Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Consumer behavior’s impact on the future of commerce

September 23, 2021
Data-Economy
Photo: GERD ALTMANN | PIXABAY

With growing digital use, the e-commerce industry was already on the rise, but the pandemic drove its expansion at dizzying speed

In years to come, 2020 will be remembered as the year that transformed everything. The internet and e-commerce sectors, which have thrived amid the COVID-19 issue, have experienced extraordinary and unexpected development. As a result of this expansion, online merchants have become more competitive. Wholesalers and retail behemoths have relocated their operations online, forcing smaller businesses to reconsider their marketing strategies. It influenced how entrepreneurs started, ran, and grew firms, as well as how customers shop and pay. This abrupt shift in consumer and business behaviour has transformed the destiny of e-commerce for the foreseeable future. We examine a few trends that will shape this transformation in the next years.

Consumers are paying more attention to what they’re buying. They are attempting to reduce food waste, shop more cost-effectively, and choose more environmentally friendly products. Brands will have to make this a priority in their offering (e.g. by exploring new business models).

COVID-19 has resulted in a spike in e-commerce and rapid digital transformation in the face of weakening economic activity. As lockdowns became the new normal, businesses and customers gradually “went digital,” providing and purchasing more goods and services on the internet, increasing e-share commerce’s of global retail trade from 14% in 2019 to almost 17% in 2020. These and other conclusions are highlighted in a new UNCTAD and eTrade paper, COVID-19 and E-Commerce: A Global Review, for all partners, which reflects on the significant global and regional industry shifts that occurred in 2020.

While the epidemic prompted people to spend money online, young and middle-aged people were the first to do so. Shopping has become more convenient because to e-commerce, and customers’ expectations of brands have risen as a result. They desire shopping experiences that are simple to use, intuitive, and speedy. During the epidemic, according to the Shopify Future of Commerce Report (India), 85 percent of young consumers (18-34 years) and 90 percent of middle-aged consumers (36-54 years) switched to online buying.