Although the pandemic has held us back in some areas, it has definitely not stopped people from shopping online. The digital world and the way we use it has been accelerated, and the future of e-commerce is governed by new rules, priorities and expectations. So what does e-commerce look like in the post-pandemic world? Well, let’s crunch some numbers and see how it changed in the past year during the pandemic.
During the pandemic, 10 years of ecommerce growth happened in just 90 days in the first quartal of 2020.
Source: Bank of America; Forrester Analytics; ShawSpring Research;
US Department of Commerce; McKinsey analysis
And when we look back to 2020, this makes total sense. As countries locked down and retailers were forced to close, ecommerce reached an all-time high. This also forced older shoppers to move online.
Interesting thing is that e-commerce growth in 2021 will be uneven. In Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, growth will be faster than the U.S. through the first half of the decade.
While a post-pandemic world is expected to recover slower than it did after the 2008 financial crisis and market crash, e-commerce is a story for itself. When we take in consideration that nearly 150 million people shopped online for the first time during the pandemic, it is more than clear to us that e-commerce has a percentage of total global retail sales and the number of e-commerce buyers will only continue to rise in the years to come.
It is now clear that the pandemic has changed the way we buy.
- Nearly half of Internet users say they will continue to shop online.
- 64% of customers want their order shipped for free.
- 50% of global e-commerce sales happen on marketplaces.
All that being said, when we look around and analyze competition, we can notice that standards in e-commerce are very high now – higher than ever. That brings along higher customer expectations. We can’t ignore these facts. So the only way to keep up with trends and to be on top is to follow these trends, and aim to be better than competition. Not slightly better, but much better. To really stand out. And that is something where we can help you, as e-commerce specialists, with our knowledge, experience and expertise.
This was an acceleration year and there is still so much room for e-commerce to grow. So it is still not too late to expand or start your e-commerce business online! Moreover, I couldn’t imagine not-being internet oriented nowadays.
We always give our best to keep up with trends and new rules in this e-commerce game, and we are very excited to see what the future brings when it comes to online shopping. But instead of just waiting to see what happens, we are putting some extra effort to contribute to the development of e-commerce and maybe even set new standards when it comes to website speed, performance, user experience and website ranking. Something is cooking, but more about that soon 🙂
