Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) evolved from a small Internet bookstore in 1995 to one of the largest online retailers on the planet. With a brand equity of US$220 billion, Amazon was the most-valued brand in 2019, overtaking the likes of Apple and Google.' Known as the company with the widest selection globally, it expanded its offerings from books to groceries, apparel, media content, e-book readers (the Kindle), cloud computing, digital advertising, and a whole range of e-commerce product categories. Amazon's revenue increased from $51 1,000 in 1995 to more than $280.5 billion in 2019 (see Exhibit 1). Much of the company's early success was owed to its direct-to-consumer online model. Online selling offered customers large selection and convenience. Amazon kept its inventory to low quantities for infrequently ordered products, incorporated third-party sellers into its inventory management, and owned its smart logistical system, which reduced the inventory risk of typical brick-and-mortar companies.* This business model enabled the company to receive payment from customers before paying the suppliers for goods, which helped Amazon create a negative operating cash flow cycle." In 1999, Time magazine recognized the company's success in popularizing online shopping and named Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive officer (CEO), "Person of the Year." Bezos believed in a long-term orientation in business development: If you're long-term oriented, customer interests and shareholder interests are aligned. In the short term, that's not always the case. We have other stakeholders, too-our employees, our vendors, etc. We take it as an article of faith that if we put customers first, other stakeholders will also benefit, as long as they are willing to take the long-term view . . . and a long-term approach is essential for invention, because you're going to have a lot of failures along the way." As Amazon kept looking for ways to innovate in its business development, Bezos wrote to his shareholders in 2018: Amazon today remains a small player in global retail. We represent a low single-digit percentage of the retail market, and there are much larger retailers in every country where we operate. And that's largely because nearly 90 per cent of retail remains offline, in brick-and-mortar stores. For many years, we considered how we might serve customers in physical stores, but felt we neededground over competitors such as Netix Inc. and Home Box Uiiice Inc. (HRH). According to Bloomberg's report, Amazon had 190 million paid Amazon Prime subscriptions in 21118. About one-daird (34 percent} of broadband users subscribed to Amazon Prime and took advantage of its streaming services.\" Bezos claimed that Amazon Prime was the most suocessrl loyalty program of all time. To take advantage of it, Amazon initiated programs around Amazon Prime subscribers, such as the Amazon Prime Day when retailers provided deep discounts to customers on a wide range of product categories. In 2018, Amazon generated $3.9 billion worth of sales on Amazon Prime Day. Another customer engagement tool at Amazon's disposal was its agship articial intelligence assismnt, Alexa, capable of performing more than 5i},t} skills, according to the company. Amazon, competing with Google and Apple in tlte same space, had rill per cent market share in the smart speaker market in mm.\" Do the back end of the consumer business, Amazon also encouraged smaller businesses to sell their products through Amazon's global platform. The company built a portfolio of services around Fulllment by Amazon, Advertising Solutions, and Service Provider NetworkFall aimed at one single objective: sharing the Amazon competitive edge with a small-scale business owner for a fee.3| This collaborative mechanism incentivized small businesses to sell their products through Amazon, helping Amazon get a larger market share of the online consumer base. As of September 20W, 4?.9 per cent of Amazon's direct investments were made in the information technology sector, followed by consumer discretionary [25.4 per cent] and communication services (13.3 per cent) sectors.\" Amazon had recently ventured into new services such as health care and nance. It planned to partner with the Bank of America Corporation to offer Amazon's own leading service to its merchants. Through a partnership with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Amazon announced the formation of Amazon Care in 21113. The service. which went live toward the end of Ell 19 with a pilot phase to Amazon employees only, offered \"both virtual and in-person care, with telemedicine via app [mobile application}, chat and remote video, as well as Followaup visits and prescription drug delivery directly at an employee's home or office)\" AWS provided a broad range of applications including cloud computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Some of the web services included Amazon Simple Storage Service (launched in 2006) and Amazon Glacier (launched in 2012). According to the Amazon website, AWS global infrastructure locations included North America (the United States and Canada); South America (Brazil); Europe, Middle East, and Africa (Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, and Bahrain); and Asia Pacific (Singapore, China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, and Hong Kong)." According to Canalys Cloud Channels Analysis, by 2019, Amazon had a dominant lead over its competitors in the $107.1 billion global cloud infrastructure market, with a 34.6 per cent market share, far ahead of Amazon's nearest competitors, Microsoft Azure (18.1 per cent), Google Cloud (6.2 per cent), and Alibaba Cloud (5.2 per cent). 35 GLOBAL EXPANSION When Bezos first started working on his business plan, he came across a report that estimated annual Internet growth at 2,300 per cent in 1994." As a result, Bezos compiled a list of 20 products that could be traded online, and he started Amazon. The products he chose were CDs (or compact discs), computerhardware, computer software, videos, and, most importantly, books. With the success of online book selling, Amazon started to expand internationally. Its rst international entry was to the United Kingdom in 1998, followed by Germany, France, and Japan {see Exhibit 5}. By 21112, Amazon's international sales experienced 23 per cent growth over 21111 and accounted for 43 per cent of the company's total sales. By 21119, the North American market contributed 60.9 per cent of Amazon's revenues, but international sales reduced to 26.6 per cent, with AWS taking up the remaining 12.5 per cent of the composition. The top three overseas markets were Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom (see Exhibit 1}. Amazon UK In October 1998, Amazon acquired Britain's largest online book retailer, Bookpagescouk. Books accounted for Amazon's main source of revenue and Amazon offered more than 1.4 million book titles in the United Kingdom and United States in 1998.\" Amazon UK subsequently expanded its pro-duel and Berrice offering and experienced sales growth (see Exhibit 5]. Amazon stayed on top of the competitive LLK. market. Competitors included eBay and Tesco pic, a local online retailer that had a larger variety of products, including clothing, groceries, electronics, and many other categories!\"a According to Euromonitor data, Amazon had been the leader in UK. online sales for the 10 years ending in 21113, with the last reported market share of 30.8 per cent, followed by eBay with 1 1.2 per cent [see Exhibits 6-3}. Amazon In Gonnany and France In Gctober 1998, Amazon acquired ABC BucherdiensttTelebuchde, a new but thriving online bookstore in Germany, and created the website Amazon.de (Amazon Germany). Germany had one of the highest portions of Englishaas-a-second-language speakers in the world.\" Amazon started in Germany selling books but soon expanded to selling DVDs {or digital video discs), videos, and games, and to opening illtment and customer service centres.\" According to 2019 reports, the German market remained the biggest intemationai contributor to Amazon's revenue with $22.2 billion in sales. The company had 48.3 per cent of lIll'n=.~rmany's online sales, with eBay as its nearest competitor having 9.3 per cent {see Exhibits 6-3}. miles away in Ichikawa, and a customer service centre in Sapporo, Amazon Japan became the first website in an Asian language and the fourth international store for Amazon. Prior to the entry, Japan was Amazon's largest export market. bringing annualized sales of $34 million.43 Competitive pricing, one of Amazon's strengths, was challenging to extend to Japan.\" Japanese books were inexpensive with the average paperback priced at $4.50. Legal restrictions prohibited deep discounts and bypassing of the sales tax. As a result, prices for online selling remained about the same, with the addition of extra shipping and handling costs. Amazon Japan was able to offer books in English at a bargain compmed with Japanese retailers; nevertheless, English language book sales represented only a small fraction of the $9.3 billion book industry in Japan.\" At the time, Japanese consumers still hesitated to use credit cards online. Some Internet book sellers introduced a system of payment and delivery at convenience stores.\" Amazon chose to focus on customer service to grow its customer base. Over T0 per cent of the population in Japan used the Internet. However, approximately 99 per cent of the population comprehended website content only in the Japanese language. Thus, Amazon developed a Unicode-enabled platform for its Japanese language site in collaboration with Basis Technology Corp, a software service provider with expertise in Asian-language information processing.\" While Japanese consumers enjoyed Western products and lifestyle, most goods were attached to their own culture.\" After its launch, Amazon Japan quickly expanded beyond online book selling [see Exhibit 5}. In 2005, Amazon Japan launched a new sports store, giving customers more than I00,000 sports items to choose from and also access to a rewards program."J In January 2010, the Amazon Kindle DX became available in Japanese.\" Amazon formed alliances and made acquisitions after its launch in Japan. In 2002, Amazon Japan and Iiul'irgin Megastores Japan, an entertainment product retailer, announced the launch of 1iv"irginmega.co.jp, powered by Amazon's e-cornmerce platform, to increase the selection of media items.51 Shortly after the tsunami that hit Japan in 2m 1, Amazon teamed up with the Red Cross in the relief effons.\" Competition intensied aer 2010. SoBank Group Corp, with more than 29 million customers in Japan in its mobile business, launched the SoBank Bookstore in December 2010.\" Its biggest local competitor, Rakuten lnc., was not only the largest Internet retailing company in Japan at that time but, by 2012, had also became one of the largest players in the global market)"4 In 21113. Japan contributed $13.8 billion to Amazon's total revenue. Amazon Japan had also opened a fashion studio in Tokyo. According to Euromonitor, Amazon's share in Japan's 5\" billion online retail market for shoes and apparel stood at 15.5 per cent in 201T. Amazon's investment in shoes and apparel, along with hiring cit-Victoria Secret executive Christine Beaucharnp as president of its fashion department, was part of the global push to expand its position in clothing. Amazon added more than 1.000 brands in 201? alone, the exception being some labels like Uniqlo that weie concerned about Amazon obtaining the label's customer data, according to Tadasbi Yanai, the chief executive of lJniqlos"5 Amazon was also licensed by HBO to stream HBD series through Amazon Prime in Japan without having to payr additional fees, starting April 1, 2018.55 In 2019, Amazon continued to lead in e-commeree in Japan with 215.9 per cent market share, ahead of Rakuten and SoBanlr Group.\" Amazon China Amazon made its foray into China through the $15 million acquisition of loyo.com Ltd. (Joyo) in August 2004. Founded in 2000, Joyo was then the largest lntemct retailer of books, music, and videos in tChina.SE Amazon planned to combine Joyo's experience in serving the Chinese market with Amazon's expertise in online retailing. Amazon's management believed that the acquisition would help Amazon gain access to one of the world's biggest Internet markets.\" Amazon owned 100 per cent ofJoyo, which was renamedAmazon.cn (Amazon China} in June 2001'. .loyo had increased the number of product offerings by 32-fold 'om 2004 to 200?, but it did not turn a prot. At that time, Amann reportedly stated that it tool: ve to seven years for a new market to generate prots and it was willing to wait as long as needed with its China operations. recognizing the potential of the Chinese market.\" "The challenges involved are significant," said Michael DeSimonc, CEO of Border'ee Inc., a company with expertise in assisting organizations to adapt e-commerce sites for new countries. "Culture is so different. Language is so different. To really do business in those countries, you need to be on the ground." Julia Zhu, founder of Observer Solutions Ltd., a market research company that helped foreign companies invest in e-commerce in China, noted that \"the majority of Chinese consumers are unwilling to pay for e- books at this stage."6| At the time, many customers in IChina did not use credit cards and paid with cash when their purchase arrived at their door. Alipay {later Ant Financial Services Group} and WeChat Pay, two mobile payment services established in 2003 and 2005 by Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd., respectively, were yet to become popular in China. But by 201?, according to a study by Tencent's Penguin Intelligence. 92 per cent of people in China's top cities said that they used AliPay or WeChat Pay as their primary payment method.\"2 Amazon's signature product in the United States was its Kindle tablet and eareader and the Kindle Store, which debuted in September 200 1. Amazon started a Kindle Store on its Chinese website in December 2012.\" However, due to regulatory barriers and complications in launching its cloud service,64 which was required for customers to store and access the books they purchased, Amazon did not offer the Kindle Fire or Kindle e-reader until June 203.55 As Amazon tried to get its cloud service up and running in China, Dropbox Inc. and local competitors like Alibaba's Aliyun Computing Co. Ltd. (Alibaba Cloud) were competing intensively for market shares." Competition for online bookselling had also intensified. "[Njo company has built a profitable business in China around e-books," said Michael Clendenin, managing director of RedTech Advisors (China) Ltd., a consulting firm that provided research for U.S. investors." China's largest e-retailers relied primarily on sales of clothing and electronics, with pirated e-books hampering prospective sales of legitimate e-books. China experienced exploding growth of online transactions after 2003." Its online retailing industry posted 120 per cent compound annual growth from 2003 to 2011, higher than in any other country. Online retail sales reached $120 billion in 2011 and surged to about $1.33 trillion in 2018, up 23.9 per cent from 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, a government agency." Alibaba, founded in 1999, had launched its Taobao marketplace in 2003." In 2008, Alibaba launched Tmall, a spin-off business-to-commerce marketplace that let businesses sell higher-end products. JD, founded in 1998, took its first e-commerce marketplace online in 2004. Local competitors like Alibaba and JD grew rapidly in late 2000s, while Amazon had limited localization of content and lacked popular purchase features in China like group buying."In the Chinese online retailing space, Amazon initially seemed to have an edge over domestic competitors in logistics. The company had built 11 fulfillment centres in China by May 2012-more than Amazon's rivals-to ensure swift delivery of online purchases. These centres handled warehousing, inventory management, and logistics. In comparison, Alibaba focused on hosting vendors and made use of local delivery companies to help Alibaba offer lower prices." Amazon's logistics advantage, however, was precarious. In May 2013, Alibaba followed Amazon's lead and launched China Smart Logistic Network, which was later renamed Cainiao Smart Logistics Network. In 2019, Alibaba increased its equity stake in Cainiao to 63 per cent." Valued at $20 billion in 2018, Cainiao was one of the largest unicorns in China. According to Alibaba reports, in 2019, Cainiao had parcel network coverage in 220 countries and supply chain fulfillment service warehouses in Russia, France, Spain, Malaysia, and Australia.7 Like Amazon, JD used a business-to-consumer model and built its own logistics network to fulfill its orders. By 2019, JD had built one of the largest fulfillment infrastructures of any e-commerce company in the world; through its JD Logistics unit, JD could reach 99 per cent of the population in China and deliver more than 90 per cent of orders in one day or less.""There's no reason for a consumer to pick Amazon because they're not going to be able to ship things as fast as Tmall or JD," Ker Zheng, marketing specialist at e- commerce consultancy Azoya, told Reuters." Amazon had a reputation in the early days of its China operation for being a site that would have legitimate products and so was trusted by Chinese consumers. Chinese e-commerce players, however, had been taking proactive measures to fight counterfeit goods. Amazon had also not been as aggressive on the marketing front as some of its rivals, including Alibaba and JD, which had enticed customers through shopping festivals, discount campaigns, and nation-wide red envelope promotions." As of 2019, Alibaba had 42.7 per cent of the Chinese e-commerce market, and JD.com, 29.4 per cent, while Amazon China was reported to have 0.2 per cent (see Exhibits 6-8). Amazon China was "a long-term opportunity," Amazon's chief financial officer had said in October 2012. However, in April 2019, Amazon notified its sellers that it would no longer operate its third-party online marketplace or provide seller services on its Chinese website, Amazon.cn, as of July 18, 2019. Amazon said in a statement that it planned to remain committed to China through its global stores, Kindle businesses, and web services.Amazon's Increasing Presence in Europe Amazon launched Amazon.it (Amazon Italy) in November 2010, which signalled the start of the company's second wave of global expansion since its entry into China in 2004. Amazon was able to make profits in the Italian market by adopting the category expansion strategy: it reportedly offered "more categories than any of its others has at launch, including more than two million Italian and foreign language books, more than 450,000 CDs and 120,000 DVDs as well as video games, music, consumer electronics, software and toys." In Spain, Amazon launched Amazon.es (Amazon Spain) in September 2011. In October 2011, Amazon acquired Buy Vip Srl to expand product categories and secure market share with an established customer base. Buy Vip was a fashion sales site based in Spain with its avenues in seven European Union countries." Amazon Spain offered a large variety of products such as books, CDs, DVDs, electronics products, games, toys, watches, and small appliances. The company entered a phase of rapid international expansion, similar to the period from 1998 to 2002, when it expanded into five new countries in five years, according to Mayuresh Masurekar, an analyst at Collins Stewart. $3By 2018, Amazon had expanded its presence in Europe by entering the markets in Austria, Netherlands, and Turkey. According to Euromonitor data for 2019, Amazon was the leading online retail seller in Austria with 17.9 per cent market share and Spain with 15.2 per cent.$4 Amazon India Amazon acquired a portal, Junglee.com, from two Indian entrepreneurs in early 2000, and in February 2012, it launched the site in India. The new site did not operate like Amazon's previous launches: with Junglee, customers could not buy directly from the site but were redirected to the sellers' sites, including Amazon.com.This marketplace approach allowed Amazon to bypass government rules prohibiting foreign multi-brand retailers from operating in India." In June 2013, Amazon launched Amazon.in (Amazon India), a marketplace that sold only books and DVDs."" India's book market was growing at a rate of about 15 per cent per year. Flipkart, India's top online bookseller and Amazon's local competitor, was set up by two former Amazon employees in 2007. It had quickly expanded into mobile phones, appliances, music, and movies. In 2018, Walmart acquired 77 per cent of Flipkart's equity stake for $16 billion, making the acquisition deal the largest in Walmart's history. Walmart reported the revenue for Flipkart at $4.6 billion for 2018. According to a Forbes report, by 2018, Amazon India was worth $16 billion and, with a market share of 30 per cent, was tied with Flipkart. The report authors proclaimed, "After disappointing results in China, Amazon-led by its founder/CEO Jeff Bezos-has determined to win in India." Amazon initiated several distinctive programs to advance its presence in India, such as putting kiosks in local retail locations to offer assisted buying service to customers, modifying the app for slower network speed, building a confidence score for addresses using machine learning and artificial intelligence, filtering out fake activities on its platform, and investing in logistics, fulfillment centres, and research and development centres." India's e-commerce market was relatively small in 2016, standing at around $15 billion. However, it was expected to grow at a higher annual growth rate through 2020 to become an $80 billion market." According to Forbes, India had 480 million Internet users in 2018 and a user base that was growing at a rate of 25 per cent. The report also estimated that by 2027, Amazon India would generate $11 billion in revenue." As of 2018, Walmart was not the only competition Amazon was facing: Alibaba had also entered the Indian market with capital infusion into Paytm, an e-commerce payment system, and BigBasket, an online supermarket. Paytm was valued at $16 billion in 2018 with 350 million users, a 60 per cent increase from the 218 million users reported in 2017." In 2019, as it secured $1 billion funding from SoftBank and Antcontrol over inventory. E-commerce companies began restructuring their ownership in the preferred sellers on their platform to ensure compliance with the new law. Amazon had brought down its equity stake in Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd., one of the largest sellers on Amazon's India marketplace, to less than 25 per cent; under the FDI rules, these entities were no longer considered to be group companies of Amazon. Due to the equity stake restrictions, Amazon also removed several private labels originally sold through its preferred marketplace sellers, and these products were eventually sold by third parties not related to Amazon." According to 2019 Euromonitor data, Amazon had 35.7 per cent market share in India, only behind Walmart, which had 44 per cent market share." Amazon in More Emerging Markets Amazon's foray into other emerging markets started with the launch of the Brazilian site, Amazon.com.br (Amazon Brazil), in December 2012-Amazon's first attempt to enter a new market operating an e- bookstore only. The all-digital approach, with the Kindle and e-books, allowed Amazon to minimize the risks that a bigger retail launch would entail in a country with underdeveloped infrastructures and complex tax systems."Amazon Brazil saved the 200 million consumers in Brazil from paying high import taxes on online orders shipped from overseas. The Brazil Kindle Store featured more than 1.4 million titles, with more bestsellers, more free books in Portuguese, and lower prices than any other e-bookstore in Brazil.10 The Kindle sold at a subsidized price of R$2991 ($143). The Positivo Alfa, which used Adobe's e-book platform and was the leader in the Brazilian e-book reader market, retailed for $465." Amazon also allowed customers to download free Kindle reading apps in Portuguese for the popular devices and platforms. In addition, it provided the Kindle Direct Publishing platform to self-publishing authors and independent publishers. Google launched its digital bookstores in Brazil though a partnership with Kobo, a subsidiary of Rakuten. 103 Later in 2017, Amazon added more functionality that allowed third parties to sell books, and then it added electronics, appliances, and video games on its site. Other categories Amazon added to Amazon Brazil included fashion, sports, and home and kitchen." Amazon had been slower to gain a grip in Brazil than it would later on in Mexico, partially due to issues with delayed orders as well as Brazil's complex tax and logistics.Amazon was the most recent American company tapping into Brazil's online retail market, which reached $12 billion by 2013. When Amazon entered, the Brazilian market was fuelled by a growing middle class, but less than 40 per cent of them were digital buyers in 2013." The Brazilian market proved difficult for Amazon due to structural challenges such as Brazil's economic recession in 2015-2017, low Internet penetration, underdeveloped payment systems, less than 20 per cent paved roads when Amazon entered the country, and freight robbery risks. 107 According to Euromonitor, as of November 2018, Amazon had under 1 per cent of the market share in Brazil and was ranked 10th in terms of online retail market share in the country. MercadoLibre, the e- commerce leader in Brazil, first began in Argentina and modelled itself after eBay; it had been in Brazil for 19 years and held a 19 per cent of the market share. In 2018, Brazil represented 1.1 per cent of global sales in online retail. Euromonitor forecasted that the Brazilian market would reach $37.9 billion in 2023. In 2018, Amazon broadened its catalogue of products, offering sporting goods, fashion, and home accessories, and it signed up some major brands, but all remained independently sold and delivered. 108In 2013, Amazon launched an online store in Mexico, Amazon.com.mx (Amazon Mexico), to sell Kindles and e-books. According to Euromonitor, prior to Amazon's launch, many Mexican shoppers were accustomed to placing cross-border purchases through Amazon's American website. In 2015, Amazon launched full operations in Mexico, introducing a wide variety of categories and listings from Amazon.com and third-party sellers; it also introduced Amazon Fulfillment in Mexico. Amazon went further to collaborate with a convenience store chain, OXXO, allowing shoppers the ability to pick up their Amazon purchases from OXXO stores. E-commerce had remained underdeveloped in Mexico. According to a 2018 study by the Mexican Association of Internet, 40 per cent of survey respondents had not made an online purchase of any type in the preceding three months. Amazon's collaboration with OXXO was expected to encourage in-person purchasing at convenient local stores by those hesitant to shop online. 1 12 Despite opening a store in Mexico, Amazon was still able to increase its Amazon.com cross-border orders from Mexico by listing products sold by Amazon.com on Amazon Mexico. In 2018, Amazon began also selling non-perishable food and beverage products in Mexico."Since entering the market in 2015, Mexico remained Amazon's most developed Latin American market. It was also home to Amazon's largest distribution centre in Latin America, with 100,000 square metres." Amazon Cash was introduced in Mexico in October 2017 so that consumers could pre-load value on their Amazon account to use for Amazon purchases. This was a big move in Mexico because the level of credit card and debit use was comparatively low and many of those who had cards were not comfortable providing their financial information."Only 43 per cent of the population made an online purchase in the fourth quarter of 2017.116 Amazon Prime was launched in Mexico in 2017, two years after Amazon's inauguration there. "7 In 2019, Amazon was the leading e-commerce company in Mexico with 13.4 per cent market share. In terms of total retail sales in Mexico, however, Walmart had a significant lead with 11.5 per cent market share, more than double that of its nearest competitor. Amazon had only 0.4 per cent." In 2017, Amazon acquired Dubai-based Souq.com for $580 million. Souq.com was the biggest online retailer of the region, holding 50 per cent market share in UAE. In 2019, Amazon offered Arabic on the Amazon app and website and included 30 million products from the Souq platform and 5 million new items from U.S. offerings."In 2019, Amazon had 47.1 per cent of the e-commerce market in UAE. 120CONE-19 AND DIGITIAL TRANSFORMATION An unexpected challenge facing Amazon was the outbreak of the novel coronavirus causing CDVID-l'}. Emerging in China late in 21119 and quickly affecting the rest of the world. CDVIDIQ was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. The global economy fell into a recession with global gross domestic product {GDP} expected to contract by 5.2 per cent in lza nancial contraction worse than that during the global nancial crisis of zooszoos. The U5. real GDP was expected to contract by .l per cent in Zl. '21 The e-comrnerce industry was poised to make the most of online orders as a result of pandemic guidelines advising people to stay home and avoid public indoor spaces. According to reports. e-commeree sites doubled advertising expenditures in less than a month, from $4.3 million in the week ot'Fehruary 1?, 2020 to $9.6 million in the week of March 9, 2020. Unline orders in February increased by [US per cent compared