Q4 coronavirus and ecommerce stats
The coronavirus pandemic forced brands to pivot their 2020 ecommerce strategies immensely to cope with consumers’ constantly shifting behavior. Here are some the latest stats:
- 12% more time spent with digital this year (Merkle)
- 10% more time spent on mobile this year (Merkle)
- 79% of consumers will continue to spend more conservatively in the coming months (Merkle)
- 11% of advertisers expect COVID-19 to significantly impact their ad spending in Q4 (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- 68% of advertisers expect COVID-19 to impact their ad spending into 2021 (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- 62% of consumers shop online more now than before the pandemic (Bazaarvoice)
- 3.5% less foot traffic in UK stores the week of October 17th (Reuters)
Prime Day amid the pandemic
After being postponed from July to October due to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon Prime Day 2020 went off without a hitch.
The annual sales event took place on October 13 and October 14 this year across the U.S. and 18 other countries. Prime members saved more than $1.4 billion over the two-day sales event, according to a press release from Amazon.
Digital Commerce 360 estimates that despite the pandemic, Amazon Prime Day 2020 sales hit $10.4 billion – up from $7.16 billion (+45.2%) over Prime Day 2019 and from $4.19 billion (+148.2%) over Prime Day 2018.
Dive deeper into the Prime Day wins that happened despite COVID-19 in our Prime Day recap & stats blog post!
The data is in: Online shopping habits since pre-COVID-19
36% of consumers shop online weekly since the rise of COVID-19, up from 28% pre-pandemic, according to new data from Digital Commerce 360.
29% say they currently shop more online than in person, while 35% have an even mix of online and in-store shopping.
What about after coronavirus subsides, though? 28% say they will continue to shop mostly online after the pandemic, with 39% saying they will shop both online and in-store, 24% saying they “can’t wait” to shop in-store, and 10% not sure.
64% of shoppers surveyed want mobile and contactless pickup options, with 79% saying contactless store pickup is very important.
60% want curbside pickup options. 85% of shoppers have significantly increased their use of the curbside pickup option over the course of the pandemic.
90% of consumers prefer home delivery over a store visit, 80% are likely to use digital communications with store associates, and only 28% plan to increase in-store shopping between August 2020 and February 2021.
Executives’ optimism toward economy improves
According to new research from McKinsey, 57% of executives expect the economy to improve six months from now, with 29% expecting the economy to worsen – the most optimistic outlook since the beginning of the pandemic. 14% of executives expect economic conditions to remain the same.
In March, 25% of executives expected the economy to improve in six months, with 58% expecting it to worsen and 17% expecting it to remain the same.
April has had the worst outlook out of all of seven months of COVID-19 in the US, with 66% of executives expecting it to worsen in the following six months.
Executives’ outlook on profitability has also improved, with 53% expecting to see profits in the next six months compared to 33% in March. While over half (54%) of executives surveyed in April expected profits to decrease over the next six months, that number is down to 31% now – the lowest it’s been since the beginning of the pandemic.
Executives also increasingly expect customer demand for their brand’s products to grow, with 53% expecting an increase compared to 42% in June. 23% of executives still expect a decrease in customer demand over the next six months.
