Walmart’s GoLocal delivery service will need smaller customers to be sustainable: The Home Depot is a good start, but it’s big enough that it’s likely to take delivery in-house in the near future.

Home improvement stores, like The Home Depot and Lowe's, continue to see US sales surge as the pandemic-propelled demand for DIY and home improvement projects continues through 2021.

Other major stores like Walmart, Best Buy, and The Home Depot will close again this year but haven’t committed to a future plan yet, per the Wall Street Journal. What this means: Early openings likely began as a way to get more consumers in stores to compete with the rising popularity of online shopping on platforms like Amazon.

Apple and Chewy will see the fastest ecommerce sales growth of the top 15 online retailers in the US this year, at 25.7% and 25.0% over 2020, respectively.

In 2020, ecommerce buyers were all about spending on the home, home offices and classrooms, eating in, and DIY projects. Those trends will shift this year: 2021 is about experiences, dressing up again, and being social—or as The Wall Street Journal described it, “joy dressing.”

As it turns out, click and collect accounted for much of the ecommerce growth that several large US retailers saw in 2020, including The Home Depot (73.4% of ecommerce growth), Lowe’s (72.1%), and Best Buy (44.8%). Certain patterns stood out:. Home improvement retailers leaned the heaviest on click and collect.

Our latest forecast shows that Amazon, Walmart, and eBay will remain the top three largest ecommerce companies in the US by total sales volume, while Best Buy and Target will usurp The Home Depot and Wayfair for the No. 5 and No. 6 spots on the 2021 list, respectively.

here Etsy outperforms Amazon

A near universal shutdown of Thanksgiving Day doorbusters among brick-and-mortar retailers—led by Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and The Home Depot—will keep traditional Thursday evening shoppers at home. But still, they’ll shop, and the purchases typically completed in-store will happen online. Black Friday 2021 will be a brick-and-mortar bonanza.

For example, Insider reported that The Home Depot contracted its own container ship, Costco Wholesale rented three container ships to import goods from Asia to North America, and Walmart is chartering smaller ships that can access smaller ports.

This follows the flurry of companies like Starbucks, Nordstrom, and the Home Depot that started accepting digital currencies indirectly through crypto wallets back in 2019, along with more recent additions like Yum Brands, which operates popular fast casual brands like Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

Digital marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Instacart have flourishing retail media businesses, while brick-and-mortar leaders like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, Best Buy, Walgreens, and CVS are also advancing their efforts. Recent entrants include DoorDash, Gopuff, and Uber. How is retail media advertising evolving?

Home improvement retailer The Home Depot is continuing to build on its loyalty program to create more personalized in-store and online experiences.

eMarketer global director of public relations Douglas Clark compares our in-store sales and retail ecommerce forecasts and talks Macy’s, Walmart and The Home Depot.

Business Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes, eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu discuss how Walmart, Target, Best Buy, The Home Depot, eBay, Etsy and Kohl's are doing and what their performances tell us about the changing US shopper.