All sectors from education to health, are forced to adapt their strategies and shift toward digital transformation much more quickly to accommodate the ever-growing number of people flocking online in the pandemic i.e. COVID-19. eCommerce website development has been growing at a very high rate and businesses have been scrambling in search of website design ideas for eCommerce.
Even though different countries show differences in terms of the online shopping behavior, one thing that is certain from these findings: online shopping companies that listen to their customers and deliver a great user experience that is at par with or above customer expectations—stand the chance of actually growing during the pandemic when most businesses are suffering a loss. In fact, the biggest factor that determines customer loyalty to a site or app is the customer experience it offers.
Hence interacting with customers and offering a good experience has never been more important for eCommerce companies as it can significantly affect their revenue. Working on the improvement of eCommerce website design and development and eCommerce website design should be the number one priority.
Studying customer requirements through feedback and brainstorming ways to accommodate the rapidly changing customer behaviour is important besides. In addition to this, companies have to upgrade the features of eCommerce website design. This is crucial not only to drive in customer traffic but also to stand out from other online shopping services.
As a result, many online retail organizations around the world are scrambling to advance their digital experiences as more and more customers migrate online.
Initial Stages of the Pandemic
According to the American Market Research company, Forrestor’s Report called “Forrester analytics: Online Retail Forecast, 2019, retail sales and online retail sales are likely to grow at an average of 2.5% and 11.5% per year, respectively, over the next five years in Western Europe, with eCommerce driving more than half of the total retail growth. The difference in the growth of offline and online sales is significant in these times.
Furthermore, the report also states that over the next five years, Western Europe will witness a slower growth rate (from 12.5% in 2019 to 10.6% in 2024). Adobe’s Digital Economy Index Report released in mind-June states that the total online spending of consumers in May was $82.5 billion, which is a whopping 77% higher than last year.
The mind-boggling increase in the number of people actively shopping online for medicine and other high demanding products has encouraged many businesses to pay heed on eCommerce website development and encouraged them to brainstorm new website design ideas for eCommerce to attract more customers. Many eCommerce sites have introduced customary deep discounts, products, new launches and cashback offers in wake of the virus. Thousands of people have availed benefits of eCommerce website designs like these and since then many other eCommerce website design and development teams have made changes in their features of eCommerce website design. Amazon said that in the second quarter it would spend some $4 billion or more on COVID-related expenses and has also introduced some sweeping changes in its eCommerce website design and has invested a large amount of money on eCommerce website development to keep up with the changing times.
According to a survey conducted by Selligent, 36% of the total people shopped online once a week, which is an 8% increase from pre-COVID times., The survey was conducted on 5,000 consumers in North America and Europe this year.
90% of the people surveyed in May said that they would prefer home delivery from the internet over offline shopping at least for the next six months. About 28% of the people surveyed said to increase store shopping but wish for increased safety in shops and malls.
According to eCommerce personalization reports by Nosto, there was a rise of 66% in daily online sales from May 2019 to May 2020. As compared to August 2019, the daily online sales of August 2020 have grown by 7%. There was also a recorded 3% growth in daily traffic compared with a year earlier.
For example, Home and garden related eCommerce is still growing. There was a 28% growth in home essentials and garden-related sales from August 2019 to August 2020 according to Nosto.
Similarly, grocery sales shot up exponentially when the lockdown was announced. People started hoarding shopping stores and stocking up on essentials such as canned or boxed food. Essentials like toiletries, basic clothing, etc. were hoarded before the new stock could be loaded.
The same behaviour could be seen online as well. The situation got so out of hand that prominent eCommerce stores like Grofers had to temporarily suspend their services. The bulk-buying got so out of hand that businesses like Amazon also failed to keep up with the customers’ demand and had to limit their deliveries to essential products and medicines.
This initial stockpiling was also fuelled by the widespread misinformation in the initial days of the pandemic. Claims and theories, like the virus, remain on the surface of metal only for 12 hours or that the virus cannot survive in high temperatures, convinced people that shopping online is completely safe because the virus couldn’t survive for that long.
Some customers were still cautious and preferred to make mobile payments rather than opting for Cash on delivery, however, the trend of stockpiling from online shops continued.
Later Stages of the Pandemic
Another prominent change observed in the behaviour of the online customer is the sudden shift from making careless purchases to mindful online shopping. Even though some essential supply demands are increasing, the overall number of people shopping online and offline has gone down significantly in the later stages of the lockdown.
According to the Global Connected Consumer Index Report, when consumers were asked their shopping preferences after the Coronavirus Pandemic subsides and stores reopen, 39% of the people surveyed, answered that they will continue shopping from both online and offline stores. 28% of those surveyed responded that they would mostly shop online.
Compared to shopping in pre-COVID times, consumers all around the world are taking to the internet and have surpassed all precedent buying statistics since the pandemic first began in 2020. 54% of English, 48% of Americans, 45% of the French, and 38% of Germans are shopping online and an estimated 46% of French, 44% of English, 40% of Americans, and 39% of Germans are shopping online once or more than once a week.
