Hardly is there any part of human lives that is not been affected by the global pandemic – Covid19. Movement from one place to the other becomes limited, wearing face masks becomes the new norm and nearly everything changed.
Interestingly, one of the characteristics of humans is adaptation. As a result, it was easy for us to all adapt even in the cruelest situations. At the point it no longer becomes safe for us to move outside or move around the cities, the world quickly switch to digital way in order for them to be able to cope with the new trends and normalcy. Online shopping is one of the aspects that earn a huge benefit from these changes.
It is especially more crucial now for online businesses to take a careful analysis of what is currently going on and therefore, start making plans that will benefit them in the near future. When you have the right strategy, you will experience a stronger comeback after this uncertain era comes to an end. Therefore in this article, we will be looking at international ecommerce stats in 2020 that are very important and comparing it with what will likely happen in the future to come.
The effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Emphasizing the effect covid19 pandemic on ecommerce cannot be overstressed. It is true that before the year 2020, ecommerce has already started witnessing growth. However, with the outbreak of the pandemic, the growth of ecommerce has been fast tracked by adjusting peoples focus on online store instead of the usually prominent physical locations.
That is some kind of exceptional growth. This is evident when we check through various statistics. For example, adobe statistics noted that from all days from the beginning of May to the last week of June, there are market cap of over two billion dollars ($2 billion).
One aspect of ecommerce that is difficult to see is getting conversion rate increased. Interestingly, conversion rate drastically increased by some 9% as early as 2020 i.e. February as reported by Quantum Metrics. Something that only happens on Cyber Mondays.
Also, it is expected as stated by Business Insider that Amazon worldwide sales will get to a peak of $12 billion in 2020 far over previous years even before the pandemic. What is the reason? Just because of the increase in customers’ reliant on ecommerce bearing on the covid19 factor.
What makes these growth notable? It becomes more and more noticeable because new customers or prospective consumers are trooping into the online shopping market. Even older ones who are not inclined to using smartphones and electronic gadgets are compelled to learn and explore the use of them for ecommerce because of the pandemic. For example, there are some 12.2% increase in the numbers of online shoppers between 65 age and above in the US only. Another interesting report from Accenture has it that 169% rise in ecommerce sales will be possible coming from new ones or users with low frequency after the covid19 pandemic.
Going by what many of the ecommerce consumers are saying, there is every possibility that this geometric growth will not fall any time soon even when physical store location becomes opened. Hence, projections are pointing that by the year 2021, sales on ecommerce will have risen to some $4.8 trillion.
The biggest ecommerce market of 2020
Regardless of the fact that the world went into a global recession, ecommerce is maintaining growth in almost all parts of the world. Countries that have been struck by the heavy effect of the pandemic such as Spain, Malaysia, and the Philippines are expected to witness more ecommerce growth of over 20%. Yet, you may wonder what country has the biggest and largest ecommerce market in 2020. It is no other country than China. It is estimated that China has $672 billion sale from online each year.
Ecommerce across the border is something that is getting widespread these days especially in countries like the US, France, India, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, China, and Australia. It is believed that China will be instrumental to the growth of cross border ecommerce because the middle class in that country are yearning for foreign products that are authentic and since these are available, they are willing and ready to increase their ecommerce spending in 2020.
A factor that contributed to China’s success in the ecommerce market is ecommerce website. For example, website like Alibaba makes cross border shopping a popular thing among the people there. As if that is not enough, other countries are subscribing to the use of the website including Banggood ecommerce website.
In hierarchy, the US follows China in the rank of top big ecommerce in the world in 2020. A report from eMarket suggest that US will see an 18% increase in 2020 over the past year on consumers’ purchases because consumers would have spent some $709.78 on ecommerce. Countries that follows the US on the list are the United Kingdom, followed by Japan, Germany next, and then France while others follow.
Best performing ecommerce categories of 2020
Guess which ecommerce product category that will top the list. Medical right? You are very correct. Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, many becomes more conscious of their health than ever before. According to a more recent study by Adobe indicated that sales of products that protect one against virus(es) such as alcoholic based hand sanitizers, hand gloves, nose masks and face shield skyrocketed with an increase growth that is over 800% within the first 70 days of the year.
Since the concept of stay at home erupted after the outbreak of the pandemic, many adjust the furnishing products in their homes because many tried to get an improvement to their working space and the living space. It on this note that the largest search on internet across all retailers was said to be home furnishing equipment and furniture. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the came to an increase of some 46.8%. Therefore, it is understandable that home improvement product sales increased in the early March in the US by some 13% more than in 2019.
Another category of product that perform well is fitness product or equipment. This is reasonable because movement outdoor is limited and as a result people are not allowed in the gym centers. To adapt to this condition and in response to the closing of gym centers, many had to ‘convert’ their homes to their gym center. This seeming simple decision brought about a high in the demand for fitness equipment. This was evident in the in the increase of 55% that happened within the first two weeks of the month of March only. As if that is not enough, many are now of the opinion that gyms may no longer be substantial in the future because many now love the idea of exercising at their respective homes. To buttress this point, nypost in its research reached a conclusion that three of five Americans believed that gyms will be an idea of the past come post-covid19 era.
At this point, let’s quickly switch over to some ecommerce trends in 2020. Here, they discussed are below.
Top ecommerce trends
- Mcommerce: the fact that people stay at home and could not go to social gatherings has made many become much glued to their mobile devices. On average, a user spent 27% of working hours in a day focusing on their mobile devices in April 2020. This is some 20% increment over 2019.
What is the result of this? People are now more inclined to shop with their mobile devices. The amount spent by consumers purchasing products online using mobile devices increased to over $50 in the first six months of the year 2020. Major places these was spent are on gaming, online streaming, and shopping. It is expected that by 2021, mobile commerce will rise to some 72.9%.
The take home point is that mobile has taken a significant share in business opportunity in 2020. However, it is important to note that customers are more inclined to buy from stores they can relate to.
- Personalization: with the tremendous increase in numbers of online vendor, there is a high competition. Since customers can now pick from several options of online stores they will want to buy from. You will be above your competitors if you stand out from others and gives customers every reasons to buy from you. This is achievable through personalization.
Epsilon concluded that there is 80% of online shoppers have the likelihood of buying a company that offers personalized products and services. Hence business owners should try and build customer loyalty by offering personalized experience for the customers.
- Localization: since cross border ecommerce is increasing, it is best that business owners localize their website. This is because international customers don’t like wasting their time and resources on websites that doesn’t resonate their language, characteristic as well as their culture. You cannot have enough success without localization.
Well if your concern is about how you will go about localization, you should not panic because ConveyThis automated tool will send you international in few minutes.
Sooner or later, people will go back to the normal way of life but what has changed with consumer behavior will take a long lasting effect. Keep up with the ever increasing world of ecommerce and you will not have to think back at the negative effects of the pandemic in 2020. Translate, personalize and localize your website today to compete and standout among others using ConveyThis.