Retail and e-commerce - November 2020

Developments in retail
CBS (in Dutch) reports that Dutch retail sales in the third quarter of 2020 were 9.2% higher than a year earlier. Retailers are optimistic about the development of turnover in the fourth quarter.
New market forecasts (4.9 MB) from Transport Intelligence show that the global express & small parcels market will expand by 7.2% in 2020, largely driven by strong demand from online retail. On a near-global level, social lockdowns and the closure of many retail and leisure businesses saw consumers utilise e-commerce options for many retail categories.
According to Smithers the global market for e-commerce packaging is currently estimated at $43.1 billion and growing at a CAGR of almost 12% for a projected value of more than $75.1 billion by 2025. More companies are expected to develop packaging solutions specifically geared towards e-commerce. You can download an infographic after filling in your details.
Thuiswinkel.org has published the B2B E-commerce Market Monitor 2020. It shows that the percentage of the Dutch working population that has placed or approved a business online order in the past twelve months grew by nine percentage points to 48% compared to last year. You can read more in a recently published article (in Dutch).

Retail business trends
Euromonitor’s data and analysis indicates that markets had the potential to achieve $77.7 billion additional e-commerce sales coming into the pandemic. A white paper explores the most under-indexed e-commerce markets and which areas have the most potential in a post-pandemic era. In another white paper, Euromonitor spotlights fifteen global retail innovations in 2020, highlighting those likely to become permanent features in the global landscape. The authors look at new e-commerce tools and business models plus ways retailers are re-imagining retail spaces and creating meaningful engagements with customers. You can download both reports after filling in your details.
A recently published study by Transfix, takes a closer look at how both consumers and shippers are approaching the holiday shopping and shipping season. You can download the study after filling in your details.

Shopping behaviour and consumer trends
Just like in 2015 and 2018, in August 2020, ABN AMRO (in Dutch) conducted a survey (in Dutch, 2.2 MB) of more than 1,500 Dutch consumers' on future shopping behaviour. The results are compared with the previous survey findings.
A new report by Lux Research, “The Food Company of 2050”, analyses start-up trends, social norms, and corporate concerns to identify six trends shaping the food industry. You can download the executive summary after filling in your details.

Reducing packaging waste and product destruction
Together with colleagues from China and the UK, Yuli Shan, an environmental scientist at the University of Groningen, found that in China reusable tableware can substantially reduce packaging waste and life cycle environmental emissions. An article (abstract) about the research is published in the journal Nature Food.
According to the ShoppingTomorrow’s expert group Return on Returns, there are opportunities for the Dutch retail sector and for the government to sell more returns as new and to reduce destruction to zero. You can download the blue paper (in Dutch) after filling in your details. More Dutch ShoppingTomorrow blue papers on e-commerce are available here.
 

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