Retail & Ecommerce

Take heart, US retail salespeople: Despite premature calls to the contrary, it turns out the US will remain the most lucrative retail market in the world this year and for some years to come.

Instagram announced it is officially launching shopping features on Reels, making all the platform's formats shoppable.

The number of monthly Instagram users in Western Europe will rise by 17.0% in 2020 to 132.8 million. That’s more than three times higher than the growth rate we had predicted before the pandemic (5.2%) and equates to 19.3 million new users from 2019.

Insider Intelligence and its eMarketer team generate roughly 1,500 forecasts on digital transformation topics every year. These estimates are mainly produced on an annual basis, with several of the highest-profile metrics reassessed one additional time during the year.

China registered yet another record-breaking Singles’ Day, which took place last month. The shopping event generated RMB498.2 billion ($72.11 billion) in sales on Alibaba Tmall, up 85.6% year over year. Sales on JD.com rose by 32.8% over 2019 to RMB271.5 billion ($39.30 billion).

WhatsApp users can now shop by messaging vendors directly on the app, with Facebook likely targeting mobile-first markets like India and Brazil.