NORFOLK, Va. — After many local retail stores in all different types of industries were forced to close last year, a new push began for small businesses to embrace e-commerce.
While online shopping has been steadily increasing even before 2020, the pandemic pushed it into overdrive: online sales jumped almost 40 percent by the end of the first quarter last year.
Locally, the Retail Alliance surveyed small businesses to see changes in e-commerce since the pandemic started.
59 percent of local businesses say they didn’t have an e-commerce store before COVID-19. Almost 33 percent say they created an online store during the pandemic. Of those that had existing online stores, more than half expanded their digital services for customers.
E-commerce sales now make up 21 percent of the overall sales for local businesses. More than 35 percent of businesses say they’ve seen at least a 15 percent boost in online sales since last March.