COVID-19 to have long term positive impact on eCommerce, according to GlobalData Report

COVID-19 is expected to have a positive impact on the eCommerce sector in the long term, according to a recent research report from GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

With even the consumers most skeptical of eCommerce are forced to use online shopping to avoid visiting physical stores due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and movement restrictions associated with it, more and more people get acquainted with eCommerce and may continue buying online even after the lockdown restrictions.

“COVID-19 has given the ecommerce sector a boost, with online grocery retailers the biggest beneficiaries. Supermarkets are experiencing unprecedented demand for home grocery delivery. GlobalData expects the UK online food and grocery market to grow nearly 20% in 2020 to £13.2bn” according to Luke Gowland, a Thematic Analyst at GlobalData.

However, not all sectors are not fortunate. Social distancing measures have a huge blow to clothing and footwear retailers and the report forecast a 7.9% drop in UK online sales compared to 2019. eCommerce players affected most badly are online travel agencies, online estate agents, and ride-sharing service providers, etc.

Walmart partners with Shopify to expand the online market place

Walmart has announced last week that it has partnered with Shopify to enable Shopify customers to list their products and sell through the Walmart marketplace.

While the partnership helps Walmart offers its online customers an expanded assortment, it also helps small and medium-sized ecommerce businesses to expand their reach by getting access to loyal and high-intent Walmart customers across the US.

Walmart said that it is planning to onboard 1200 Shopify merchants by the end of this year. Shopify merchants can apply to sell through Walmart Marketplace and the approved merchants can connect their Shopify store with the Walmart seller account.

Once the Shopify store is connected to Walmart.com, the products from the store are automatically synced and merchants can manage the inventory, orders, and products from Shopify. Unlike other online marketplaces, there won’t be any fee for Shopify merchants to list in Walmart.com but there will be referral fees when they make sales.