As retailers explore new strategies in H2 2021 and beyond, they will need to gain greater understanding of which consumer behaviors have shifted permanently, which will revert to those of pre-pandemic times, and which will settle somewhere in the middle.
One segment of ecommerce that retailers can look further into is subscriptions—an especially helpful retail model for replenishment items (e.g., consumer packaged goods or beauty and personal care). Subscription ecommerce sales took off amid the crisis, with 41.0% growth, per our estimates. We forecast that 3.0% of US retail ecommerce sales will come from subscriptions in 2021, totaling $27.67 billion and up more than $10 billion from just two years ago.