The online economy has boomed since Covid-19 began amid widespread movement restrictions, the UN economists have found. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the e-commerce sector saw a “dramatic” rise in its share of all retail sales, from 16 percent to 19 percent in 2020. Overall, global e-commerce sales jumped to $26.7 trillion in 2019, up four percent from a year earlier, the UN number crunchers noted, citing the latest available estimates. The digital retail economy experienced most growth in the Republic of Korea, where internet sales increased from around one in five transactions in 2019, to more than one in four last year. “These statistics show the growing importance of online activities”, said Shamika Sirimanne, UNCTAD’s director of technology and logistics. “They also point to the need for countries, especially developing ones, to have such information as they rebuild their economies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The UK also saw a spike in online transactions over the same period, from 15.8 to 23.3 percent; so too did China (from 20.7 to 24.9 percent), the US (11 to 14 percent), Australia (6.3 to 9.4 percent), Singapore (5.9 to 11.7 percent) and Canada (3.6 to 6.2 percent).