The survey was conducted between September 1 and late November 2020. The results are provided based on the answers from more than 40.000 people across 39 countries.

E-commerce will continue to grow, shopping on mobile devices will take the lead

The E-commerce industry was already growing at a steady pace, yet the pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital by roughly 5 years. In Q2 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau reported retail e-commerce growth of 31.8%, and 44.5% year-over-year. At the same time, the number of retail app downloads in the EU jumped by 36% compared to Q1 2020, leading to the highest increase of +109% in April 2020.

From the data, people now shop online as much as they play with their kids and even more than go outside for fun during the summer. 85% of respondents have bought something online at least once during the past 12 months, and 22% of them plan to increase their shopping behaviors in the upcoming year as well.

As the future is still unclear, further growth of e-commerce, especially via mobile devices, is projected. According to the E-Commerce Times, mobile e-commerce sales are expected to account for 54% of all retail e-commerce sales in 2021, encouraging businesses to continually provide their customers with a unique shopping experience.

To stay ahead of the competition, companies will have to pay exceptional attention to their online shopping experience and everything that follows as 71% of survey respondents admit that the purchase they’ve made was the result of experiencing a brand or service, second only to online research.

Despite the current challenges, HelpCenter's latest survey found out that over 80% of surveyed Shopify merchants still expect their sales to grow or even boom in 2021.

The HelpCenter app’s co-founder Ernestas Petkevicius commented on the future of e-commerce:

“We have no doubt that we will see the boom of e-commerce in 2021. The competition in prices will be on juggernauts’ like Amazon side but smaller companies can still work out a better customer experience with the right kind of tools and attitude, and keep on growing their businesses.”