Current E-commerce Developments and Trends
Although E-commerce was already on the rise prior to COVID-19 due to business demands, improvements in technologies, and internet availability worldwide, the pandemic has given online exchanges an additional boost. With many lockdowns and people fearing getting sick being experienced worldwide, more and more individuals began relying on E-commerce as a source of making a living from home. Lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders occurred spontaneously in quite a few countries, thus, a multitude of people was left stranded or confined to their homes for months during most of 2020. This caused the use of person-to-person (P2P) payment apps to surge dramatically in order to pay for various necessities: sending money to loved ones in need, paying back friends and neighbors for help with buying groceries or paying rent. The demands were so overwhelming that P2P service provider Venmo had to increase its sending limits for person-to-person payments by 40 percent to $4,999.99 per week.
Well before COVID-19 quickly spread worldwide and made people much more aware of what they touch, healthcare professionals and researchers have mentioned many times how paper money turns wallets into a very efficient microbial transportation system. If we think about it, banknotes and coins stay in circulation for 5–15 years, with money changing hands at least 55 times a year. No one can know where…
