Over the past few weeks, retailers have closed their stores indefinitely as the coronavirus continues to spread in the US. Many brands, like athletic apparel seller Vuori, have shifted their focus to ecommerce and social media channels to stay connected to customers. We recently spoke with Vuori's founder, Joe Kudla, about his company's direct-to-consumer (D2C) beginnings, as well as its ongoing efforts during the pandemic.

Ecommerce supply chain issues—from out-of-stock products to delayed deliveries—have been at the forefront of consumers’ minds since the beginning of the pandemic. Well before the 2020 holiday season, concerns mounted about “shipageddon,” a potential event in which the supply chain wouldn’t be able to adequately meet significantly elevated ecommerce demand between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

eMarketer junior analyst Nina Goetzen and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle discuss changing Spotify listening behavior and the company's podcast investments, and they break down how it makes money. Then principal analyst Mark Dolliver joins the show to talk about what young people want from brands, what retailers need to know about shoppers ages 50 and older and the many ways the pandemic is harming children's health.

Back-to-school shopping may look a little different this year because of the pandemic—but only slightly.

Online grocery took off dramatically in 2020 as a result of the pandemic; that’s no surprise to anyone. According to our estimates, food and beverage was by far the fastest-growing ecommerce category in the US in 2020. Given its low penetration and high sales growth, digital grocery is the next big opportunity in ecommerce.

The returns process has always been a hassle for many shoppers—particularly the task of having to ship something back. Amid the pandemic, these pain points are just as prevalent, if not more so.

While some consumers haven’t changed their stance about shopping for a car online, others have altered their views about it since the spread of the coronavirus.

With many retail stores temporarily closed during the pandemic, and more consumers turning online to buy goods, major social networks have taken steps to improve their ecommerce offerings.

While the overall economy has suffered from pandemic-necessitated behavioral changes, some industries have been hit harder than others. We estimate that US retail sales will decline by 10.5% this year, and even though the shift to ecommerce will accelerate digital sales to new heights, retailers will grow their US digital display ad spending by only a sluggish 2.3% this year.

eMarketer senior forecasting analyst Peter Newman and junior analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch discuss how the pandemic affected Americans' social networking behavior and where the major platforms now rank. Then, Blake talks about Facebook allowing cross platform messaging between Messenger and Instagram, shopping on Reels and IGTV, and a Delta Air Lines social media post.

Consumers are always on the hunt for a great deal, and that’s even more true because of the pandemic—especially if it yields a serious recession. Knowing that value is top-of-mind for many, General Mills recently launched a national rebates program that lets shoppers receive cash back to their PayPal account by submitting an itemized receipt via the Coupons.com app.

The growth of the online category accelerated beyond our previous expectations in 2020. Amid the pandemic, tens of millions of US consumers became online grocery buyers for the first time, according to our latest forecast on US grocery sales. In 2021, this behavior will go from trial to habit for many shoppers.

But US ecommerce will surge 18%, up from prior forecast of 13%

Prior to the pandemic, we expected search ad spending to grow by 14.4% this year as part of a trend of gradually slowing growth from 2018 through the end of our forecast period in 2024. When the pandemic upended those expectations, we revised our outlook in anticipation of a virtual halt to travel industry search spending. But as more information has come in throughout the summer and early fall about the pace of consumer ecommerce spending, we have again updated our estimates of search ad spending in 2020—this time, in a positive direction.

Shoppers' routines have been disrupted, and many have tried new brands or digital retailers as a result. Jaysen Gillespie, vice president and head of analytics and data science at Criteo, joins Nicole Perrin, eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, to discuss acquiring vs. retaining customers during the pandemic, along with other marketing strategies for the social distancing economy.

As consumer shopping habits shift in light of the coronavirus, ecommerce sales are increasing every day, with average daily sales 39% higher in April than the month prior, according to insights from Klaviyo's own customer database. Read this article, contributed and sponsored by Klaviyo.

Other (Amazon’s growth: 7.6% versus total ecommerce: -4.5%). The “other” category includes home improvement and building materials. Total ecommerce sales for the category will contract this year after pandemic-driven home-improvement projects taper off and supply chain issues persist.

And Lightspeed launched an omnichannel retail platform in March that lets merchants combine payments, POS tech, and ecommerce.

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.

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.

On today's episode, we discuss sustainable shopping: the "circular economy" leading to the popularity of recommerce, social media playing a role in secondhand selling, and how smaller retailers can benefit from the pandemic-fueled local shopping trend. Tune in to the discussion as eMarketer principal analyst Bill Fisher hosts principal analyst Karin von Abrams and research director at Insider Intelligence Matteo Ceurvels.