With almost 3 million cases of coronavirus worldwide and numerous countries enforcing lockdowns, global retail spend is anticipated to fall 3.0 percent in 2020, equating to US$ 549.7bn, in comparison to a previously expected rise of 5.0 percent prior to COVID-19 (+US$ 927.7bn), says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Sofie Willmott, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “North America and Europe are set to experience the steepest drops in retail spend forecast to decrease 4.8 percent and 4.4 percent respectively. And while APAC is expected to only see a relatively minor decline of 1.3 percent which looks good relative to other regions, pre-COVID 19 we had forecast the region’s growth to be 7.2 percent.”