Online shopping surge negatively impacts QC businesses, including one set to close Saturday

Online shopping’s popularity hit another level during the pandemic.

It impacted various businesses in the Quad Cities differently.

Some businesses have seen sales surge while others have had to close completely.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Commerce shows e-commerce sales made up roughly 13% of all U.S. retail sales in 2021.

That hit its peak at the start of the pandemic, when about 16% of U.S. retail sales were online.

Some businesses in the Quad Cities have higher numbers than that.

“Sales did pick up during that time because everybody was on their laptop, right?” said Savannah Levesque, co-owner of Saints Boutique in the Village of East Davenport. “Like, what else did we have to do other than online shop?”

Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce — or online shopping — sales have skyrocketed.

“I don’t see it going away anytime soon,” said Levesque.

She adds that her business almost entirely relied on people shopping on its website to stay afloat in 2020.

“Online sales definitely picked up during the pandemic,” said Levesque. “That was literally our only source of income because we couldn’t have customers coming in here and shopping.

Even with mask mandates being lifted, and more people starting to shop in person again, e-commerce numbers have only slightly dipped nationwide — and for local businesses.

“And it still stayed pretty steady after that,” said Levesque. “I’ll definitely say, though, in terms of shopping in store versus online, it’s probably 20% online and about 80% in store.”

For many, that’s a good thing, but places like shopping malls have suffered as a result.

That’s the case in the Quad Cities, too.

Just this month, SouthPark Mall in Moline has seen its Victoria’s Secret location shut down for good, closing earlier in the month.

At the end of Saturday, after providing decades of business, the mall’s popular Chick-fil-A location will also close for good.

“Everybody has a laptop or their iPhone in hand at all times, and it’s just so, so easy,” said Levesque.

While online shopping has been a blessing for some small businesses, they are still competing with e-commerce giants now and hope to not get left in the dust.

“It’s tricky because we are competing with that online business, and companies like Amazon — where they have every single product imaginable, right?” said Levesque. “But for a small business owner, we can’t necessarily carry all of those things.”

Ten years ago, in 2012, e-commerce sales accounted for just 5% of all U.S. retail sales.