Pandemic dramatically sped up the shift to online shopping

Online shopping increased by about 20 percent in 2020, according to Mastercard CEO.

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly boosted the growth of online shopping throughout 2020. With an increase of about 20 percent from the previous year, online shopping became essential in 2020, Mastercard CEO said at a virtual CES 2021 panel recently. 

The Covid-19 pandemic boosted the growth of online shopping throughout 2020

People will go back to physical stores but ...

Consumers will go back to physical stores when it is safe but not as often as usual or as before the pandemic. Going forward, consumers tend to make repetitive purchases of daily items over the internet like what they have done during months of lockdowns and business closures. 

Mastercard CEO supposed that the pandemic caused online shopping to increase at a faster rate than in previous years. "Years of digital acceleration have been kind of compressed into months," he said.

As payment processors and retailers continue to sort through trends from 2020, the picture of the pandemic’s effect on how people buy things is becoming clearer. More online retail delivers more data for e-commerce giants to comb through and find ways to get buyers to come back, Mastercard CEO said. 

See also: Importance of a website for businesses

Sources:

cnet.com/personal-finance/pandemic-dramatically-sped-up-shift-to-online-shopping-mastercard-ceo-says/