The digital economy surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital sector, including e-commerce, cloud services, and all other online platforms such as content streaming sites 一 all became a refuge to many confined within the walls of their homes.
With the stay-at-home movement encouraged in society, mobility became highly dependent on delivery services. This is when digital commerce businesses also rose to new heights. Following the e-commerce boom, Real Research sought to measure the impact of the sector’s success on the general public.
Despite the disruption the pandemic had caused, this unprecedented event did a great job in growing the online shopping customer base. The lockdown and social distancing measures forced people to purchase their daily necessities on online marketplaces.
The Digital Commerce Boom
Online marketplaces became the go-to shopping destination for many during the lockdown. Though long-time established in the market, e-commerce platforms — especially those that sold daily and household items — experienced a boost in sales during the pandemic. In fact, Amazon doubled its profits during the Q2 of 2020.
In line with this, Real Research asked the public about their perception of digital commerce. Surprisingly, many expressed interest in digital commerce with 2,133 respondents saying ‘yes’ (71%). They were significantly higher than 862 respondents who said ‘no’ admitting their disinterest (29%).
On the next poll that asks what specifically has drawn them toward digital commerce, the evident trend of more people purchasing online takes the top spot (57%). Meanwhile, others with an entrepreneur mindset see e-commerce as a highly-profitable business opportunity (25%).
Digital Payment Preference
They say cash is king; however, this might not be true in the digital economy. According to the survey results, more than half of the sampling population (59%) prefers to use credit and debit cards on the check-out page. Some still opt to pay paper bills and sometimes don’t mind the extra fee that goes with the cash on delivery option (21%).
Along with the e-commerce platform’s generated sales are digital payment transactions upon every checkout. More so, there is a positive flow of online consumers who regularly engage in online shopping. Based on a poll that asked how frequently the respondent shops, most shop weekly (34%) or every two weeks (26%). On the other hand, those who shop ‘daily’ (18%) and monthly (17%) are very close in count.
With the facts laid out above, there is an active market for digital payments, and it is widely in circulation. Most e-commerce platforms only accept the following: credit or debit card, cash on delivery, top-up credits, or their in-app wallet. Hence, there is room for expansion in digital payments leaning towards the already-existing digital assets or cryptocurrencies.
Future of Crypto and E-commerce
Most of the respondents for this survey consisted of working professionals. When asked if they have plans to set up an e-commerce business, many are interested in running their own e-commerce business (45%). Some respondents are considering the venture and admitting to being unsure of the idea (36%).
Blockchain-based BASID payment gateway allows online retailers and business owners to accept cryptocurrencies as check-out payment. BASID sponsored this survey to know whether people are willing to build their own e-commerce shop and even expand their target consumers to include crypto users.
Much to the team’s delight, people are very much willing to set up a blockchain-powered payment gateway to accept crypto payments (87%). With only a minority, not even a quarter, opposing the idea (13%). This is the case if they decide to jump into opening an e-commerce business.
An e-commerce business goes beyond selling stuff on Amazon or other local marketplaces. E-commerce also pertains to any service being offered online; this can include software-as-service or platforms-as-a-service that must be bought or paid for in terms of subscriptions or one-time payments.