A Brief Introduction to E-Commerce Usage in the COVID-19 Era
With the rise of the digital economy, digitalization has fundamentally transformed
the way we live and work [Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OCED),
2019]. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, people have been
increasingly relying more on digital technologies due to pandemic prevention and control
strategies such as lockdown, social distancing, enclosure of restaurants and malls,
etc. COVID-19 has been intensively transforming the world's trends, people's behavior,
nature of business, and daily life (Bhatti et al., 2020). Meanwhile, it has been acting
as a catalyst or accelerator of this new digital revolution in the COVID-19 Era, especially
for the rapid adoption of e-learning and e-commerce globally.
Both direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 have forced people to purchase goods
online. Meanwhile, traditional producers and traders have also moved their business
online regarding the declining shares of conventional trade and the unstable markets
due to the COVID-induced supply chain disruptions, resource shortage, lack of human
capital, declined customer demand, etc. The World Trade Organization (WTO; Abdelrhim
and Abdullah, 2020) states that it is the exact time for e-commerce to rescue the
global economy from the COVID-19 and that it is to interfere with vigor and energy
and demonstrate e-commerce of its prominence and effectiveness in the field of trade
and online shopping.
Methodology
This study is conducted in three steps. First, the literature review is conducted
systematically to review existing recent studies related to the nexus between ICT,
e-commerce, and COVID-19, evaluating recent research trends/focus in the area. Second,
we follow up the literature review by analyzing the new trends and new opportunities.
Here, relevant studies on this topic are selected to support the background basis
and inform the content for further discussions. Third, discussions on ICT adoption
and multiple benefits of e-commerce are provided based on the results of the first
two steps. Figure 1 summarizes the methodology flow in three steps.
Figure 1
Methodology flow.
Literature Review
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been growing well recognized globally across
all industries among all groups of people, and disruptions of the global supply chain
have created an excellent chance to explore the promising potential of e-commerce
as a mode of future trade. This results in booming e-commerce and leads to accelerated
ICT adoption driven by digital innovation that continues to rise sharply in the pandemic
era. A study using panel data in Japan shows that e-commerce purchases of grocery
goods witnessed a dramatic increase during the pandemic, followed by machinery/PC,
books, and software, while young females are found to be the most frequent user of
e-commerce (Kawasaki and Wakashima, 2022). Moreover, no significant correlations were
identified between e-commerce usage and regional characteristics like population density,
city size, and transportation means for shopping. At the same time, convenience and
utility are the main reasons people choose e-commerce (Kawasaki and Wakashima, 2022).
However, unlike telecommuting during the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce does not always
provide convenience to people regarding social wellbeing and social sustainability.
Research reveals that the booming food e-commerce elevated by the pandemic in Canada
barely offers extra convenience to people who already have sufficient food access
while keeping the status quo or even declining food access to vulnerable and socially
disadvantaged groups (Music et al., 2022). This reflects that COVID-19 is not only
a powerful catalyst for e-commerce (Beckers et al., 2021) but also for the growing
digital divide as a multiplier of deepening digital barriers as never before.
Another study shows that technical-related enablers (e.g., ease of operation of e-commerce
platform, awareness of e-commerce benefits, sufficient security, and availability
of internet facilities) are the most significant factors of e-commerce adoption in
the pandemic. They have the highest influence on the delivery time (Cheba et al.,
2021). This finding implies the importance of reducing the digital divide and supporting
digital infrastructures in enhancing firm performance in terms of time efficiency.
Furthermore, it is also suggested that pandemic-related enablers (e.g., provision
of protective health equipment, development of economic recovery programs, adherence
to policy change, the introduction of new service projects) can partially mediate
the relationship between firm performance and other e-commerce adoption enablers.
This correlation involves institution-related enablers (e.g., competitive business
environment, sufficient trust among stakeholders, etc.), firm-level enablers (e.g.,
highly skilled employees, effective communication flow, sufficient budgetary allocations,
etc.), and technical-related enablers as well (Cheba et al., 2021). Similarly, several
types of factors in the urban e-commerce market are identified. These include internet
and mobile access (e.g., individuals use smartphones, internet bank account penetration),
macroeconomic conditions (e.g., domestic market size, purchasing power), social dimensions
(e.g., trustworthiness and confidence, legal frameworks' adaptability to digital business
models), urban e-commerce activity (e.g., internet use for selling goods or services),
and environmental conditions (e.g., carbon dioxide from transportation and storage;
Juliet Orji and Ojadi, 2022).
On the other hand, it is also argued that the pandemic offers excellent potential
for improving the three components of e-retail accessibility (i.e., individual, web
infrastructure, and temporal components). At the same time, it may also create difficulties
and burdens for the traditional retailers if they feel difficult and/or fail to transform
and digitalize their business from offline to online due to t lack of digital literacy,
skilled professionals (Beckers et al., 2021), high economic cost and possible long
payback period, especially during this special time of the pandemic.
At the same time, the reoccurrence of pandemic outbreaks with continuous pandemic
control and prevention policies like lockdowns and social distancing rules might speed
up the evolution progress of multi-channel retail and the channel integration role
of offline shops, resulting in urban-retail landscape transformation (Nanda and Xu,
2021). This calls for relocations and distributions of traditional offline shops'
business and functions through multi-channels (Nanda and Xu, 2021). Moreover, evidence
illustrates that the connections between the perceived effectiveness of e-commerce
platforms, economic profits, and sustainable consumption can be moderated by pandemic
fear (Tran, 2021). It is also found that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's
sense of utilizing e-commerce are much more complicated. The situation is due to diverse
alterations triggered by the pandemic in the need mechanism of consumers of e-commerce
platforms (Inoue, 2022), suggesting further investigations on examining the mechanisms
and other factors such as user innovations, consumer behaviors, and types of e-commerce
platforms. For instance, even though there have been growing studies investigating
the changes in the e-commerce market since the start of the pandemic pop-up in the
literature (Juliet Orji and Ojadi, 2022), factors and determinants of consumers' behaviors
regarding online buying and e-commerce are still uncertain (Guthrie and Fosso-Wamba,
2021).
In short, the current literature on ICT, e-commerce, and COVID-19 is continuously
growing with the pandemic-accelerated booming e-commerce and digital innovations.
However, there are still several gaps regarding this topic. First, the uncertainties
and mechanisms associated with both internal and external factors affecting ICT adoption
and e-commerce usage during and after the pandemic are underexplored. Second, investigations
and analyses on the barriers, burdens, and indirect and negative impacts of ICT adoption
and e-commerce are limited. Third, studies and innovations for possible strategies
and sol to offset negative impacts, maximize benefits, mitigate the externalities,
and reduce the growing digital divides empowered by the nexus between e-commerce,
ICT adoption, and the pandemic of COVID are needed.
New Trends and Opportunities: Exploring the New Norms
It is argued that “E-Commerce” has become the driver of digital innovation over the
last 10 years (Statista, 2022a). In 2020, global e-commerce sales increased by 19%
due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Statista, 2022a). According to the e-commerce report
2021 (Statista, 2022a), the United States (US$537.7 billion), China (US$1,343.5 billion),
and Europe (US$460.5 billion) are the three major e-commerce markets. China was the
largest market in 2020 and will be staying the first with the greatest predicted growth
rate of the three major regions (i.e., Compound Average Growth Rate of 8.2%). The
report identifies a growing trend in purchasing power moving from the US and Europe
to China and Southeast Asia (Statista, 2022a). Besides the impacts of COVID, the primary
underlying reason might be that some digital divide barriers among people living in
the global south have been gradually reduced. It has enabled Asian consumers to access
e-commerce due to rising purchasing power and internet penetration, particularly on
mobile devices. Moreover, the benefits and convenience brought by e-commence have
fostered people's preferences and behaviors toward its usage. One study reveals that
only 48% of consumers are now refusing to go brick-and-mortar shopping in crowded
places, and this number only increased by 16% (i.e., 64%) after receiving the COVID
vaccine (Bhatti et al., 2020). This implies the trend of growing e-commerce consumers
is unlikely to be changed even in the post-COVID-19 era.
On the other hand, e-commerce in the COVID-19 era also brings SMEs (small and medium
enterprises) more opportunities, especially in the food sector. Food is the basic
need for sustaining people's lives, while individuals' food security level faces multiple
challenges in the COVID-19 era. Among the five segments of e-commence, the global
e-commerce sales in “Food and Personal Care” increased by 29% in 2020, followed by
toys, hobby and DIY (21%), electronics and media (19%), furniture and appliances (17%),
and fashion (14%; Statista, 2022a). It is commonly recognized that e-commerce can
bring SMEs and larger companies alike equal access to global markets. It can also
support vertical coordination processes in the food supply chain (Zeng et al., 2017).
ICT-mediated third-party commercial and retail platforms are the vehicles bridging
SMEs and the benefits of e-commerce together. Various advantages of those platforms
have been well recognized (Statista, 2022b), including huge network flow, massive
views and exposure, low cost of platform expansion, and high speed of platform expansion.
In addition, it is known that besides internet penetration, smartphone penetration
plays a significant role in e-commerce. With an increasing trend of mobile devices
usage, more social media and news consumption have switched to mobile-only platforms
(Statista, 2022a). E-commerce goes beyond selling products and delivering services
by using multiple ICTs to promote and popularize their products. It widens marketing
channels and attracts targeting costumers through direct communication, easier exchange
of information, improved interaction, increased mobile accessibility, etc. In short,
it can be argued that there is a rising trend in the adoption of ICT-mediated commercial
platforms and e-commerce among SMEs with a more intensive focus on mobile e-commerce
in the COVID-19 era.
The dramatic growth of e-commerce in the COVID-19 era also brings elevating negative
impacts in multiple areas. The major issue is the waste generated by packaging, followed
by rising traffic pressures and associated greenhouse gas emissions (Tokar and Jensen,
2021). The most visible negative effect of e-commerce is packaging and overpackaging
waste, directly connected to GHGs emissions from the associated material and energy
use. It is claimed that sustainability in e-commerce can be accomplished by promoting
cellulose-based materials for packaging. It is one of the most naturally abundant
and most vital renewable materials with the minimum environmental impacts (Escursell
and Llorach-Massana, 2021). Concerning the implications of e-commerce associated packaging
and overpackaging, the current trend is to promote circular packaging, search for
zero-waste packaging materials and optimize package distribution through effective
policies, regulations, technologies, strategies, and solutions (Escursell and Llorach-Massana,
2021). Researchers and scholars hold different opinions regarding the impacts of e-commerce
associated with traffic and emission issues. It is claimed that the adverse impacts
of the growth in delivery trucks have been counterbalanced by the benefits of fewer
consumers on the road (Peng, 2019; Tokar and Jensen, 2021). While some studies found
that the negative influences of delivering e-commerce packages have been continuously
increasing (Zhou, 2014; Laghaei and Faghri, 2016).
Lastly, there has been a growing trend of declining conventional commerce with fewer
brick-and-mortar places; meanwhile, the share of e-commerce will continue to grow
and become the dominant way of business in the COVID-19 era. For instance, over 9,300
retail locations from various categories of products were closed by their parent companies
in 2019, while more than half of shopping malls are expected to be closed by 2021
(Tokar and Jensen, 2021). This trend has fueled the unprecedented rising digital innovations
in e-commerce such as live streaming (Hu, 2020), cloud computing (Almarabeh, 2019),
artificial intelligence and machine learning (Patil, 2019; Zhang and Pee, 2021), drone
deliveries (Aurambout and Gkoumas, 2019), etc. Meanwhile, this fast pace of digital
innovation and e-commerce expansion also brings multiple issues and challenges like
privacy concerns about customers' information (Maseeh et al., 2021), cyber fraud (Hamirani,
2020), and issues related to governance and regulation enforcement [Organization for
Economic Co-operation Development (OCED), 2019]. For instance, regulatory approaches
and governmental enforcement of government have been challenged by digital technologies
[Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OCED), 2019] due to two primary
reasons. First, the digitalization of trading and/or e-commerce has blurred the conventional
definition of markets while surpassing administrative boundaries nationally and globally.
Secondly, digital technologies develop much quicker than the regulation or social
structures governing them. In a word, e-commerce, technological advances, and digital
innovations have brought various benefits and opportunities to our life and economy,
while the associated negative impacts and/or side effects must be dealt with more
carefully to make the best potential of e-commerce.
Discussions: ICT Adoption and Multiple Profits of E-Commerce Boosted by the COVID-19
Pandemic
E-commerce is considered a specific and in-depth application of current and emerging
ICT to conduct business (Li et al., 2021). Its relatively low entry threshold reduces
some social inequality barriers and offers opportunities to disadvantaged populations
and/or marginalized groups, including SMEs, rural regions, vulnerable people, etc.
For example, e-commerce has increased farmers' employment channels and livelihood
choices, further benefiting the economy and development of rural and remote areas
with poverty alleviation (Zeng et al., 2017; Li et al., 2021). ICT adoption can reduce
reasonable costs for SMEs and improve competition, knowledge management, and access
to robust business information. It could help efficiently manage materials and resources
and broaden market and trade liberty (Al Busaidi and Bhuiyan, 2019). Furthermore,
from customers' perspectives, e-commerce for SMEs can enhance service availability,
communication with customers, information exchange, sales, and productivity following
customers' demands (Alzahrani, 2018).
The growth of food e-commerce in the COVID-19 era is the most significant. As mentioned
earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic has become an accelerator of the process for people
to adopt ICT and e-commerce and as a catalyst for their associated impacts, benefits,
and side effects. It is found that the proportion of confirmed infected COVID-19 cases
rises the likelihood of consumers buying their food online, and this link is found
to be more significant for young people having a lower perceived risk of online shopping
and living in big cities (Gao et al., 2020). Moreover, it is suggested that the marketplace
digitalization and people's online shopping habits gained during COVID-19 will remain
the same and eventually might trigger structural changes to business operation and
consumption patterns (Guthrie and Fosso-Wamba, 2021). This is likely as people keep
their adapted purchasing behaviors once the pandemic ends (Kim, 2020; Sheth, 2020),
such as those witnessed in China in 2002–2003 (Clark, 2016) during the SARS pandemic.
It is argued that the COVID-19 pandemic holds sufficient opportunities for growth
in three components of e-commerce accessibility (Beckers et al., 2021). For individual
components, e-commerce in the COVID-19 era attracts local consumers due to travel
restrictions, social distancing policies, lockdowns, and lack of long-distance delivery
services. Secondly, the digitalization of the marketplace pushes enterprises (especially
SMEs) to open online businesses and increases their Web infrastructure component.
It is claimed that COVID-19 boosts a growth rate of 30% in the number of local retailers
with e-commerce services (Beckers et al., 2021). With the extra aid of social media,
retailers gain opportunities to advertise and promote their products online. They
can attract, interact, and communicate with more customers directly and improve their
management and products based on customers' feedback. The last element of e-commerce
is the temporal component. It is linked to delivery distance subject to dominating
local e-consumers in the COVID-19 era (Beckers et al., 2021). It is known that “the
last mile” is the least cost-efficient and most time-consuming part of the whole supply
chain (Nanda and Xu, 2021; Tokar and Jensen, 2021). With more local consumers and
short distances, 25% of the retailers use a sustainable delivery mode while 23% apply
a within-24-h delivery mode (Beckers et al., 2021). This implies that COVID-19 has
boosted the adaptation and utilization of ICTs and e-commerce in local retailers/enterprises
via the enhancement of e-commerce accessibility and may further support localization
and diversification of enterprises. At the same time, it contributes to supply chain
resilience toward sustainable e-commerce.
Furthermore, we highlight the increase in the food segment of e-commerce. Food is
essential to sustain people's lives while the source/supplier/producer of food covers
many individuals/retailers/enterprises. Before the COVID-19, some people could get
their food directly from restaurants, while cooking fresh food was not a necessary
option. However, the pandemic control and prevention strategies, like restaurants
closures and lockdown, have dramatically changed people's accessibility to food, forcing
people to cook their own meals at home. The situation has caused a sharp increase
in fresh food demand. Yet, most fresh food growers/suppliers/retailers are SMEs or
even individual framers. Due to their limited digital literacy and infrastructure,
they are more likely to face multiple digital divide barriers to switching to e-commerce
by themselves. Hence, ICT-mediated e-Commence platforms connecting SMEs and customers
have been springing up, while fresh food e-commerce platforms have experienced growth
and unprecedented opportunities brought by COVID-19. In China particularly, the active
online customers of fresh food e-commerce have increased by 70.30%, from 48.94 million
in 2019 to 69.61 million in 2021, while the gross merchandise value (GMV) has increased
by 46.91%, from 163.9 billion RMB in 2019 to 239.6 billion RMB in 2021 (Statista,
2022b). Therefore, the pandemic has speeded up the growth of ICT-mediated third-party
e-commerce platforms as well as the volume and population of both e-Retailers and
e-Consumers, especially in fresh food e-commerce.
Lastly, we summarize the findings here, including new trends in the COVID-19 era,
multiple benefits and profits boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and future research
directions covering primary aspects and topics. Table 1 below summarizes these findings.
Table 1
Summary of findings related to new trends, multiple benefits and profits, and future
research directions.
New Trends
• A growing trend in online purchasing power moving from the global north to the global
south (i.e., from the US and Europe to China and Southeast Asia);• A growing trend
in ICT-mediated third-party commercial and retail platforms (i.e., digitalization
of marketplace), with a more intensive growth in food e-commerce;• A rising trend
in the adoption of ICT-mediated commercial platforms and e-commerce among SMEs (i.e.,
integration of B2C [Business to Customer] and O2O [Online to Offline]), with a more
intensive focus on mobile e-commerce;• A declining trend in conventional brick-and-mortar
marketplaces;• A rising trend in recognizing the negative impacts of e-commerce with
considerations of fostering sustainable e-commerce and promoting digital innovations;•
A trend where people maintain their purchase behavior gained during the pandemic (i.e.,
online shopping).
Multiple benefits and profits boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic
• Acceleration of adopting ICT and e-commerce and business digitalization;• Catalyzation
of e-commerce associated impacts, benefits, and side-effects, as well as digital innovation;•
Reduces some social inequality barriers and offers opportunities to disadvantageous
populations and/or marginalized groups;• Support SMEs, rural economy, local business
environment, and diversification of enterprises;• Improve e-commerce accessibility,
supply chain resilience, and even distribution of resources;• May eventually contribute
to positive peace and sustainability if related trade-offs, specific digital divide
barriers, and associated negative impacts can be fully considered and adequately addressed.
Future research directions
• E-commerce governance and regulation enforcement (e.g., customer privacy, cyber
fraud)• Reduce digital divide barriers for socially disadvantaged/marginalized groups
[e.g., inclusive technology designs for the elderly and children, ageism-free EICT
(Everyday Information and Communication and Technology) settings Köttl et al., 2021]•
E-commerce associated negative impacts such as improving logistic systems, smart warehouses,
AI-optimized distribution systems, reducing packaging/sustainable packaging, resolving
the last mile issue [e.g., implementation of mobile warehouses for last-mile delivery
Srivatsa Srinivas, 2021], etc.• Education of rural e-commerce leaders Li et al., 2021.•
Application of blockchain technology in e-commerce to improve the four TRs (i.e.,
TRaceability, TRacking, TRansparency, TRrust) for decentralization Centobelli et al.,
2021; blockchain-based sustainable supply chains and expand its implementation to
SMEs Lim et al., 2021; blockchain-based systems of cross-border supply chain management
Liu, 2020
Author Contributions
AC has structured and developed the paper. TZ has completed the literature review
and worked on discussions under AC's supervision. All authors contributed to the article
and approved the submitted version.
Funding
AC acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) for the provision
of funding for project number 71950410760. He also acknowledges the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan Government, and the Network
for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS), Hiroshima, Japan.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial
or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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