Shopping apps rank 2nd in popularity after music apps as 73% of millennials shop daily

… E-commerce sales to account for 54% of all retail e-commerce in 2021

…Pandemic accelerated shift to digital by 5 years

…80% Shopify merchants expect higher sales, even boom in 2021

…Africa, with 60% youth, not left out as more youth go app compliant

Ben Eguzozie, in Port Harcourt

A sudden, Covid-19 pandemic-inspired shift to digital by consumers has had a significant impact on consumer behaviour, boosting the downloads of shopping apps and making them rank second in popularity after music apps, an IMI data analyzed by the HelpCenter app team has revealed.

More significantly, daily shopping online has become popular among all generations, but among millennials who lead the group at 73 per cent.

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, which is a clear fallout of Covid-19, which has left the global socio-economic system with a ‘new normal.’

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 per cent, and 44.5 per cent year-over-year.

At the same time, the number of retail app downloads in the EU jumped by 36 per cent compared to Q1 2020, leading to the highest increase of +109 per cent in April 2020.

By far, Africa, a continent of which 60 per cent of its 1.3 billion people are below 25, is not left out in the digital syndrome. App-based activities have been on the uptick in the continent.

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 per cent of respondents have bought something online at least once during the past 12 months, and 22 per cent of them plan to increase their shopping behaviours in the upcoming year as well, HelpCenter analysis said.

As the future is still unclear, especially as WHO has said Covid isn’t going away anytime soon, further growth of e-commerce, mainly via mobile devices, is projected.

According to the E-Commerce Times, mobile e-commerce sales are expected to account for 54 per cent 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 per cent 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 said its latest survey found out that over 80 per cent of surveyed Shopify merchants still expect their sales to grow or even boom in 2021.

According to Ernestas Petkevicius, HelpCenter app’s co-founder, commenting on the future of e-commerce, said: “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.”