“Consumers spent $517.36 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2018, up 15.0% from $449.88 billion spent the year prior, according to a new Internet Retailer analysis of industry data and historical U.S. Commerce Department figures. That’s a slight slowdown from 2017, when online sales grew 15.6% year over year, according to Commerce Department figures. Total retail sales, not including the sale of items not normally bought online like fuel, automobiles and food at restaurants, hit $3.628 trillion last year, up 3.9% year over year from $3.490 trillion, Internet Retailer’s analysis ofthe U.S. Commerce Department’s total retail sales figures shows.”