US retail e-commerce spending grew by 13% year-over-year to reach $50.2 billion, estimates comScore in newly-released data. That makes Q1 only the second quarter to exceed the $50 billion threshold, after Q4 ended with an estimated $56.8 billion in spending. While the 13% rise in Q1 represented the 14th consecutive quarter of growth and 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit increases, it was slightly below 2012’s growth rate of 15%. But, e-commerce spending accounted for 10.6% of discretionary spending in Q1, its highest share yet.
The data also reveals that some categories had particularly strong quarters: digital content and subscriptions; apparel and accessories; sport and fitness; consumer electronics; and consumer packaged goods each saw at least a 20% rise in spending from a year earlier.
The retail e-commerce spending estimates exclude mobile transactions, but comScore also released some figures on that end. According to the researchers, the apparel and accessories category generated almost $1 billion in Q1 sales on smartphones and tablets, making it the highest-grossing category.
Consumers certainly used their devices for research: 48% of time spent in the retail category was on a mobile device. Smartphones accounted for 34%, and tablets 14%.
