How the pandemic changed back-to-school shopping

Retailers have long had an eye on augmented reality (AR), but it still has unrealized potential for shopping purposes.

Omicron outbreak leads retailers to cut hours and temporarily close stores: The situation could drive more consumers to buy online and spur merchants to add more self-service tools.

The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered the US retail and ecommerce landscape, with varying impacts in retail category growth.

On today's episode, we discuss what it's like to launch an ecommerce business unit during the pandemic and how customers are changing. We then talk about livestream ecommerce's US entry point, how to solve the fitting-room dilemma, and how seriously we should take retailer rental services. Tune in to the discussion with ecommerce general manager for the Americas region at Tekmovil Cristian Serrano and eMarketer senior analyst Matteo Ceurvels and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

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.

Coronavirus effects have radically altered the US retail and ecommerce landscape, with surprising changes in consumer behavior and category and retailer performance.

Worldwide, the retail industry has had perhaps the smoothest transition into ecommerce and general digitization. Germany may have lagged initially, but it got there eventually, and the pandemic accelerated the trend.

This report explores the pandemic’s impact on total retail, ecommerce, and mcommerce sales in Latin America, with breakouts for Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. It also examines key drivers fueling regional market movements in 2021 and beyond.

However, with more stores closing due to omicron, even the most enthusiastic shoppers may find it more difficult to shop in-store for a while.

COVID-19 is back at the top of mind for many consumers: Survey suggests spread of omicron variant has led many to change their behavior.

Alibaba’s quarterly earnings: The ecommerce giant posted strong growth in its retail and global businesses, even though we expect its share of China’s total ecommerce sales to dip slightly this year.

Even as the U.S. starts to open up again, consumers are still shopping online, and Shopify, a leading commerce platform that lets merchants manage their online retail operations in-house, is well positioned to capture the growing online market as it continues to strike new partnerships.

The pandemic super-charged digital habits in the UK, particularly among higher-income groups. These people are also in a better place financially as pandemic restrictions lift, but there’s pent-up desire to spend across all income brackets.

A promising retail avenue: For marketers struggling to find new digital buyers in China, livestreaming opens the door to shoppers who crave in-store experiences amid the pandemic.

A decade after the end of the Great Recession (and before the coronavirus roiled the economy), consumers have stuck with older means of economizing and added new ones to their shopping mix.