Covid-19 and E-Commerce

It was impossible to ignore the acceleration in e-commerce worldwide throughout 2020 when shoppers mostly shopped online out of desperation. This situation pressured brands to adapt their tactics quickly as a result.

About every facet of online shopping has been changed or accelerated by the last year's events, from customer behavior to demand retention. 

Owing to underdeveloped networks and the reluctance or failure of customers to use banks and electronic payments, online shopping has not been easy in many countries. That has slowed development in many areas of the world, but the disruption of COVID-19 has forced rapid reform.

Consider Mexico, where a third of the global average, fewer than half of adults had bank accounts, and less than 5 percent of retail transactions took place online before the pandemic. 

The financial system's lack of access to banking and mistrust left it out of the internet revolution in Europe, China, and the U.S. Yet millions of holdouts switched to the internet as stores closed to slow down COVID-19. Mexican businesses responded on the run, sparking a 54% leap in web revenue, accelerating the online economy by years. In other major economies, such as India, Russia, and Brazil, which were late to e-commerce, this form of upheaval also occurred.

Miriam Sota, a 39-year-old from Mexico City, is one of those new shoppers online. Since her credit card numbers were hacked and used to run up a hefty debt, she must have been extra vigilant about personal info. Up until COVID-19 struck, the fear of handing over her financial information held her off the network. That's why she wanted a refrigerator filter and went online as a last resort, where she found one on Amazon. Today, due primarily to new services that allow cash for web orders, she is a convert, even buying groceries online.

COVID-19 has facilitated the transition to e-commerce worldwide. Still, in countries where far more individuals are forming the internet habit for the first time, it can be even more lucrative. In India, for instance, eCommerce last year accounted for just 6.5 percent of China's economy, less than a tenth. And some of these sectors, since there are less dominant firms, are more fragmented and up for grabs.

To continue, merchants in these markets reach global partners by developing safer payment networks, expanding distribution to pace, and extending customer support to channels such as Facebook and WhatsApp. As the region's biggest e-commerce store in Latin America, MercadoLibre has been using its aircraft to cut delivery times.

The world's largest retailer, Walmart Inc., tripled Mexico's third-quarter online sales, a 79% rise in the U.S. market. Ecommerce development has been at the peak of the American parent at Home Depot Mexico. The traffic on the website has more than doubled; 70% of its clients are new.

Erika Diaz, vice president, communications and special services for the Home Depot's Mexico branch, said: "I have seen an evolution," with customers putting away their worries about e-commerce. To make this change smoother, consumers can now purchase products on the web and pay for them in a shop, even in cash. The online client support representatives have now doubled, and online messaging capabilities have also improved. "Our business has been adapted to the new standard."

For years Russia was a fertile land with about as many internet users as the United Kingdom to boom eCommerce. According to Euromonitor International, Germany and Germany merged. But both countries have twice as wide online markets, as cash preference and under-developed delivery networks have slowed growth, just as they did in Mexico.

In some categories, the exceptional market was captured mainly by the pure online firms. The survey indicates a 45% growth compared to predictions before the outbreak of more than 10%.

This is emphasized by recent reports from internet retailers nemlig.com, which hires 400 new employer businesses to meet and demand during the crisis.

Multi-channel companies with an online presence have been tested at the other end of the spectrum to maintain their sales even though customer connectivity has transient consequences on those categories. Examples include the big Danish retailers, which have seen a rise in internet sales but are still inadequate to compensate for the lack of shop transport and the battle segments of luxury and clothing.