 4.1% to 1.5%.

Figure 1: Total Retail Sale

References

Albastroiu, I. (2009). Contribution of e-commerce to economic development. Review of Management and Economic Engineering, 3-8.

Banda, N. (2019). Ecommerce. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330496230_Ecommerce

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010, May 10). Quarterly Retail e-Commerce Sales. Retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau News: https://www2.census.gov/retail/releases/historical/ecomm/10q1.html

United Nations. (2002). e-Commerce and Development Report. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.