Today, every company is trying to determine how customer behaviour can shift once the lockdown opens and which goods and services will see a growth spurt to revive demand. The market demand gives a sense of the categories that continue to succeed with customers as many countries opened for industry, partially in some and entirely in other zones.
The coronavirus pandemic has put retail e-commerce at the frontline. The statistics show the rising effect on online retail of the COVID-19 outbreak, including massive online sales growth in the United States, retail bankruptcies, curbside pickup, and traffic on Amazon.com.
Impact of Lockdowns on E-commerce
The strong and steady growth of internet users and increased awareness of online shopping increased online launch of goods, low prices due to bulk sales, and so on are the factors driving the e-commerce industry’s growth before the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the direct distribution channel and economies of scale, a growing number of unique items on the market and lower prices of goods further lead to the worldwide e-commerce market.
Moreover, social distancing and staying home are expected to drive customers towards online shopping after the COVID-19 pandemic. The e-commerce industry, however, may be impacted by volatile market demand and supply chain problems. The COVID-19 pandemic can also affect major retailers such as Walmart, experiencing a decrease in casual shopping, disruption of the supply chain, and a rise in basic toiletries, groceries, and other items.
Segmented goods, including electronics, beauty and personal care and others, are part of the global e-commerce industry study. Because of the instability in the supply chain and market demand worldwide, the outbreak of COVID-19 affected these segments. In China, the US, and other countries, e-commerce supply chains are primarily strained by COVID-19 and factory closures.
As China accounted for most cases of COVID-19 and as per the International Trade Union Federation (ITUF), the country is the biggest manufacturer of electronics and its parts worldwide, the most affected industry segment due to the COVID-19 outbreak is electronics products. The electronic components that are assembled into finished goods, such as consumer electronic products and computers, and then exported constitute many of China’s imports. However, owing to the plant’s closure, the supply chain of electronic goods is now close to further affecting the electronics e-commerce sector.
The latest COVID-19 pandemic has affected e-commerce in different regions, such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world. Italy, Spain, France and Germany in Europe and China in the Asia-Pacific region are the countries in which most cases have been registered. During an economic downturn in its domestic market and faced with the coronavirus outbreak’s uncertainty, China’s giant e-commerce service provider Alibaba has struggled to maintain growth rates.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Amazon.com, Inc., Qoo10 Pte. are prominent companies influencing the market. Ltd., JD.com, Walmart Inc., eBay Inc., Shopify, Rakuten Group, and others. Amazon, for instance, has made some heavy investments in one-day shipping that are still not compensating. Its net profits fell by 26 per cent in 2019, and shipping costs increased by 46%. In the first half of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic will impact Amazon’s earnings.
E-commerce Shopping in the Lockdown
The global pandemic has entirely solidified the need for e-commerce. It used to be only one of many choices we had when making a purchase. Instead of making a purchase, e-commerce became the predominant shopping process.
With all non-essential stores closed for broad swaths of 2020 worldwide, and a growing number of us worried about social distancing, online shopping became the norm, and we saw drastic growth in e-commerce sales. However, with different nationalities, races, ages and income classes purchasing and shopping differently during the pandemic, this influenced e-commerce differently globally. Some companies were much better equipped to broaden their digital offering than others.
Below, we’ll look at how lockdown has changed e-commerce in the mass market and luxury and whether its effect is here to stay.
Development of E-Commerce Revenues Through Various Nations
During the pandemic, shoppers in developing economies made the largest move to online shopping, a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) survey has found. Looking at 3,700 consumers in nine developing and developed economies, including Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey. Since the pandemic began, more than half of the survey’s overall respondents shop more frequently online and rely more on the Internet for news, health-related information and digital entertainment. However, China and Turkey were the countries that saw e-commerce grow in popularity the most, with the lowest increase in Switzerland and Germany, where more users were already shopping online.
Even in highly developed countries, e-commerce revenues rose during the pandemic at an unprecedented pace. In April 2020, Forbes reported that the online year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth of US retailers was up 68% from 2019, surpassing an earlier peak of 49% in early January. What’s more, from April 2019 to April 2020, there was a 129% year-over-year increase in US & Canadian e-commerce orders. Deloitte also observed that the pandemic in Denmark had ignited an increasing dependency on e-commerce.
Will the Rise of E-commerce Continue in a Post-Lockdown World?
I think the pandemic has led to irreversible shifts in shopping conduct – a firm step towards e-commerce that is likely to continue in the post-Lockdown world.
The study endorses this, stating that COVID-19 has illustrated the risk of germs picking up while shopping, meaning that another health crisis’s anxiety may well drive longer-term behavioural change. What’s more, even for those who may have previously chosen to buy in-store to do their shopping online, the pandemic has made it possible, and many of those people have recognized the advantages of e-commerce. Boasting convenience and low prices driven by high competition, it seems likely that the growing popularity of e-commerce will continue long after the pandemic memories have faded.
This is why it is essential to change or become redundant for brands that still emphasize in-store shopping and lack a robust online experience. As Yomi Kastro, founder and CEO of Inveon’s e-commerce operation, points out, there is now a tremendous opportunity for brands capable of setting up pioneering channels; that can gain widespread use within industries that are much more used to physical shopping. That includes fast-moving consumer goods and pharmaceuticals.
However, when it comes to digital experience, there is potential for change in all industries. Smart companies will concentrate efforts on ensuring that their online service is still best-in-class, realizing that the power of e-commerce is only set to increase. To find out more about SEO or start your digital marketing journey contact us today.