E-Commerce During COVID: Stylized Facts from 47 Economies

Abstract

We study e-commerce across 47 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic using aggregated and anonymized transaction-level data from Mastercard, scaled to represent total consumer spending. The share of online transactions in total consumption increased more in economies with higher pre-pandemic e-commerce shares, exacerbating the digital divide across economies. Overall, the latest data suggest that these spikes in online spending shares are dissipating at the aggregate level, though there is variation across industries. In particular, the share of online spending in professional services and recreation has fallen below its pre-pandemic trend, but we observe a longer-lasting shift to digital in retail and restaurants.

Keywords: COVID-19, Technological Change, consumption, digitalization, e-commerce, IMF working paper research Department, e-commerce share, COVID trend, data from Mastercard, spending share, COVID-19, Consumer credit, Consumption, Tourism, Global

JEL Classification: O30, E00, F00, I12, E50, H50, E21, L83