The rise of e-commerce during lockdown

The death of the high street has been a hot topic for many years now. With footfall decreasing and some huge retailers closing their shutters for good, the end didn’t look too far away. But with the Coronavirus pandemic creeping on us and forcing stores to close for the time being, will we be witnessing the death of the high street sooner than we think?

The on-going Coronavirus pandemic is changing all aspects of our every-day life and shopping is a huge part of this!

blank

More and more people are turning to online shopping – already booming before the pandemic. The lack of human contact through using delivery instead is very appealing to hundreds of us across the UK. According to a survey by Visa, a third of Britons bought items online for the first time during lockdown. Buying online might once have been out of those comfort zones, but with this becoming a regularity, will it be a regularity forever?

Shoppers are finding online shopping easier and effectively cheaper! With discount codes and free shipping, why wouldn’t you use online stores? Rather than have the stress of going out shopping, struggling to social distance and pay for parking.

Demand for Groceries

blank

With the demand higher than ever before, supermarkets have had to rise to this demand! Asda increased its delivery slots by 300,000 in just two weeks! With most grocery stores having to do the same. Online grocery shopping has never been so popular.

Before the pandemic there were typically 2.1 million delivery slots in the entire UK supermarket sector, this has since been increased to 2.6 million, and stores are working hard to turn this into 3 million.

It’s not just groceries the UK have been buying online, non-food retailers have also seen a significant spike in sales, while some on the high street suffers.

Failed to make it through lockdown

Some large retailers have failed to make it through lockdown. With brands like Warehouse, Cath Kidston, Oasis, we wonder how many more there will be to come.

An uncertain future

With some brands already having to close their doors, this shows just how uncertain the future for retail is. 2 in 5 UK shoppers say they will make more online purchases after lockdown ends. Could this be the time to turn your store digital? Will this be the end of the high street as we know it? Only time will tell…

If you want to ensure you’re on the top of your eCommerce game, then we can help you out! We are a web design agency based in Hull and can help with all your design needs, get in touch today.