Our September 2020 Ecommerce Survey, conducted by Bizrate Insights, revealed that just 2% used voice shopping regularly, while 63% said they’d neither used it nor had any interest, up from 58% in our June 2020 survey.

Branded financial services already exist within websites: Many ecommerce sites have PayPal or Affirm built into the checkout process, for example.

Chinese brands suffered in Europe during the first acute phase of the pandemic in H1 2020, according to a June survey of adults in the EU-4 countries and the UK by Morning Consult. For example, over half of respondents in France and the UK said the pandemic had made them look less favorably on Chinese companies.

2020 was a tumultuous year to say the least, but as the adage goes, in crisis there is opportunity. This idea is literally embedded in the Chinese word for “crisis” (危机): Its second character means opportunity. China’s populace appeared to have embodied that spirit. In a challenging year, entrepreneurs and regulators alike worked together to steady the ship and found ways to restore some normalcy through resilience, digital innovations, and timely policies.

Global retail ecommerce sales will decelerate to a 16.5% growth rate in 2020. Even as consumers transitioned en masse to ecommerce during the pandemic, the drag caused by multiple recessions internationally has reduced the overall outlook.

“As the pandemic elevated ecommerce adoption—and temporarily slowed social ad spending—Facebook, Instagram, and others quickly expanded their social commerce offerings to help drive conversions within their apps,” she said. We don’t expect most users to check out on social in 2021, at least not regularly.

Rural China's internet penetration climbed in 2020

In Q2, even as the overall economy collapsed (a 31.4% decline quarter over quarter for GDP), US consumers kept the retail sector nearly afloat by pouring cash into ecommerce channels at unprecedented rates. By Q3, US retail sales bounced back from a quarter-over-quarter decline of 3.9% in Q2 to 12.0% growth.

Your business in mainland China is back to pre-pandemic levels, which is incredible. Your retail footprint there also more than doubled this past quarter. What do you attribute that to? We entered the market in China just a few years ago. We’re really just at the start of our journey there.