The growth and expansion of online retail: COVID-19 and beyond

Retail has fundamentally changed due to stay at home orders and social distancing protocols in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 has put a stronger focus on online, touchless shopping, an increase in technology, and digital enablement within the shopping experience.

Consequently, eCommerce sales have seen explosive growth in 2020 – increasing as much in the past eight weeks as the past ten years, according to the U.S.

Department of Commerce. This seismic shift to eCommerce has enabled brand discovery for consumers as they spend more time online. About half of U.S. shoppers reported that they are discovering new brands more than they were prior to COVID-19, according to Ipsos’ COVID-19 tracker, commissioned by Google.

Using the combined power of Synthesio Social Listening and responses from Ipsos’ U.S. syndicated online community, we compiled salient insights about the state of online shopping and what the future holds for retail.

Discover the report