Waking up, getting the kids ready for the day and feeding your pets before leaving for the office was a part of the normal day less than 12 months ago. Now, we’re sitting at our desks at home, talking to our colleagues through a microphone and only seeing faces through a glass screen. Instead of ordering a delicious pizza with our family on Friday nights from our favourite local take-away, we’re selecting our order through buttons on a website and arranging delivery. Instead of browsing the clothing rails for something nice to wear and taking a visit to the changing rooms with our friends or family at the shopping centre, we’re getting our retail therapy through electronic devices.
With most of England and the rest of the world in lockdown at home, this is the new norm for most people in 2020, with signs of it continuing into 2021. But it hasn’t always been like this. Let’s back up a bit.
How has the internet changed in the last few years?
In 2016, the internet had approximately 3,631 million users, making up less than half (49.5%) of the world's population. When the Coronavirus pandemic hit around February/March 2020, people were told to work from home if they could. By June 2020, the internet saw a boost in users, 1,202 million users to be exact. Equating to 62% of the world’s population. This is more likely due to the increase in people working from home during the pandemic. Over the last few years, online shopping and e-commerce have become an indispensable part of the retail framework. The digitalisation of modern life has meant more sales than ever for business, and people from almost every country now benefit from online transactions.
In 2019, an estimated 1.9 billion people purchased goods or services online. During the same year, online retail surpassed 3.5 Trillion US Dollars worldwide, and according to the latest calculations, online transactions will accelerate even further in the future. Whether its computers, laptops, tablets or mobile, most of the world has adapted to doing almost all of our usual routine online, from business to communications, from shopping to e-learning and banking.
This graph below shows the impact the Coronavirus had/has on retail e-commerce from Jan 2019 to June 2020.
The traffic websites have seen in the last 24 months has been so high that it even surpassed holiday season peak traffic. Retail websites generated almost 22 billion visits in June 2020, up from 16.07 billion global visits in early 2020.
What can you do as a business?
There’s no debate that there’s a correlation between people working from home, and the high number of online visits, transactions and purchases. Businesses need to stay afloat, and this is increasingly difficult with physical stores closing down. In order to maintain business, keep clientele and see the business grow, companies are putting emphasis on online web presence more than ever.
Help is on the way.
Outible is here to help you create an online presence, maintain your key relationships, reach a wider audience and are dedicated to seeing your business succeed. Whether you’re looking to create a brand new web design liverpool, redevelop an existing website, or adapt your business to newer regulations, we’ve got the know-how to do the hard work for you. Fill out our contact form for one of our team members to get in touch. Credit to statista for Graph and shopping