The digital revolution has been rewiring retail for years, leading to new business models, commerce ecosystems and channels for reaching and engaging consumers. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transition, as e-commerce became the default option for many homebound consumers. The crisis-inspired surge in e-commerce is causing a permanent shift in retail, creating both new challenges as well as new opportunities for retailers and consumer brands alike.
This report comes in PPT.
The digital revolution has been rewiring retail for the last decade plus, leading to new business models, commerce ecosystems and emerging channels for reaching and engaging consumers. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this transition to e-commerce, as homebound consumers turned to digital channels to obtain products.
Even prior to COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic, Euromonitor International had forecast that e-commerce would become the largest channel globally in 2020. Although the continued growth of e-commerce was likely to be a headline story in 2020, the intensity of the health crisis accelerated its development.
Over the 2020-2025 forecast period, e-commerce is expected to account for more than half of the absolute value growth in the global retail market. To put that projected e-commerce growth in context, that expansion would be roughly the size of the total value of products sold across all retail channels just five years ago.
Besides elevating consumer expectations, digital has changed how the retail industry operates. In recent years, the retail industry’s traditional wholesale model has been turned on its side due in part to the rise of direct-to-consumer brands, the growth of marketplaces and the resurgence of subscription services. Retailers and consumers brands have had to take a harder look at new channels and business models.
The growing role of technology in retail will be one of the most pronounced long-term impacts of the global pandemic. COVID-19 has further underscored the role that tech can play in helping retailers and brands adapt to changing business conditions and ever-evolving consumer expectations.
Retail is the sale of new and used goods to consumers from a business for personal or household consumption from retail outlets, kiosks, market stalls, vending, direct selling and e-commerce. Retail is the aggregation of Retail Offline and Retail E-Commerce. Excludes specialist retailers of motor vehicles, motorcycles, vehicle parts. Also excludes fuel sales, foodservice sales, rental transactions, and wholesale sales (e.g. Cash and Carry). Sales value excluding or including VAT/Sales Tax. Retail also excludes the informal retail sector. Informal retailing is retail trade which is not declared to the tax authorities. Informal retailing encompasses (a) sales generated by unregistered and unlicensed retailers, i.e. retailers operating illegally, and (b) any proportion of sales generated by a registered and licensed retailer that is not declared to the tax authorities. Unregistered and unlicensed retailers operate predominantly (although not exclusively) as street hawkers or operate open market stalls, as these channels are harder for the authorities to monitor than permanent outlets. Activities in the illegal market, which is usually understood to refer to trade in illegal, counterfeit or stolen merchandise, are included within our definition of informal retailing. Activities in the “grey market”, which is usually understood to refer to trade in legal merchandise that is sold through unauthorized channels – for example cigarettes bought legally in another country, legally imported, but sold at lower prices than in authorized channels – will be included as informal retailing if no tax is paid on sale by the retailer. However if the retailer pays tax – for example on cigarettes bought legally in another country but sold at a lower price than standard – the sale is included within formal retail.
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