Adobe’s Digital Economy Index indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic’s last two years, consumers spent $1.7 trillion online, according to forecasts. It is projected that online shoppers would spend over $1 trillion this year, up from $138 billion in the first two months of 2022.
A little under half (41.8%) of all e-commerce spending in 2021 was on electronics, apparel and groceries. Following closely behind were clothes (14.3%) and food (8.9%).
There were 60 billion out-of-stock notices between March 2020 and February 2022, as well as more buy now, pay later options. Orders for buy now, pay later increased by nearly 500% in the fall of 2020, but have slowed to 53% in recent months.
For the last 21 months, Adobe’s research has linked rising e-commerce sales to inflation. Inflation accounted for $22 billion in e-commerce growth last year, and $32 billion in two years, according to Adobe’s calculations.
Consumer demand has not slowed despite increasing costs in January and February 2022. Consumption will rise by $27 billion by 2022, according to the research.