Review Panierdachat of the Year 2020

The Year 2020, under the sign of the advent of ecommerce, digital transition and local purchasing!

The pandemic has reshaped the retail world and accelerated the digital transition for many retailers for whom opening an online store has become a real priority and necessity to survive.

The year 2020 has seen an unprecedented e-commerce boom, creating many challenges for businesses faced with new and changing purchasing behaviors.

And with this came a lot of issues and questions:

• How do I launch my business online?
• How can I continue my in-store activities while developing my online business?
• What marketing tools and strategies should I establish to make my way through increased competition?
• How to quickly set up efficient and profitable logistics and merchandise management? etc.

In this race to the stakes, Panierdachat has shown itself present, active and reactive to accompany its merchants to take up their challenges; by exploiting new technologies and by bringing new tools to impulse and accompany this digital momentum.

The Year 2020 will have been a year full of new products for Panierdachat and its merchants, marked by key moments and figures.

Don’t have your online store yet ? Open an account on our easy-to-build e-commerce platform!

Trends and key moments of the Year 2020

1. The digital revolution

The context of the Year 2020 has propelled online purchasing.

At the same time, this has had the effect of accelerating the digital strategy of companies by precipitating their digital transformation into a new virtual norm. 

A new reality that has taken more or less time depending on certain sectors and business models, and which has continued to impose itself throughout the year.

2. Changes in purchasing behavior

This year was marked by changes in purchasing behaviors, habits and priorities.

Focused more on their basic needs, consumers seem to be giving more priority to basic necessities to the detriment of certain sectors.

And with this, local, responsible and ethical purchasing initiatives in a community spirit have developed to support local commerce.

With a greater connection and overexposure to communications, new practices have been accentuated.  Consumers who are obliged and accustomed to shopping from home, wishing a contactless shopping experience, are opting more for in-store deliveries and pick-ups.

3. New relational strategies

To cope with these new behaviors, companies in almost every sector have had to implement new ways of communicating.

Many have oriented their companies towards omnichannel communication based on continuous exchange and interaction.

Many brands have relied on innovation and creativity to offer experiences that are based on consumer needs, notably through relational marketing strategies that focus more and more on personalization to develop and maintain a relationship with their customers.

5 Key figures for ecommerce in 2020 :

• Online sales “reached an unprecedented $3.9 billion” in May 2020
• A jump of 111% compared to May 2019
• E-commerce saw a monthly increase of 64% between March and April of 64 % between March and April
• 62% increase in home deliveries and in-store pick-ups in March compared to the same period last year
• Twice as many Quebec companies sell online.

This general data is verified with the performances of our Panierdachat merchants. Practically all our merchants who chose to open their 1st online store Panierdachat or who already had one have seen their revenues increase.

Balance sheet in figures of the Year 2020 for Our Panierdachat Merchants

Within the framework of our study carried out with the data collected from our merchant sites, Panierdachat establishes a global balance sheet.

Thus, to analyze the key ecommerce figures of each quarter, we put them in comparison with the same figures for the year 2019.

1. 1st quarter: Relatively similar to 2019

During the first quarter, digital commerce activity was close to 2019 trends, but with a slight increase.

A 5% increase in traffic was nevertheless noted for the quarter as a whole, with a higher proportion of cyber buyers, who are increasingly connected.

As for the number of merchant sites, the first quarter of 2020 started rather normally in January and February, continuing to grow at a rate comparable to that of previous quarters.

The sudden upheaval and context of the Month of March were the starting point of a notorious change in online sales and the opening of online stores.

2. 2nd quarter: Record level of sales for our merchants

Since April, the figures for ecommerce have tended to increase sharply with the arrival of local shops from all sectors in ecommerce.

During this quarter, our merchants have seen 3x more online visitors than in 2019.

The loss of customers for some physical retailers due to their temporary closure allowed merchants already online to gain many new customers.

3. 3rd quarter: An increase in sales that seems to be getting underway

In the third quarter, we note that the curve flattened following the peak of the previous months, with a level still well above 2019 over the same period; with +170% of turnover and +190% of transactions in the space of 3 months.

4. 4th quarter : To reach a peak at the end of November with Black Friday

The 4th quarter saw a new peak in October, responding to the desire of some consumers to start shopping earlier for the Holiday Season in anticipation of announced delivery delays.

We have thus seen sales peaks on October 13th and 27th, and more than a month before Black Friday, on November 27th; with +103% of sales and +157% of transactions in the space of less than 3 months.

The confinement will have thus seen no surprise an increase in traffic on online stores, with an increase of over 110% in 2020 over the whole year compared to 2019. A situation that seems to continue with the deconfinement.

While the pandemic has put a strain on small businesses, Panierdachat has accelerated its internal processes and services to meet the new needs.

How Panierdachat has helped its Merchants to adapt to this new reality

Many of our new merchants have expressed the desire and need for a simple, intuitive, attractive and optimized platform to offset the costs of closing or managing two businesses, both physical and online.

Aware of these challenges, Panierdachat has launched various initiatives and provided these merchants with several tools.

Panierdachat initiatives :

• Panierdachat has set up a Bronze package at 29,95$/month in order to allow all businesses to have their own professional online store at the lowest possible price.
• Panierdachat also offered the 1st month free of charge of the new online stores package in addition to the 14 free days already offered; 45 free days offered to help merchants get online.

Panierdachat Tools :

• We have added a new shipping method “Delivery by postal codes” to optimize the logistics of our merchants. A new tool responding to the desire to be able to deliver only in a very specific area around their business.

Partnership Panierdachat :

• A new partnership Desjardins Global Payments : allowing all our merchants without exception to benefit from an exclusive and ultra-competitive transaction rate of only 2.6%.

Panierdachat continuously strives to be at the forefront of technological advances to offer you a service and a platform always more secure, ergonomic and optimized.

Panierdachat has proudly allowed over 100 Quebec businesses to survive and to establish themselves online easily and quickly.

2021 : The Year of Renewal for Panierdachat

2021 will see the birth of a whole new generation of Panierdachat.

We have explored a range of creative ideas to rethink and optimize an advanced interface. It will be packed with new features.

Until we present you with a summary of these new features in early 2021, we wish you all a great holiday season and a great end of year sales.