The recent lockdowns in Canada and across the globe severely damaged the world’s economy and continues to loom as a threat, despite the fact that the world is slowly returning to normal. Although people are already adjusting back to their regular everyday routines, the Covid-19 is still a threat to our society. New lockdowns may, and most probably will occur in the future, following second waves of the coronavirus. This has already happened in a few places around the world where cities and regions within a country have been put under strict lockdown procedures for the second time around. In most parts of the world, businesses are finally opening up and both the retail and service sector are attempting to bounce back. These sectors and the travel industries were the ones most affected by the coronavirus. On the other hand, there were business sectors which were already well-positioned or were quick to adapt to the new, temporary consumer behaviours. These sectors were able to thrive and experience growth, despite the physical distancing and surging unemployment rates. In Canada we saw unemployment rates more than double, going from just below 6% to 13.7%. So what were the sectors that experienced growth during COVID-19 pandemic?
Online Gambling
As physical distancing became standard practice around the globe, sporting events grounded to a sudden halt. As a result, online gambling operators offering sportsbook products suffered colossal losses due to the cancellation of leagues and tournaments. However positive side-effects were experienced for online casino operators in Canada and around the world as other casino games saw a significant increase. Revenue arising from online casino games, such as slot machines, roulette and blackjack was in higher demand due to people being confined to their homes and looking for entertainment. According to the team behind Supremacy-Casinos, who run several major gambling forums in Canada, players must now be extra cautious about the time they spend in online casinos. In general, the more time spent indoors, the easier it is to get carried away in any online activity, but especially now, casino operators have become more aggressive with their marketing campaigns in order to recover the losses suffered in the sportsbook part of their products.
Online Streaming Services
With people not being allowed to go outside, they naturally turned to digital entertainment. This prompted a massive uptick in subscriptions for online streaming services such as Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus. Social media which incorporate video and streaming saw an increase in both the creation of new content and consumption, where apps like TikTok and Houseparty soared to new heights and became popular worldwide.
E-commerce
As consumers relied on the digital space during the lockdown, e-commerce stood to benefit as people made all their purchases online. Businesses that only relied on physical retail took a massive hit overnight, while others were quick to adapt by offering their products online through webshops or social media pages. Another reason why online shopping boomed is that people were bored and justified purchases as a means of having fun and something to look forward to while waiting for their goods to be delivered. According to this research, from March until May, the online sales of household appliances, DIY materials and electronics have jumped by a whopping 243%, followed by 336% for home decor and 283% for sporting goods,
Logistics
While UPS and DHL did report some delays, the logistics industry as a whole also experienced some growth as consumers bought everything online, from groceries to clothes. The fleets of airplanes remained in the air and trucks remained on the road. Logistics companies with large delivery networks were able to help businesses around Canada to stay afloat by transporting goods to doorsteps at an unprecedented rate. Amazon set the example for many businesses to base their delivery model around. From the completion of purchase online to the transport and delivery of goods. Ecommerce businesses are now re-evaluating their supply chains and methods to become as efficient and transparent as possible.
New Normal
While we are returning back to normal, we can expect that parts of the consumer behaviour that arose with the coronavirus will remain. The ripple effects of the virus will be felt across Canada for months to come. Some businesses were forced to close, some were forced to adapt and many in the digital space are looking to improve even more as we have a new normal for consumer behaviours online.
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