In September, Deloitte predicted that this year’s holiday sales would see “tepid-to-modest” annual growth of just 1% to 1.5%. Ecommerce sales, Deloitte contended, would be responsible for the lion’s share of activity, expected to balloon by 25% to 30% - nearly twice the year-over-year growth recorded in 2019. 

To say that 2020 has not been a typical year is somehow both an understatement and a cliché. COVID-19 has changed nearly every aspect of our lives: how we work and study, how we travel, how we interact with friends and family. In the retail sector, the pandemic changed consumer behaviors and priorities. It caused shifts in brand loyalty and made availability, convenience, and affordability the predominant factors in consumer choice.