The global pandemic has brought threats in many ways against the world. Not only are we living through life and death instances, but COVID-19 is also challenging the world’s economic system at a vicious pace. When COVID-19 was announced as a global pandemic, pretty much everything in this world ceased to work normally anymore. When the numbers defining the pandemic are rising all over the world, human beings are slowly setting things up, preparing to overcome the worst that has come.  

The pandemic was an eye-opening threat to the world. Although the crisis has put the world in its worst state it has seen in years, there still exist a few things that have benefitted from the emergence of the crisis. Among them, E-commerce greatly ramps up its demand all over the world as the implementation of lockdown and social distancing across the countries is keeping customers from going out and buying the necessary.  

How COVID-19 affects E-commerce 

The global pandemic literally put a death sentence upon how the economic system across the world has been operating for years. What this means is the shift of crowded stores and in-person shopping to a completely digital process, which happened in a matter of only a month or two. In simple words, the progression of COVID-19 has guarded the E-commerce to set a new record of 22 billion monthly visits in June 2020, one of the months when the crisis was at its peak.  

The cause that has led to such a major shift in how the economic structure functioned is when lockdowns and social distancing were implemented to contain COVID-19 in the previous months. This ultimately paved a path to buying things online when the world was restricted from going out, which especially spiked the demand for buying every-day items through the internet such as groceries. In addition to this, even clothing and retail tech items saw an exceptional increase in demand in the E-commerce market.  

Need for E-commerce Pre and Post COVID-19 

Looking at the time before the emergence of COVID-19, the crowded stores and in-person shopping was normal across the world. Although even then the E-commerce was a widely favored concept and a victorious market, not everyone was willing to go online and purchase what they wanted. This was because, back then, we had the ability to go out in crowds and none of us were constrained in our homes for preventing the spread of some virus. At the time, going out and purchasing what we wanted was the way the world operated when we never had any virus to be scared of.  

However, E-commerce was still substantial before COVID-19. The market opportunity was not at all bleak and purchasing clothes and buying food online was something of great demand. Although such items saw success in E-commerce, we had no reason for staying home and purchasing every-day items like groceries. Even though this was convenient, the majority of the people preferred to follow how the world operated years ago.

But stepping into 2020, the arrival of COVID-19 brought about some major changes to E-commerce. Like we already mentioned, the implementations of lockdowns and social distancing are forcing us to shop safely through the internet. This is indeed the right way of how the economic system should perform during the global pandemic. As we’re advancing through the crisis, the world would’ve been in a far worse state if the many businesses hadn’t opted to take their business online.  

In addition to how E-commerce helps the world survive the pandemic, it also opens up a great opportunity for businesses. Whether that’s B2C or B2B, taking your business into E-commerce, especially in the time of the pandemic, is the right way to skyrocket your profitability. Although this won’t guarantee you any record sales or profit, what it will do is help you thrive pretty well through the crisis when people can’t even reach your physical presence of the business. In contrast, setting up your business to operate both online and offline during and post COVID-19 will certainly help you pump up the numbers. According to what we know and what we’ve seen, E-commerce after COVID-19 will help both businesses and customers with a win-win situation, and the odds of the opportunities in E-commerce to die even after the pandemic is highly unlikely as countries all over the world have already got used with the new change in the economic system.  

One of the benefits that lure people into E-commerce is how convenient the entire process is. Regardless of who you are, the business or the customer, initiating, and executing what you need in the E-commerce market is incredibly easy. And as we’re going through the pandemic, E-commerce will help businesses and customers do what they intend to do, even without a physical presence or the hassle of shopping and serving in-person.  

Moving along with the years to come, the world is predicted to turn entirely digital, much more than how advanced we are today. When this happens, the majority of the younger generation will get acquainted with the possibilities and opportunities the internet has to offer. They will be influenced by the digital revolution that’s yet to come, which will result in a massive increase in online shoppers in the near future. So, if you are a business person, then thinking long-term and taking your business online will provide you with a sea full of benefits. This way, you get to operate your business on a much larger scale online but with minimal effort and cost.  

-Jeff Mejia, Founder & CEO of LSG Software Solutions