On line sales are disruptive

E-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2010 accounted for 4 percent of total retail sales, according to a Census Bureau report released yesterday. That’s the highest share on record since the government began keeping track

Says Economix, and they post a chart. Go see.

Note that this is going to be a different class of products, products that can justify shipping costs. The loss of this distribution has a differential effect on local stores; transportation costs relative to product prices for local distribution go up faster.

Now the rate of share growth for online sales is about a half point a year, so we can see a tipping point. We cannot invest in local distribution and individual shopping by auto when the most valuable products are UPS delivered. Nor can UPS efficiently deliver the remaining lower cost household goods without technology aids.