The Second Quarter of 2020 and the Onward March of eCommerce

The numbers are in and we have some pretty spectacular snapshots from the preceding economic quarter, which revealed that more than $1 in every $5 was spent online.

The long march of ecommerce has taken a giant leap so far this year by reaching its highest level of penetration on record. What happens post-global lockdown remains uncertain given the uneven developments and lapses in Covid-19 cases.

We spent $211.5 billion online during Q2, a sharp rise of almost 32% from Q1. And the country registered the second-highest rate of any quarter since the US Department of Commerce started to register ecommerce data in the fourth quarter of 1999.

Interestingly, the first quarter didn’t quite capture the true effects of the lockdown on ecommerce, because the state of national emergency was only put in place on March 13, capturing just two and a half weeks of retail spending. The second quarter draws a more accurate picture of the state of ecommerce under lockdown.

The upward march of ecommerce is being given a huge boost with some experts stating that ecommerce penetration has been pulled forward by 2-3 years. At the same time, the second quarter witnessed the only time in which online sales managed to keep overall sales growing despite a $41 billion drop in physical, in-store sales.

This online growth has formed many new behaviors in customers that are not going to disappear any time soon. Habits are not prone to swift changes and so the ways in which we’ve been shopping for the last few months are going to stay with us further into the year, whether we are under lockdown or not.

This places even more emphasis on the website of brands and retailers to reach out to customers and provide them with quality, personal experiences. The type of online shopping experiences that platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud are able to deliver.

A business strategy that incorporates a heavy focus on the digital-side of things will be in a better place to soften physical blows during lockdown as well as put you ahead of the curve as ecommerce becomes even more prevalent.

The power of personalizing content for each customer based on their preferences; the ability to squeeze checkout times to lower abandonment rates; to put mobile front and center; and to provide your store associates with access to digital inventory to help sell and ship products. All is possible when you host your ecommerce site on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and all are going to be more and more important for customers as we continue our shift towards digital spaces.

PS: UV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware) tech teams. Contact us to see how we can work together.