MACON, Ga. — Holiday shopping is at its peak, and Dr. Steve Morse, dean of the School of Business at Middle Georgia State University, says there's a clear trend for 2020.
"I think COVID-19 and the pandemic had a large impact on online spending, driving people to a safer choice to spend money," Morse said.
"We see that online shopping increased four percent over 2019. Part of that is probably by convenience, and another part of that is COVID-19, people don't want to get in crowds," he adds.
Morse says according to the National Retail Federation, online shopping has gone up from 56 to 60 percent in the last year, just as department store and clothing store shopping has gone down.
Morse says one trend that has stayed the same locally is small business shopping.
"One advantage of that local spending is when you spend your dollars locally, those dollars stay in Middle Georgia and are multiplied even more in the community to provide income for other people," he said.
Morse says small businesses are a vital part of the Central Georgia economy.
"If you spend a dollar in a restaurant, it generates 40 cents more income for the people that sold food to the restaurant, to the people that work there, to the other people that support restaurants," Morse said.
With small business shopping staying at 23% in retail sales since last year, Morse says this is promising, but there could be negative effects long term.
"Unless small businesses can compete price wise, selection wise, and quality wise, people may recognize that they can have a larger selection of merchandise online than some smaller local retail providers can stock in their inventory," Morse said.