Back to Trend: COVID Effects on E-commerce in 44 Countries
We study online spending shares in 44 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, using online transaction data from Mastercard. The online shares of total credit card transactions surged during the pandemic during lockdowns, but since returned to pre-pandemic trends in most countries. The differences between countries are strongly correlated with the mobility and fiscal measures. There is little evidence of permanent structural changes in e-commerce spending patterns. Finally, we estimate that COVID-19-related restrictions on in-person spending imposed average welfare costs of 7 percent.