• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 16, 2020

GroupM has just released its first ecommerce forecast, which details 2020’s growth and what to expect in the next few years, including $10 trillion in retail ecommerce sales by 2027.

The forecast estimates that global retail ecommerce — including automotive sales but excluding food and delivery services to ensure consistency across markets — will amount to $3.9 trillion in 2020. That's up 25% from the prior year and about 17% of equivalent global retail sales.

In 2021, that total will rise to an estimated $4.6 trillion, or a gain of nearly 18%.

In the U.S. next year, ecommerce is expected to account for 16.2% of retail sales, per the GroupM report. The analysis is solely focused on retail ecommerce and thus has omitted service-focused sectors, such as travel, finance or digital media.

Christian Juhl, GroupM’s Global CEO, stated: “There’s a huge opportunity in ecommerce for brand building, tying clients’ online operations to their media activations across channels. The pandemic has accelerated that need and shown clients how valuable ecommerce really is for brand building.”

Added Juhl: “Since ecommerce strategy’s impact on brand building leads to stronger immediate performance, brands should have a particular interest in focusing on this space now and for the foreseeable future.”