Over the past couple of years, the pandemic has forced major shifts in how we live our lives. From lockdowns to the loss of international travel, the virus certainly threw a spanner in the works for most people. What hasn’t been looked at so closely, however, is how COVID-19 has impacted industries as a whole, in addition to the effect it had on individual businesses. Today we’ll be exploring that concept in relation to the eCommerce industry.
Shipping Got a Bit More Complicated
One of the most significant adverse impacts of the pandemic on eCommerce is that shipping is now a completely different beast. Even as the world recovers, we’re still dealing with supply chain issues and other problems with moving goods across the globe.
The good news is that we’ve also seen some of the best eCommerce fulfillment companies step up to the challenge, helping mitigate some of the negative impacts.
New Markets Opened Up
Regarding positive effects, the most significant shift the eCommerce Industry has seen is in emerging markets. With pretty much everyone banned from shopping in-store, purchases that would have been made physically quickly became online shopping adventures.
This new way of shopping allowed eCommerce companies to expand their offerings and target areas. New products rose, and markets grew as far as reduced shipping capacities would let them.
Homewares Saw a Massive Increase
In what is probably a surprise to no one, since there’s a significant chance you were part of the group making these purchases, the homewares category saw a massive increase over the past few years. People wanted everything from non-toxic pots and pans to building materials, and as we all spent more and more time at home, this hunger for change grew exponentially.
Automation Grew in Popularity
Automation carved out its place with authority during this time when workers couldn’t get into the office to perform tasks manually. AP invoice automation was a prevalent implementation throughout the pandemic, with many companies upgrading their ERPs and looking for innovative ways to automate mundane tasks. Analysts believe this trend will continue, with automation ushering in the next Industrial Revolution.
Companies Started Focusing More on the Community
Companies that already focused on this area saw the most significant increases here. However, sentiments were still positive toward anyone implementing social procurement policies for the first time. In general, eCommerce businesses that gave back to the community and the planet without greenwashing or pandering fared well.
Data Security in the Spotlight
Finally, with everything moving at light speed towards a more digitized experience, data security stepped right into the spotlight. With breaches like the massive messes at Optus and other large companies causing havoc, the focus in many organizations moved towards securing customer data and ensuring they had solid backup and disaster recovery processes in place.
The eCommerce industry offers a fascinating example of how the global pandemic has changed the way we operate, potentially forever. So those looking for critical insights would do well to dig deeper here to really understand how businesses have pivoted over the past two years. This article is a good starting point, and we hope you’ve learned some new things that can assist you in your business.