Loren Padelford of Shopify may describe it best. “It was a time machine that brought 2030 to 2020 for e-commerce retailers and brand builders,” says the company’s VP and general manager.
That is an apt description of the past year’s effect on e-commerce. Global e-commerce sales accounted for 17% of total retail sales in 2020, according to GroupM—which predicts e-commerce will account for 25% of retail sales by 2024.“It was a case of accelerating the inevitable,” says Reid Greenberg, exec VP-digital and omnicommerce at Kantar.