Discover the growth of ecommerce during the coronavirus

Studies of ecommerce growth during the coronavirus have shown that the pandemic has profoundly impacted consumer behavior .

Businesses today are concerned with understanding how changes after the pandemic will continue to affect their buyers’ responses. Thus, today an important task is to analyze the growth of e-commerce during the coronavirus. Some of the largest retail chains have already announced that they are expanding their e-commerce sales to adapt to these new consumer habits.

Without a doubt, COVID-19 has accelerated this process. And while these companies may seem better equipped to meet new customer needs, this change is out of control for many others.

Consumers start buying certain kinds of product online that were not planned. And although customer needs have changed, the growth of ecommerce during the coronavirus is an undeniable fact.

Order management

After more than eight weeks of confinement and working from home, consumers continue to change their shopping habits. For example, mobile devices have been shown to be the most popular form of online shopping by a wide margin. In fact, 72% of consumers are using their phones, computers and tablets to shop in stores.

According to Mckinsey, Consumers in the United States, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea and China show a positive intention to increase the frequency of online purchases in various categories.

These include groceries, food, home supplies, personal care, and other leisure and sports related products. Likewise, children’s products and books / magazines / newspapers have also benefited. This has undoubtedly translated into strong growth in ecommerce during the coronavirus.

In addition, 47% of Internet users in the world spend more time shopping online . The percentage of Internet users in each age group who  spend more time shopping on eCommerce  worldwide in the last few weeks is divided into:

• 46% of Internet users between 16 and 24 years old
• 53% of users between 25 and 34 years
• 50% of Internet users between the ages of 35 and 44
• 42% of users between 45 and 54 years
• 32% of Internet users between 55 and 64 years old.

New buyers also join ecommerce growth during coronavirus

Even with the announcements of de-escalation in the quarantine of some countries in the world, the growth of e-commerce during the coronavirus has been noticed. In fact, in the week of May 11 , the pandemic’s highest number of online buyers was reached : 67.1%.

According to studies, the growth of ecommerce during the coronavirus has managed to expand the scope of sales of businesses that had never dared to sell on the Internet.

These surveys reveal that slightly more than half of consumers bought for the first time in business. In part, thanks to its online customer service policies. A factor that has been decisive in the growth of ecommerce during the coronavirus.

Retail sales have increased by 209%

This is indicated by the most recent studies that compare the transactions carried out during the coronavirus crisis in April and May, with those carried out at the same time in 2019.

Trends in purchasing behaviors demonstrate ecommerce growth during the coronavirus. A growth, in addition, that has become more noticeable in March. And they have only been followed by the purchase of online games.

The big gets bigger

Online giants like Amazon and Alibaba controlled a third of the global e-commerce market in 2019, according to Euromonitor International.

Store closings during the pandemic extended their dominance. Amazon, for example, hired 175,000 new employees , as consumer spending on Amazon increased 35%, according to Facteus.

These titans will emerge from the pandemic even stronger, permanently reshaping the retail landscape and leading a winning race that was already underway.

With the increase in online shopping, frauds also come

Similarly, and as e-commerce and online retailers are responding to rapid order growth, strong growth in online fraud has been detected .

The following are some of the many approaches that bad actors take to defraud e-commerce sites, online retailers, and consumers who shop online:

A.- The most common type of electronic commerce fraud: Chargebacks,

This will be one of the most expensive types of fraud that retail e-commerce will experience. It is a technique that often leads to additional fees, loss of inventory, services, and may even make you unable to accept a specific type of credit card.

Chargebacks can be the result of criminal or friendly fraud. In any case, charge backs are expensive and require an excessive amount of time to resolve.

B.- Friendly fraud

This type of electronic fraud increases as the online income of an e-commerce site increases. Something that can represent between 40% and 80% of all fraud losses.

Also known as First Party Fraud. This type of fraud occurs when customers request refunds from their issuing banks . For this, they allege that the transactions in the credit card statements are fraudulent.

Instead of contacting the company where a purchase was made, a consumer simply calls their bank, which, lacking verification information, reimburses the consumer and issues a charge back to the company. Friendly fraud can be accidental or intentional.

C.- Games and wireless fraud

They are one of the fastest growing areas today, given the 126% annual growth of online sales in this area as of April 2020.

Schemes for credential filling, account acquisition and Streaming Potluck are used to defraud ecommerce sites and retailers today.

It occurs when users go through the registration process on a website. To verify the validity of the stolen username / password pairs, this information is used to take over the accounts.

D.- Streaming Potluck

It is a technique in which each member of a group brings his account for a streaming service and shares it. In this case, each member of the group has access to all services. The big flaw here is that, depending on the service provider’s business model, unauthorized account swapping can cause loss of revenue.

Account acquisition is widespread in games and in all areas of e-commerce today. The online gaming industry relies on real-time approval of small amounts of transactions to keep players interested. These transactions must be approved almost instantly and progressively for a game to be financially successful.

Tips for Consumers to Protect Identity and Personal Information During the COVID-19 Crisis

• Be careful with online requests for personal information. Coronavirus-themed emails seeking personal information are likely to be phishing scams. Legitimate government agencies will not ask for that information. Delete this type of email.
• Verify the email address or link. Inspect links by hovering over the URL to see where it leads. Sometimes it is obvious that the web address is not legitimate. But consider that phishers can create links that closely resemble legitimate addresses. If you get a message with a dubious link. Immediately delete that email.
• Be on the lookout for spelling and grammatical errors. If an email includes spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors, it is likely a sign of a phishing email.
• Pay attention to generic greetings. Phishing emails are unlikely to use a person’s name. Greetings like “Dear Sir or Madam” often indicate that an email is not legitimate.
• Avoid emails that insist on acting now . Phishing emails often try to create a sense of urgency or demand immediate action. Delete the email.

2 factors that affect ecommerce

Although, after so many weeks of confirming the growth of ecommerce during the coronavirus, the shadow of a threat continues to increase.

There is a kind of business concern about what will happen in the future. Also taking into account the augury of a new economic crisis. And above all, as the so-called ‘new normality’ appears . There are two important issues that can affect the growth of eccommerce over time:

1.- That trust is permanent

During the pandemic, the growth of ecommerce during the coronavirus responds to a real need for consumers to access these means to obtain goods and services. However, the relaxation of the quarantine can bring some setbacks in the purchasing systems.

One of the main problems of online sales is that there are many users who are suspicious of providing their data on the Internet. With the relaxation of confinement and the opening of stores, many may again choose to go to physical stores. Not only to secure your transactions, but with a caring mindset to avoid the disappearance of local businesses.

2.- As safe as being in the store

Increase investment in digital marketing to maintain a good online brand presence. Everything indicates that in the near future there will be more interest from buyers in spending more time on the brands’ websites before going to the store.

If you create suitable campaigns to accompany them during the buyer’s trip and build trust, you will be more likely to decide to make purchases online. For this, it is essential that the experience of your users is as consistent as offline .

Thus, it seems increasingly likely that the pandemic will continue to accelerate the diversification of digital audiences. Something that will undoubtedly affect the growth of e-commerce during the coronavirus.

This creates numerous opportunities for any brand that decides to have a presence on these platforms. Hence, it is absolutely necessary to develop an effective performance marketing strategy with the support of specialists such as Antevenio where we have technology and experience to help you achieve your business objectives.