The year 2020 will be remembered as a watershed for many
reasons, including being the year that the world was forced to move
online to an extent never seen before. Online commerce rose to
stratospheric levels in 2020 – Amazon's earnings report
for the fourth quarter of 2020 showed that it was the highest
quarter ever by revenue, generating US$125.56 billion in sales. All
forms of contactless payment became not just convenient but
necessary, and while overall spending by consumers decreased,
online spending with its corollary of electronic payments
increased. Payments Canada reported that in 2020 electronic
payments accounted for 77% of all transactions and that on the
retail side, consumer behaviour showed what may be a permanent
increase in electronic forms of payment.
