Have you been searching for information on how online shopping habits and purchasing power have changed in 2021? The Digital Economy Index, Adobe has the only real-time barometer of digital buying and selling activity, analysing trillions of online transactions across 100 million product SKUs in 18 product categories. Read the report as it includes the most important and actual data.
The Adobe Digital Economy Index
The Adobe Digital Economy Index offers the most comprehensive set of insights of its kind, based on analysis through Adobe Analytics. It covers over one trillion visits to U.S. retail sites and over 100 million SKUs. In addition, the research is significantly more in-depth and accurate than survey-based reports because only Adobe has access to transactional consumer data. Let’s see what information about sales during Covid-19 in 2021 The Adobe Digital Economy Index prepared for us.
Increase in sales
Probably no one expected how big and positive impact Covid-19 would have on sales and e-commerce. This is because consumers met their needs on an ongoing basis. Therefore COVID-19 gave eCommerce an extra boost of $183 billion. But is it really so much? For comparison, I will present you with the data for the 2020 holiday season. Between November and December was spent online $188.2 billion!
A total of $ 844 billion was spent online in 12 months, from March 2020 to February 2021. It’s 42 percent growth over 2019. But there’s more. 2021 may bring in somewhere between $850 billion and $930 billion.
Based on the current pace of growth, and even more significant increase can be expected in 2022. This could be the first trillion-dollar year for eCommerce!
More detailed statistics
Below you will find #7 summaries from 2021:
#1. The first two months of this year looked promising. In January and February, users spent $ 121 billion online. In these two months alone, this is a 34 percent YoY growth!
#2. Users liked the Buy Now, Pay Later solution very much. In the January and February of 2021, it grew 215 percent YoY. Even consumers made 18 percent larger orders.
#3. New habits have been made – From Feb 1 – Feb 21, 2021, the grocery category grew by 230 percent compared to the time before the pandemic. During this period, sporting goods saw 75 percent growth.
#4. Struggle with demand – In Jan 2021, shoppers faced 4x more stockouts compared to a pre-pandemic period. In addition, people cited that in January 2021, groceries, medical supplies and pet products were out of stock online more often than other product categories.
#5. Western states’ highest eCommerce peak saw the most growth in the new year (Feb 2021) at 34% YoY. For example, at the state level, Maine grew 60% in the first two months (Jan-Feb) of 2021.
#6. Online shopping is more important than ever. Online shopping became a ubiquitous daily activity during the pandemic. For example, Labor Day brought 26 percent ($40m) less than a year before.
#7. Customers prefer curbside/in-store pick up as it’s safe and avoid shipping delays. In an Adobe survey, 30 percent of online consumers prefer curbside/in-store pickup over standard delivery options.
Subsequent changes
What’s more, The Adobe Digital Economy Index also tracked digital purchasing power and atypical pricing trends.
Digital purchasing power slumped in 2020. You can typically see the increase, but now you won’t. In 2020, it decreased by 1 per cent YoY as a surge in demand was faced with limited supply, higher prices, and new fulfilment costs.
Also, digital inflation has changed as it was observed across major online categories for the first time in years. For example, computer prices were only down 6 percent YoY vs down 13.5 percent YoY, or grocery prices were up 4.2 percent YoY vs down 6 percent YoY.
In conclusion
The year 2021 is not over yet but surprised some with changes. It has already shown us how much has changed in the habits of people so far. The above data show that the changes are endless. Therefore, we need to look to the next half of 2021 to implement the right solutions and keep up with consumers.
