eCommerce Acceleration: Part 2
The following post is part 2 of a 2 part series.
The fastest-growing product categories were once the laggards: Food & Beverage, Health, personal care, and beauty. This represents a larger shift in purchasing behavior from discretionary goods to essential goods. This shift has been driven by the unusual circumstances of stay at home orders, social distancing guidelines, and a large spike in unemployment. The circumstances forced us to find another channel to purchase everyday essentials. Food and Beverage eCommerce is by far the biggest winner from a year over year growth standpoint expecting to grow 58.5% to a total of $41.5 billion or 5.9% of total eCommerce sales.
While we do expect extreme channel-shifting behaviors to subside once everything settles down, Click-and-Collect will continue to accelerate the long-term trajectory. In fact, Click-and-Collect and curbside pickup have been profound game-changers in accelerating adoption and more importantly retention. Walmart and Target have seen explosive growth this year with consumers leveraging these convenient formats to fill their households. It’s the main reason Target is now one of the top 10 eCommerce retailers and helped Walmart move into the number 2 spot behind Amazon.
As marketers look to the future and analyze how consumer behavior is changing, the right question to ask is what’s not going to change. As the point of purchase shifts online, the next frontier is winning at the digital shelf.
Sources:
- eMarketer, US Commerce 2020
- eMarketer, Frictionless Commerce 2020
