From 2014 to 2019 ecommerce expanded from $1,336 billion to $3,535 billion. Such growth comes from many factors, one factor being the speed of delivery. There was once a time when businesses would laugh at the idea of one week delivery and today it’s almost expected. In fact companies can now make deliveries within a day. Shoppers can  shop more and spend more if same day delivery is available. For example, in 2015 Macys partnered with Deliv and made $5 same day delivery possible. This allowed Macy’s to snag a spot as the second largest online retailer in 2016. As the time shortens for delivery, the amount of personalization increases. More companies are starting to tailor the shopping experience to the costumer. 43% of consumers prefer companies that customize their experience, 41% of consumers switch companies for a more personalized experience and 48% of consumers spend more when their experience is personalized. Furthermore customer satisfaction has also improved. 42% purchased more after a good customer service while 52% stopped buying after one bad customer service interaction. Every improvement made towards online shopping adds swarms of shoppers moving digital.
However now as shopping habits change, companies will seize the opportunity to increase the costs of delivery. People in the US are forced to consider the cost of ordering something and having it arrive in just a few hours. As the cost of shipping climbs, for countries with stay at home orders it the cost escalates globally as well. In addition, returns might be harder. Approximately one in five clothing items are returned but now because of sanitation concerns companies are refusing the returns. If safety fears continue to rise return policies can be more strict for people all over the world. Costs will elevate for shoppers as stores can’t resell returned merchandise that isn’t thoroughly sanitized. During this pandemic it’s harder for smaller retailers to stay open without the shipping resources of bigger companies. Smaller companies don’t have warehouses everywhere; With everyone ordering online these smaller companies are forced to shut down without the ability to deliver as fast as the larger corporations.
It is predicted that by 2023 the profits from ecommerce will have expanded to $6,542 billion. However as the pandemic worsens, the profits from ecommerce has the potential to rise even higher. People are going digital. The ecommerce future is here whether we are ready for it or  not.