Back to Trend: Covid Effects on E-Commerce in 47 Countries

Abstract

We study E-commerce across 47 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic using online transaction data from Mastercard. The online share of total credit card transactions surged during the pandemic, especially as governments made transfers to households in lockdown. As the fiscal support and mobility restrictions waned, online shares went back to pre-pandemic trends in almost all countries. We find little evidence of long-lasting structural changes in E-commerce spending patterns.