Online Sales Projected To Settle At 16.5 Pct Growth Rate

While web users have harnessed eCommerce in numbers that haven’t been seen before amid the COVID-19 heath crisis, eMarketer forecasts the worldwide retail online shopping sales will slow down to a 16.5 percent growth rate this year down from 20.2 percent in 2019. The firm forecasts an overall $3.914 trillion in online shopping sales in 2020 per an announcement.

eMarketer said nine nations are forecast to experience over 20 percent growth in retail online shopping sales in 2020, headed up by Malaysia, Spain and the Philippines. Those countries faced strong impacts from the pandemic per the announcement.

Moreover, Asia-Pacific will comprise 42.3 percent of retail sales, Western Europe will account for 16.2 percent and North America will take 22.9 percent. And 62.6 percent of all digital sales will occur in Asia-Pacific.

The company had predicted that worldwide retail would grow by 4.4 percent to $26.460 trillion this year prior to the pandemic. The measurements had been 18.4 percent growth and $4.105 trillion in sales for online shopping.

But eMarketer dropped its retail predictions by more than 10 percentage points and its online shopping outlook by 2 percentage points. The move decreased its overall retail online shopping sales forecast by $190.79 billion.

In April, news surfaced that Forrester predicts that worldwide retail sales this year will fall by an average of 9.6 percent throughout the globe. The company also predicts that it will take four years for merchants to catch up with pre-pandemic levels.

Forrester Principal Forecast Analyst Michael O’Grady said in a previous announcement, “COVID-19 is significantly impacting the global retail landscape.” O’Grady continued, “Retail categories like grocery and essential consumables are performing well, while other categories like fashion, beauty and cosmetics are seeing a marked decline in consumer spend.”

The analyst noted that there will be a sizable drop in retail sales around the world this year, especially with non-essential goods not sold via digital. eCommerce sales, however, will be “more resilient,” he said.