Large-population countries with developed as well as developing economies are on an e-commerce roll, with online stats in these countries serving as a harbinger of spend trends to come.
Catapulted by the Covid-curbing need to stay safe by staying at home, daily-use item purchases surged 6.5% over the festive season, US data and market measurement firm Nielsen found.
At the end of December 2019, when the coronavirus only started to ripple out of its Chinese origin of Wuhan, daily online purchases were at 13.6% - compared to 20% last month.
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) also fared well, growing 5% to 35% year-on-year for December.
The spike in FMCG, Nielsen said, had mainly been led by increased demand for personal care products.
In India the same was evident, with an e-commerce report by Mumbai-based financial services firm Edelweiss Securities emphasising that the online sale of health products and natural remedy goods was curving upwards, with no sign of abating.
At a time when the world is still firmly in the grip of a devastating pandemic, growth in the health market is dragging in relation to raw materials.
Palm oil, tea, copra and edible oils are all on the increase, with base prices spiking in tandem.
And although urban and rural market trends are expected to normalise as vaccines are rolled out, herd immunity is established, and the rapid spread of the coronavirus hopefully halted, e-commerce is expected to maintain momentum.
Online shopping, Edelweiss said, would most likely retain its current position and surpass conventional commerce statistics in the next five to seven years, despite on-site shopping recovering lost ground as the virus gets backed into a corner – fingers crossed.
