The two pie charts compare the proportion of online retail sales accounted for by four sectors—travel, clothing, music/film and books—in a South American country in 2009 and 2019.
Overall, travel was the dominant online category in 2009, but by 2019 music and film had taken the lead. Clothing and travel both lost market share over the decade, whereas music/film and books saw notable increases.
In 2009, travel made up 38% of all online sales, followed by clothing at 26%, music and film at 20% and books at just 16%. A decade later, music and film sales had surged to one-third of the market (33%), making it the largest category. In contrast, the travel segment fell to 29%, slipping into second place.
Books also enjoyed growth, rising from 16% to 23%, a gain of seven percentage points, perhaps reflecting the rising popularity of e‑books or online book retailers. Clothing suffered the biggest decline, dropping from 26% to only 15%, a fall of eleven points, suggesting that consumers may have shifted fashion purchases to physical stores or diversified into other online shopping categories.
In summary, the period from 2009 to 2019 saw a clear shift in consumer behaviour online, with entertainment and reading materials gaining ground at the expense of travel and apparel.