How the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards 'storelessness'

Research by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade body, has suggested that COVID-19 has pushed the digital revolution into a new phase.

The digital revolution has accelerated into a new phase because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the dramatic changes could spell the end for several established ways of doing business.

As the public-health emergency drove shoppers towards the internet and away from physical stores, so it dramatically quickened the uptake of online retail (to the benefit of online destinations like Amazon.com and Walmart.com) and direct-to-consumer brands in numerous industries (e.g. Casper mattresses, meal-kit provider HelloFresh, and Madison Reed hair-coloring products).

“How much has COVID sped up the transition to a direct-brand economy?” Randall Rothenberg, executive chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau...

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