Post COVID Ecommerce slowdown? (1.Viewing)

The story is about Shopify but has some great info on the trends in e-commerce with COVID coming to an end.

"Investors, however, fear the company can’t sustain its growth as shoppers return to more normal buying patterns. Those concerns intensified last month when Shopify said it had terminated contracts with several warehouse and fulfilment partners, sending shares to a 16-month low"

We have started to see a slowdown in our e-commerce sales over the past 2 or so months. I think it was to be expected with the large increases in sales over the past 2 years. The challenge for e-commerce businesses will be to try and hold on to their customers and ensure that any advantages they have in terms of selection, pricing and availability are maintained. It was a great ride this past 2 years...

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2...p-shopify-plunges-17-on-weaker-growth-outlook

are people going back to shopping in real stores or malls, or are they just tapped out after all their pandemic spending? or is inflation taking a bite?

domains said:

are people going back to shopping in real stores or malls, or are they just tapped out after all their pandemic spending? or is inflation taking a bite?

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Probably a bit of all of it. Mind you, most retail stores have been open for quite a while now in some form. I think inflation always has an impact on discretionary purchases. With most or all of the government COVID programs done, that could have an impact on online and brick and mortar spending.

For us, we have gained thousands of new customers to our candy business during COVID, so our job is to keep them coming back. The Supply Chain challenges we have faced in the past year or so will likely continue as suppliers and manufacturers trey and ramp up again.

domains said:

are people going back to shopping in real stores or malls, or are they just tapped out after all their pandemic spending? or is inflation taking a bite?

Click to expand...

That question is best probably for younger families. We're past the big spending years as families with younger kids spend a TON more. Once the kids are past 18, ya really don't buy nearly as much "stuff" anymore.

So inflation doesn't really affect our spending too much, as not much of it is discretionary anyway, other than travel. We have definitely had fewer vacations during the pandemic, but that was due to the restrictions/hassles/risks, not so much economic.

I have felt a dramatic slowdown on my e-commerce site the last few weeks. It seemed to coincide with the war and gas prices.

It's as if someone turned off the tap.

MapleDots said:

I have felt a dramatic slowdown on my e-commerce site the last few weeks. It seemed to coincide with the war and gas prices.

It's as if someone turned off the tap.

Click to expand...

We also have seen a slowdown. As you said, the war could be a strong contributor to it. People do not like uncertainty or feeling insecure. Hopefully, it ends soon. The world does not need possible WWIII hanging over their heads.

I have a feeling from the sources where I get a lot of my news, that things are going to get harder economically and sooner than expected. There are some breakdowns and knock on effects going on in the financial system soon coming to the forefront. And a lot of the skyrocketing commodity prices we're seeing in the news recently haven't even filtered to retail yet, we'll see that in the coming weeks and months. If inflation keeps higher and we go into recession, with central banks all talking about raising interest rates, that's not good. Trudeau Liberals and the NDP now basically combining for the next few years means there will be continued government spending and deficits. We could see some lasting ugliness in the economy that hasn't been experienced for decades.

Everywhere we turn, it is the same news. No end in sight. Can feel the drag in every sphere.

It could slowly drag down for weeks/months as these things can take more time to play out than expected. Or we might wake up one morning and there's been some event like a Lehman Brothers collapse or some other large institution or situation that sparks massive losses, and everything changes right away. Given that governments are in way more debt than in 2008, and have printed so much more money since then, it will be difficult to contain this time around, and the losses could be way bigger than 2007-2008. Plus the public appetite for another bailout is pretty low given all the people hurt last time.