COVID-19 has massively accelerated the growth of e-commerce, according to an Adobe Digital Economy Index (DEI) report released today.

Adobe’s DEI is a global economic measure for the 21st century that more
quickly, comprehensively, and internationally measures the increasing buying power of digital consumers — with greater detail than any other data source available. You can download the full report here.

Highlighting that total online spending in May hit $82.5 billion, up 77% year-over-year, the report states: “It would’ve taken between 4 and 6 years to get to the levels that we saw in May if the growth continued at the same levels it was at for the past few years.”

Report highlights:

E-commerce: jumped $52 billion
Memorial Day sales: jumped 75% from $2 billion last year to $3.5 billion this year
Mobile’s share of e-commerce: grew from January but not much, up just 10%
BOPIS: buy online, pick up in-store grew 195% in May
Travel: flight bookings tripled from early April to late May

Higher rates of e-commerce and BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) may be the new abnormal, Adobe data indicates.

“We are seeing signs that online purchasing trends formed during the pandemic may see permanent adoption,” Taylor Schreiner, Director, Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement. “While BOPIS was a niche delivery option pre-pandemic, it is fast becoming the delivery method of choice as consumers become more familiar with the ease, convenience and experience.”

Adobe’s DEI analyzes over one trillion online transactions across 100 million product SKUs, the company says.

What people are buying is changing too, perhaps returning more to relatively normal consumption patterns. Electronics and apparel purchases were up 11% and 12%, respectively: we’re working at home, but we haven’t bought new clothes in a while. Pricing is changing though: grocery prices were up 4% in May compared to 2019.

The data is telling us that COVID-19 has simply accelerated the trend of growth in the digital economy that has already been happening for many years. I share more in this short video below:

So if you’re serious about your business, you need to listen to what the data is telling you and be agile enough to act/respond accordingly.

Many people see the advantage of an online business but fail to get started because they simply don’t know where to start, or have a fear of failure. That’s exactly the position we were in which held us back for so long until we found the right education and support network to help us get started from scratch. If you’re ready to explore proven steps with a support network that you can take right now to take advantage of the growth in the digital economy, then Click Here to learn more.