Answer: 44%

Questions: 

• Have you or your family ever purchased anything from Amazon? 
  
  • If so, what do you purchase? 
• Why do you think Amazon has such a large percentage of online sales?
• Given how easy it is to purchase an item from Amazon, what strategies can you use to limit your impulse purchases?
• In five years, do you think people will be purchasing more or less from online retailers? Explain. 

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Hat tip to Beth Tallman for pointing out this as QoD material!

Behind the numbers (Bloomberg): 

For many companies, perhaps what’s scariest is that Amazon has lots of room to grow, even in retail. In the U.S., more than 90 percent of all retail sales still happen in physical stores. In some big categories, including home furnishings, ­personal-care products, toys, and food, the brick-and-­mortar numbers are even higher. As the share of online shopping continues to increase, Amazon seems likely to benefit the most. It’s responsible for roughly 44¢ of every dollar Americans spend online, and it’s now mixing in retail stores.

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About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.