One might think that online sales have dipped post-pandemic, but that's not the case, says Vijay Ramachandran, vice president of go-to-market enablement and experience with Pitney Bowes.

It might come as a surprise that consumers have recently been spending more in a supposedly down economy, but Ramachandran says that’s the case. Online spend is between 6% to 7% higher than last year, even at a time when e-commerce prices are, on average, at a 40-month low.

“COVID habits are sticking,” Ramachandran says, referring to the surge of e-commerce activity that occurred among home-bound consumers at the height of the pandemic. Despite having experienced the “novelty” of returning to stores when the crisis abated, they are continuing to display a preference for the convenience of online shopping.

Expectations of rapid delivery remain high, and the current level of activity reflects that reality. At the same time, travel is now “100% back to where things were in 2019,” and vehicle miles traveled are even higher.

Secondly, office foot traffic remains below 50% of pre-pandemic levels, indicating that many e-commerce customers are still working from home at least some of the time. But the combination of home and office work, and the unpredictable schedules that result, mean that the consumer is highly attuned to the need for predictable delivery. “Our expectations,” says Ramachandran, “are less about ‘I need delivery now’ and more about ‘I want to know I’m going to be home when delivery takes place.’” This “fundamental shift” in expectations, and demand for certainty, arise in part from a growing concern over package theft.

The merchandiser is therefore saddled with the “heavy burden” of providing reliable information about when an order is going to be delivered. Consumers, for their part, are checking their tracking websites about three times for every order, looking for updates on delivery windows.