E-commerce booms as restrictions ensue
When asked about the changes in their general lifestyle due to COVID-19 in May 2020, around 62 percent of surveyed U.S. adults reported going to the shops less, while another 52 percent reported shopping more online. This shift from physical to digital shopping carts is one of several precautions citizens started to take since infections soared across the country. To avoid contracting the virus in a crowded store, over 20 percent of U.S. consumers stated that their frequency of purchasing goods online increased in March 2020, and even those who had never used e-commerce services in the past felt motivated to do so in the wake of the crisis.Looking at the segments with the highest spikes in consumer demand, fashion stands out as the product category with the largest shift to online shopping, as eight in ten U.S. buyers declared buying those items the same or more as of November 2020. In contrast, spending on items like travel gear and swimwear plummeted as a result of the travel ban and other government-imposed containment measures.
During the first months of the pandemic, household necessities and hygiene products such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer were in high demand. For example, disposable gloves became the fastest-growing e-commerce category in March 2020, followed by bread machines and cold medicine. However, as the direst times of the outbreak passed, demand for necessity goods subsided. As of 2021, health and beauty continued to be one of the most popular categories consumers would keep buying online once restrictions were lifted, along with apparel and home furnishings.
From the big bang to the big crunch
2020 and 2021 were some of the best years U.S. e-commerce has ever seen. Online retail sales soared, and no period in the past decade was more successful in increasing online spending than the second quarter of 2022. Suddenly, almost 12 million new U.S. users chose to throw their wanted items on online carts instead of only visiting physical stores. In terms of online shopping penetration, the usage rate has grown by four percentage points since 2019.But it was not all rosy. Following such sudden growth, more dire times awaited. In 2021, there were signs of higher-than-ever demand for products and supply chain disruptions, which caused delivery delays and increased shipping costs. Even before the Russian war in Ukraine broke out, inflation was luring in many developed economies, and this trend worsened in 2022. E-commerce, an industry once believed to be less impacted by price upswings, was now also highly affected.
Once stores permanently opened, online demand deflated, and many e-commerce companies that had seen unprecedented growth decided that was no longer sustainable. Some of the most used online shopping platforms in the U.S., such as Amazon, GoPuff, and Shopify, announced staff layoffs affecting thousands of U.S. workers. As of late 2022, it remains to be seen whether big tech corps have chosen to downsize now due to unfavorable market conditions only to retake soon the growth path they were on since the pandemic boom.
