As the lines continue to blur between digital and physical channels, retailers will need to master both to entice consumers to continue to return to their brand. Here are five trends they should keep an eye on.

Walmart’s GoLocal delivery service will need smaller customers to be sustainable: The Home Depot is a good start, but it’s big enough that it’s likely to take delivery in-house in the near future.

US grocery delivery ecommerce sales will grow by 11.4% this year to reach $79.71 billion. This marks a deceleration from 2020, which saw a 41.7% increase in online sales of grocery products fulfilled via delivery.

US digital grocery sales grew 63.9% year over year during the pandemic in 2020. In 2021, sales will reach $122.39 billion. This report details the emerging trends in digital grocery and the implications for key players in the space.

Instacart's growth exploded in 2020, with sales increasing by 229.7% over 2019, for a total of $23.42 billion. But by the end of 2021, the grocery delivery company's sales will grow by a comparatively small 11.3%, which is in line with market norms.

Walmart outsells Amazon in this key category

Delivery drones take flight

In the US, three apps accounted for 86% of online engagement with alcohol delivery between March and May 2021, according to ShareThis.

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.

Over the past few years, amid a huge digital transformation, Pizza Hut has had to pivot from traditional restaurant service and carryout to ecommerce.

DoorDash is dominating the digital food fight

Millennials want free delivery > discounts

In 2021, expect to see a convergence of content and commerce, led by the likes of Peloton, Lululemon, Nike and Apple. Amazon and Google are also getting into the act as well with Halo and Fitbit, and emerging services offerings.

Retail ecommerce sales in Western Europe rose by 26.3% in 2020, to €481.54 billion ($539.18 billion). The pandemic is fueling other shifts in the retail landscape, too, such as a greater focus on buying local.

Logistics have become vital to the success of any business that sells its products and services online. In Latin America, the ability to make quick and on-time deliveries—especially outside of major urban centers—often proved to be a quite complex task due to large swaths of unpaved roads and underdeveloped infrastructure in many countries.

Walmart has reported a significant uptick in digital sales over the past six months, and it has likely won business from Amazon as the pandemic affected logistics.

Scott Braun, CMO of Drizly, speaks with eMarketer vice president of business development Marissa Coslov about trends in consumer spending behavior and ecommerce sales of alcoholic beverages during the coronavirus pandemic.

Young consumers have led the way in terms of digital habits and consumption through the pandemic, but older age groups have been forced to catch up. Some old habits may die hard in these groups, but the digital future has definitely been hastened.

eMarketer principal analysts Andrew Lipsman and Nicole Perrin discuss the current wave of pandemic-driven ads and what the next wave might look like. They then talk about how programmatic is faring, Google's plans to cut its marketing budget in half and how much leeway are customers willing to give retailers on delivery during this time?