How Retail E-commerce is Tackling the Pandemic Head On

The pandemic has put ecommerce at the forefront of retail. Digital Commerce 360, an online media and research organization that delivers objective news and competitive data across e-retailing, B2B ecommerce, and digital healthcare, wrote an article that shares the data on how ecommerce has boomed during this pandemic. Consumers spent $347.26 billion online with U.S. retailers in the first six months of this year, up 30.1% from $266.84 billion for the same period in 2019. In fact, retailers that didn’t have an ecommerce platform, quickly started using third party companies like Shopify (if you’ve been following, Shopify, whose shares started at the beginning of the year at about $445 have more than doubled and currently fluctuates between $900 to a $1,000 per share). Amazon similarly has had a huge increase in revenue and share price.

Retailers offering products for home improvement and furniture stores are also thriving. As more people than ever are stuck at home due to coronavirus fears, homeowners have much more time to care for their homes, lawns and gardens. As such, landscaping and general yard care companies are seeing unseasonably good business. With people starting to work remotely, orders for office desks and chairs have gone up to help build an office space at home.

Retail sales have now returned to pre-pandemic levels, especially because of retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Target. Target added 10 million shoppers in just the first half of 2020. Their efficiency of their ecommerce platform and expanded delivery options and government stimulus programs have combined to make these retailers successful.
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Although many industries serving the consumer have struggled during the pandemic, it is clear that a number of them have thrived—adapting and evolving into a better version of themselves enhancing and adding new services and channels of distribution — as they say, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.”