Rise in e-commerce significant: Experts

ISTANBUL

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global consumers to heavily lean into e-commerce, as markets around the globe continue to see material rises in online fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales, according to experts.

As consumer demand continues to shift online, experts from the consulting firm Nielsen took the opportunity at the recent FutureCommerce360 Conference to highlight the need for manufacturers and retailers to retool their e-commerce strategies in order to win the online war.

Speaking at the conference, Ji Hyuk Park, Nielsen e-commerce solution leader in Asia, highlighted three core strategies that are critical to winning in e-commerce: increasing traffic, increasing conversion rates and increasing basket size.

Didem Şekerel Erdoğan, a senior vice president of Nielsen, noted that the share of online FMCG has increased 6 points to 15 percent in the United States, the share in Mexico has increased 9 percentage points to 12 percent in two years. The share in China and South Korea has increased 5 and 4 percentage points to 30 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

In Turkey, meanwhile, the online share of FMCG has increased by 2 percentage points to 4 percent during the course of the pandemic, she added.

“Just as organizations have invested in retail analytics for their brick-and-mortar businesses, they should do the same with their online businesses as our studies in North America indicate that consumer behavior differs online and offline.”

“For example, our analytics show that online shoppers are more price sensitive, and are more likely to change their minds due to price when shopping online compared to if they are in store. They also tend to pay less online for the same products, and gravitate towards large size products online as they are less expensive.”