#BTEditorial – The online world that we should all embrace

It comes as no surprise that recent reports indicate online shopping and banking have increased in Barbados. While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenging and trying times, there are some positives that will serve us as a society going forward.

Due to lockdowns, social distancing, and limited business hours of financial institutions, many more have joined those already using digital platforms to transact business.

Apart from the commercial banks and credit unions, Government agencies such as the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) also got on board and offered Bajans the ease and comfort of doing business online. Supermarkets did too, providing customers with the option of purchasing groceries online and having them delivered to their doorsteps. Fast food restaurants were not to be left out – they offered their meals and deals online.

Work and school were also conducted online. Zoom, Google Meet and Teams are terms that have now become a part of our daily lives as we continue to navigate these pandemic waters.

Globally, there is a significant rise in ecommerce activity. The number of online shoppers worldwide has risen greatly over the last three years. According to Statista, the number of digital buyers in 2021 stood at 2.14 billion – 27.6 per cent of the 7.74 billion people in the world. In other words, more than one out of every four persons is an online shopper.

The number of online shoppers has been growing over the past few years. In 2021, there were 900 million more digital buyers than there were in 2020 — a 4.4 per cent year-over-year increase.

The spike should come as no surprise, though, as Internet connectivity penetrates the world and online shopping becomes increasingly convenient.

It is therefore safe to say there is no turning back.

On Wednesday, Barbados TODAY reported Gavin Bovell, Assistant Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus as saying that maintaining the option of online shopping and delivery service will be the differentiating factors for most companies going forward.

“The level of convenience that the pandemic has opened the eyes of the Barbadian consumer to, it is going to be very difficult for them to accept less going forward. I believe it will grow and I believe it will become even more convenient. Think about the convenience of delivery, ordering your groceries online and having them delivered to your doorstep, ordering your groceries online and going and picking them up, ordering your groceries online and having them picked up curbside,” he said.

In the same edition of our e-paper, CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank reported a significant increase in the number of customers shifting to digital banking.

“We have seen high double-digit growth in our clients banking online as well as in the number of online transactions they have been executing. We have seen over 200,000 clients now banking online. These are active clients transacting throughout the day,” said Chief Information Officer Esan Peters.

He added: “We have seen an increase in our users of the online and mobile banking platforms as over 80 per cent of our transactions are now done via our automated banking machines, our mobile banking app, our online banking app or corporate online banking app. Over 98 per cent of the wire payments we do within our bank, going to the US dollar market, is done online.”

“Our clients are demanding more and more digital products and faster service . . . ,” he added.

Apart from the business benefit of being online, social media proved to be a good companion and source of information when we were physically separated. We were able not only to connect to those close to us but our loved ones overseas facing the same fate we were.

Smart Insights reports that social media networks have transformed marketing and their popularity is still growing. Networks vary in popularity with different demographics and they’re still evolving. Research by Global shows that globally, 58.4 per cent of the world’s population uses social media. The average daily usage is two hours and 27 minutes (January 2022).

While we remain happy to see an increase in online users and activity, we also look forward to a time when we can put this pandemic behind us and fully reconnect as a people. Virtual linkups and online transactions can never replace socialising and interacting physically, as we as humans were created to do