Resetting online commerce — Benedict Evans

There are half a dozen huge industries where all of the cards are being thrown up in the air, and no-one really knows where they’re going to land. The Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 are catalysing and accelerating all sorts of changes - we’re getting five years of adoption in a few quarters, and five years of inevitability in the back of the neck

As someone who works in the payments arena, I can absolutely confirm that Covid has dramatically accelerated trends we had seen coming for years. It’s a wild ride at the moment.

What I have found most inspiring is that merchants all over, and in many different industries, have adapted to the new realities we live in and shifted their payments acceptance and customer acquisition to match the times. Obviously this has been bad for many, many people, but commerce has not shut down: far from it.