Has e-commerce peaked?

THREE YEARS AGO, as lockdowns forced consumers to move much of their spending online, a golden age for e-commerce appeared to be dawning. Optimistic investors, convinced that shoppers would keep buying on the internet, lifted valuations of e-merchants to frothy heights. Retailers old and new raced to expand delivery networks.

Today those heady days look like a distant memory. On August 3rd Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer,…