Proximity mobile pay is on the rise worldwide. The forecast: In 2020, more than 1.18 billion people used proximity mobile payments worldwide, a growth of 22.2% over 2019. By 2022, proximity mobile payments will reach close to 1.35 billion people worldwide as the payment method's popularity increases.

Shopify lets merchants go worldwide: A new global commerce hub and a recent investment in marketing tools hint at Shopify’s future.

Despite a challenging year for retail in 2020, we estimate that worldwide retail ecommerce sales posted a 27.6% growth rate for the year, with sales reaching well over $4 trillion. This represents a substantial uptick from our mid-pandemic assessment that global ecommerce would decelerate to 16.5% growth and demonstrates the remarkable extent to which consumers transitioned to ecommerce last year.

Amazon operates close to 600 physical stores in the US, the majority of which are locations of grocer Whole Foods Market, which Amazon acquired in 2017.

Then, in 2015, Amazon created its own shopping holiday, Prime Day, now a multiday event that generated $11.19 billion in sales worldwide for the company in 2021, according to Digital Commerce 360. We forecast that the number of US Amazon Prime households will reach 81.4 million in 2021, up 4.8% year over year (YoY).

Only 23% of worldwide iOS users have opted in to being tracked, according to app analytics provider Flurry. That means Facebook, which attracts the most ad spend of any platform, is hard-pressed to track conversions. What’s next: To get around the issue, Facebook is leaning on statistical modeling instead of Apple data—and for some advertisers, that may not be good enough. 2.

Survey shows that nearly 50% of shoppers were more interested in online shopping in 2020 compared to 2019, and this interest will likely grow even higher during the upcoming holiday shopping season.

Jeff Wilke retired this year, departing as CEO of Amazon’s global consumer business, with Dave Clark (formerly the company's senior vice president of worldwide operations) taking over. Longtime executive Wei Gao, responsible for much of the company’s grocery initiatives and a former technical advisor to Bezos, left to become virtual event provider Hopin’s COO.

Although BNPL is flourishing, intensifying competition might push providers into new global markets and sectors outside of traditional retail to sustain their growth.

A different kind of campaign: Some Amazon sellers are tracking down their unhappy customers and pressuring them to edit or remove their reviews.

What’s next: Here is our full-year outlook for Amazon’s ecommerce sales and ad revenues:. We estimate that worldwide, Amazon retail ecommerce sales will increase by 26.4% this year to $626.56 billion. Marketplace sales will account for 61.3% of the total, up from 60.2% last year. In the US, we estimate Amazon retail sales will be up 24.9% this year to $386.40 billion.

In 2021, Amazon's worldwide ecommerce sales will grow by nearly 12% to $532.20 billion. That gives Amazon a 12.1% share of the global ecommerce market. Marketplace sales will account for 60.7% of Amazon's ecommerce sales, with that share growing. Direct sales will account for 39.3% of Amazon's ecommerce sales, with that share declining.