OFFICE SUPPLIES

Office Supplies Ecommerce Statistics

Office Supplies sales grew slightly in 2022

Top 1000 retailers in the office supplies category reached $8.66 billion in sales in 2022. That’s 2.0% growth from $8.49 billion the prior year.

What’s important to note, though, is online sales from Top 1000 retailers in the office supplies category accounted for 85.7% of the entire category’s sales in the United States (at physical stores and online), according to the Department of Commerce. That share grew in 2022 from 82.6% in 2021.

Within the category are subsections of retailers that sell ink, toner, office furniture, paper and stationery, pens, desk supplies, signage and more.

The Office Supplies industry shrunk slightly in 2022

The U.S. Department of Commerce revealed that office supplies retailers in the country sold $10.28 billion in 2021 — online and offline. That decreased 1.7% in 2022 to $10.10 billion. But as the overall category shrunk for the year, Top 1000 retailers in the office supplies category grew their share of total sales.

However, the median monthly unique visitor count dropped among office supplies retailers in the Top 1000, to about 142,000 from about 175,000. The median when it came to average order value grew, to $184 from $161. This implies that although the dollar amount of sales went up, much of it came from inflated prices or big spenders.

Office Supplies shoppers by age group

The largest group of buyers from Top 1000 office supplies retailers were aged 25 to 34. They accounted for essentially a quarter of all sales to those merchants (24.9%). The next largest was those in the slightly older 35-44 age group, who made more than a fifth of online purchases from those retailers (20.3%).

From those in the 25-34 age group to those in the 65+ age group, each category accounted for about 3% to 4% less than the age group immediately younger than them. Meanwhile, the youngest age group (18-24) accounted for 15.1% of sales.

Source: Digital Commerce 360 1. Digital Commerce 360 analysis of SimilarWeb traffic data. 2. *Includes only U.S. sales from the sites of U.S.-owned retailers for consistency with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s methodology; U.S. totals exclude B2B sales for office supplies retailers with $500 million or more in web sales since the Commerce Department captures B2B sales for larger companies in a different survey reflecting wholesale sales data. 3. Digital Commerce 360 analysis of U.S. Department of Commerce retail data. 4. Medians won’t sum to 100%