E-commerce or the process of buying products via the Internet has become the new trend overnight, the same as remote working. Until recently, the growth of this industry has had some steady steps, slowly progressing over the years, in step with technology. But, this steady progress has changed completely in less than one month, shifting from a slow and steady upward direction to fast.
Why and how?
The answer is simple – COVID-19. We were all witnesses to the panic buying which happened prior to having the preventive measures employed in practice. This speaks more about human nature and the need to be always certain that everything is going to be fine and to be in control. Next to this is the crowd mentality – when we see a lot of people buying something, we are going after the same. These two things, panic buying, and crowd mentality buying are shaping the future of e-commerce. If you wonder how it is simple – goods’ scarcity, and the need to be in control, force people to turn towards online buying.
Though the preventive measures and the curfew closed shops, schools, big markets, companies, and almost everything, and the only institutions that remained open were the pharmacies, hospitals, and some local shops with limited working time, not everything was as dark as it seemed. This new situation casts a new light on e-commerce. This is the perfect time to switch to online selling of your goods if you still haven’t because that is the present and future that we are living in.
Nothing will get back to how it was, especially when we have learned better ways of doing things. This means we will not get back to the old way of buying, instead, we will just improve the buying and delivery processes. All this is supported by the recent research done regarding shopping habits, the goods that are sold the best, as well as the predictions of how the trend will continue.
The conclusion of all of them is that there has been an increase in e-commerce, but not in each segment of it. According to Rakuten Intelligence, the order volume for online grocery retailers increased by more than 210% from March 12 to 25 compared to the same period last year. Next to the grocery retailers would probably be the food and beverage e-commerce sales. Some of the goods-selling industries will suffer, as their demand during COVID-19 is not as high as others, meaning that this is not something that influences each segment. Common Thread Collective has done an analysis of the e-commerce performance broken down in categories, depending on the goods being sold (groceries are excluded).
The picture above shows that the goods that are most sought after are:
- Health and Safety products
- Baby Products, here come the shelf-stable products as well
- Cleaning products
- Food and beverage
- Work from Home Goods
- Wellness including fashion and apparel
Besides the increased demand for online buying, there is an increased change in buying behavior, which ascertains that e-commerce is going to stay even after COVID-19 is over. People of all generations are changing their behavior, and they are turning towards buying online. It is far easier to buy the goods from your home and have them delivered straight to your place. Additionally, the local stores may not have the goods that you need, and you can find them online, which solves the question of scarcity, and control.
Knowing all this, and looking at all the data from the research on the Internet, are you ready for this trend – both from a customer’s point of view and an owner of a shop/e-commerce website?
If you are in the e-commerce industry and are experiencing growing demand for your goods, or you still haven’t developed an e-commerce website, now is the right time to do it. Make sure that it is fast, automated, with intuitive UE, and makes the users want to buy from you. There are many ways of building an e-commerce website, but you should choose the one that suits your services the most. One of the many ways is building an e-commerce website by using Laravel and Commerce Tools. If you are interested in building your e-commerce website with these tools, check our recent How-to blog post. Additionally, if you want free advice on the best practices for doing that, you can contact us.
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