In the era we have found ourselves in, we would notice that the pandemic has become our way of life. Dealing with the virus has severely impacted our way of life and 11 months after the virus’ first hit, we are still suffering from its effects. It has become weird to see someone walk around town without a mask.
In this post, we will be discussing the impact of COVID-19 on E-commerce, and in extension, online shopping.
If you are an online shopper, you would have discovered that consumers now shop for virtually everything on online stores like Amazon and Ali Express.
Amazon and Walmart are the two behemoths of e-commerce in the USA, and statistics have revealed that Walmart’s grocery e-commerce has experienced a surge that puts it above every other online grocery store.
However, regarding general sales, Amazon has a disproportionate amount of online activity that has put it ahead of other online stores in the e-commerce space.
What is particularly unusual about the circumstance of COVID is that consumers who historically have never purchased anything online are now, not only starting to buy online, but they are disproportionately moving to Amazon. The reasons Amazon has a high market share are because they have the largest collection of products, even with the prevailing challenges, they deliver nationwide, Amazon delivers products within a reasonable time, and they have the lowest prices.
A survey of U.S. and U.K. consumers revealed that 96% of Millennials and Generation Zs are concerned about the pandemic and its impact on the economy. The concern of these groups has led them to change their behavior more dramatically than Generation X and Boomers generations. 24% of Boomers and 34% of Gen X said they were letting the current events of COVID-19 affect the items they are going to purchase.
There are smaller e-commerce companies that are also seeing a rise in sales, but it is somewhat insignificant. Research has shown that emerging and smaller e-commerce stores that will thrive during this period and even the post-pandemic period will be the online stores that have figured out the distribution.
If you are a small player and you can create a partnership with a strong and fast distribution partner, who can get the products quickly to the customers, even if your customer base is only 50 miles from your store.
Figuring out how to do this last-mile delivery is critical leverage that allows traditional retailers to get into e-commerce in a meaningful way.
Unlike Amazon, most e-commerce stores do not want to own last-mile delivery companies and services. Amazon has been able to do this, and they do it quite well. This business decision has surged them far ahead of their counterpart as it has scaled during this COVID period
