Did Covid just accelerate behavioural change? Will online sales decline now that the pandemic is (hopefully) at an end?

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Insight

A client of ours recently asked us whether online sales may decline now that the pandemic is at an end... or hopefully heading that way.

It's a great question and if you take a short-term view, the answer could be of concern as online sales did experience a drop towards the end of last year.

However, there is another way to look at it by asking a different question...

Did Covid just accelerate behavioural change? 

If this is the case, ecommerce is very likely to keep growing from this 'new normal'.

The State of Online Marketplace Adoption report by Mirakl (a survey of 9000 global consumers) found the 70% believe that online marketplaces are the most convenient way to shop and that they prefer ecommerce sites with online marketplaces.

And according to Statista, retail e-commerce sales worldwide during 2021 totalled $4.89 trillion and are projected to grow to $5.4 trillion this year.  

That's significant, especially when you factor in the estimated growth to $6.34 trillion by 2024!

It's too early to know for sure where we'll net out - and it will likely depend on the industry you're in - but there's no doubt that there has been a shift in the way products are bought and that consumers have higher expectations than ever when it comes to where, when and how they make a purchase.