Even as total worldwide retail sales declined by 3.0% in 2020, retail ecommerce growth boomed to 27.6%. Ecommerce growth will decelerate substantially in 2021 to 14.3% as brick-and-mortar sales recover.

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.

Prime Day sales will surpass $10 billion

Buy now, pay later solutions are quickly gaining adoption as consumers look for new financing options and merchants aim to drive sales. But the industry is still unsettled as a number of firms are battling to lead the space, while card networks and issuers are looking to get involved too.

In this Meet the Analyst Webinar, Zia Daniell Wigder, senior vice president of content at Insider Intelligence, broke down our 2021 US retail and ecommerce sales forecast, and covered the significant shifts marketers will need to take into consideration for their in-store and ecommerce strategies long term.

On today's episode, we discuss why marketers need to work on their mid-funnel (mid-range) game and the potential opportunities. We then talk about Peloton's apparel ambitions, Walmart's Q4 and 2020 performance, and packaged food giants' game plan for direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Andrew Lipsman.

Sales Navigator. Though not an ABM tool by design, Sales Navigator has become a key element of sales research. It’s a subscription service that assists sellers in account research, tracking, and outreach. Sales Navigator performs outreach primarily with InMails and can alert sales teams whenever an ABM target engages with sponsored content on LinkedIn.

More retailers are selling profitable ad space to other brands and CPGs—and deciding to expand their retail media networks to generate even more sales. In a recent survey, more than one-third of professionals said they anticipate ad revenue growth between 26% and 75%.

The coronavirus has upended the US travel industry. Fears of infection, governmental measures restricting travel and access to public places, and the economic downturn will depress bookings, sales and ad spending in 2020 and beyond.