A retrospective look at how the pandemic changed consumer attitudes and behaviors, and what ecommerce businesses can expect moving into the post-pandemic era.
Without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic permanently transformed the ecommerce industry. Before 2020, online shopping was reserved mostly for the “tech-savvy” consumer. Today, it has become an essential part of most households in the modern world.
For ecommerce businesses, the last three years have resulted in a complete paradigm shift within the industry – leading companies of all sizes to wonder what’s next.
In this report, we’ll highlight how the industry has changed, bring you up to date on the latest consumer behavior data from our original research, and provide insight into where the industry may be headed.
First and foremost … online shopping is here to stay.
Pandemic-related shutdowns created complete disruption in shopping habits. Brick-and-mortar stores had to become online retailers almost overnight – an easy transition for some early adopters and a real struggle for other businesses.
Consumers were forced online quite abruptly as well – separating the experienced ecommerce shoppers from the novices.
Industry experts estimated that retail was reinvented in 2020, with five to seven years of online shopping growth happening in the last four months of that year.
Retailers and businesses of all sizes started to find their ecommerce footing, making way for technology and channel innovation/p>
Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), curbside pickup, and contactless payments were introduced as a way to provide a better customer experience
As a result, consumers became more comfortable shopping online, even after brick-and-mortar stores started reopening
In 2022, online shopping became habitual and had significant peaks –especially in countries where consumers received paycheck protection loans and other financial incentives.
Despite having full access to brick-and-mortar stores, consumers were still shopping online with great frequency..
When we take a closer look, we can see a number of ecommerce shopping trends that have shaped consumer behavior, starting with the rise and fall of ecommerce industries.
As soon as the pandemic started, consumers were learning how to navigate shopping online and discovering stores and websites they never knew existed. This led to mixed results for a variety of industries.
In 2020, the travel and airline industry took an obvious hit. Aside from road trips, consumers weren’t going anywhere. Instead, while they were stuck at home already, consumers began making their homes a destination worth visiting. Suddenly, they had time for all the potential home improvement projects they had been putting off. The inspiration to renovate and redecorate made the home goods industry a big winner.
In 2021, when customers realized they would need to occupy themselves for a longer period of time than just a few months, the consumer electronics industry started to gain steam. We also saw novice ecommerce consumers leaning toward smaller-value apparel and accessories, where experienced online shoppers felt more comfortable buying big-ticket items like mattresses and sofas.
Those trends have continued – with a few changes. Today’s consumers no longer have the stimulus checks and forgiveness loans they used in the last few years for non-essential purchases. That, combined with general concern about the economy, has caused consumer financial belts to tighten.
Does that mean trouble for ecommerce businesses? Not necessarily.
“The businesses that will fare the best in this new era of ecommerce are the ones that were online long before the pandemic and the ‘pure players’ that only sell online.”
Rafael Lourenco, ClearSale Executive Vice President & Partner
A good example of this is the ticketing and event industry. Our ecommerce experts anticipate that this will become a top industry in the next year or two. Why?
The industry has almost completely transitioned online. Think about the last time you bought a ticket from a physical box office. Another factor is that consumers are now fully able to return to live venues where they can enjoy concerts, festivals and other events – which has become incredibly popular over the last year. Lastly, the cost of concert tickets has increased, which is boosting revenues in those industries.
Even ticketing businesses that weren’t “pure players” before will be set up to succeed.
We’ve seen even more trends emerge in the last few years.
While ecommerce shopping has become commonplace, how much shoppers spend online is leveling out or decreasing.
Consumers are growing more comfortable online and slightly increasing their cross-border shopping — but when given a choice, ecommerce shoppers are loyal to local stores.
Another important trend that has become especially obvious of late is disparate consumer behavior based on age.
Download the full report to learn what we discovered about generational shopping habits and more:
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