The pandemic led to unprecedented growth in US ecommerce sales. Even as sales growth returns to somewhat normal levels in 2021, total sales will far exceed our pre-pandemic estimates.

Across brick and mortar and ecommerce, the customer experience landscape has changed dramatically—and permanently—during the pandemic.

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.

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.

A massive leap forward for Canada’s retail ecommerce market resulted from the pandemic. The momentum continues this year.

We expect US social commerce sales to rise by 35.8% in 2021 to $36.62 billion. That’s only a slight deceleration in growth from 2020, when sales surged by 38.9% thanks to the pandemic-driven boom in ecommerce, increased social media consumption, and brands continuing to leverage these platforms to sell directly to consumers.

Like many regions around the world, Southeast Asia experienced an ecommerce boom in 2020, as various pandemic-driven social lockdowns encouraged more shopping from home. According to our estimates, ecommerce grew by 35.2% collectively in the region last year, and our newest forecast projects 14.3% growth this year. However, traditional retail is still overwhelmingly dominant.

Ecommerce helped retail out of a sticky spot during the pandemic, and those habits formed during lockdowns will endure, as digital demands more attention than ever—37.5% of all retail sales this year will be ecommerce sales.

On today's episode, we discuss which pandemic personas will stick around, why brands are struggling to know who their customers are, and the most important ways consumer behavior has likely changed permanently. We then talk about how people will shop once businesses are fully reopen, two new in-store virtual reality (VR) experiences, and what Apple's new “buy now, pay later” service could do to the space. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Suzy Davidkhanian.

Sellers have more freedom to customize their online stores with new design and payment tools, which can help Shopify maintain its seller base after the pandemic subsides and ecommerce growth normalizes.

On today's episode, we discuss which “digital habits” are just myths, whether travel has reached pre-pandemic levels, whether conversational commerce can take online shopping by storm, social audio getting some new big partners, which platforms creators want to create for, what it would look like if companies were mini countries, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst Paul Verna, forecasting analyst Peter Vahle, and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

If retail ecommerce was boosting overall retail growth over the past decade, the pandemic added rocket fuel to surge it ahead by many years.

Livestreaming ecommerce—a market-like online shopping experience that feels like an amalgamation of the Home Shopping Network (HSN), game shows, talk shows, and auctions—has taken China by storm. The phenomenon was in part fueled by the pandemic, as brick-and-mortar stores temporarily closed down and consumers sheltered in place. Yet, a year later, livestream shopping is still going strong in the country.

Gen Xers have taken a hit from the pandemic. But in midcareer and with bigger-than-average households, they remain too important a cohort for marketers to ignore. Thus, it’s essential see how their finances, shopping behavior, and digital usage shape up amid the pandemic.

India’s painful and ongoing struggle with the coronavirus pandemic will lead to a second consecutive difficult year for brick-and-mortar retail sales. At the same time, the public health anxieties constraining overall retail will continue pushing consumers toward digital solutions. We anticipate an extended boom for ecommerce in India, including 27.0% growth this year, for $66.76 billion in sales.

The pandemic accelerated mobile trends by years, and these changes should stick even as the pandemic wanes. Many people were forced to use apps for food delivery, finance, fitness, and shopping, and they’ve become accustomed to these new behaviors. Even app categories that were hurt during the pandemic, such as travel or dating apps, have been resilient. People have acclimated to new forms of mobile shopping and activities, and they’ll be more willing to try mobile interfaces for other activities going forward.

On today's episode, we discuss how advertisers are adjusting as the pandemic eases in the US, whether Facebook Live Shopping can get off the ground, online shopping's deceleration, if faster delivery can really help retailers compete with Amazon, what to make of Snapchat's fourth-generation augmented reality glasses, and how much time we really have to enjoy life. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior analyst Sara M. Watson, analyst Daniel Keyes, and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

Discovery and consideration are in a different place than before the pandemic. With less access to in-person touchpoints, consumers started exploring technology like augmented reality for their shopping needs. Brands have since launched new experiences to cater to consumer demands, but preexisting implementations also saw upticks in usage.

Even before the pandemic, ecommerce channel advertising was attracting a lot of attention from advertisers—especially in verticals like consumer packaged goods (CPG)—as well as retailers, which hoped to add new higher-margin revenue streams to their businesses after seeing Amazon’s success in the area. Amazon had become the No. 3 digital ad seller in the US thanks primarily to placements on its ecommerce property, and companies including Walmart, Target, and eBay had been growing similar businesses.

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.

On today's episode, we discuss why Uber is trying to be a one-stop shop and how DoorDash outperformed Uber during the pandemic. We then talk about The New York Times' Q1 subscriber and revenue performance, NBCUniversal's thoughts on regional sports, and what stood out at this year's NewFronts. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

For some time now, consumers have been moving toward demanding more frictionless payment methods across online and offline channels. The social distancing and sanitizing practices brought on by the pandemic proved to be the push that encouraged many consumers to try proximity mobile payments (paying for goods using a mobile phone as a physical POS) for the first time. Ecommerce retailers, not to be outdone, are finding ways to improve their transactions as well.