Updated February 13th, 2024
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What online businesses are the most successful in 2023-24?
2020 was a complicated year. Still, its rough business environment created unprecedented opportunities for online startups to soar. Despite certain background and social constraints, it may be high time to start your own business or learn from the experience of others. Thus, 2020’s lessons are likely to be useful on the verge of the upcoming year and provide some prominent trends to invest in.
The most successful businesses of 2020
In the wake of 2020 COVID-19 pandemics, numerous businesses shifted their activities online. While there is no shortage of competition, the benefits of e-commerce enabled them to survive lockdown and crisis. As a result, certain industry heavyweights seized the moment and earned the most during this period. According to the US Census Bureau, PC commerce tripled from 2018 to 2020 that further proves the necessity of learning from this beneficent trend.
- Walmart – The 37% profit boost showed that e-commerce could not be stopped by COVID-19. 4,600 US stores intensified their curbside pickup for online orders. Walmart not only benefited from their distant trade but also in finding renewable energy sources. At present, they still profiteer from overseas, such as India and China.
- Amazon – The biggest Walmart competitor earned $281 billion and boosted its profits by 21%. Global lockdowns and orders from home brought $150 million global customers to this sales magnate.
- Apple – $55 billion in a year occurred from their efficient integration with streaming and subscriptions with popular channels. Apple wearables like AirPods and Watches equally became vastly popular due to the customers’ phone confinement and health monitoring. Their products largely coincided with the customer demand for digital entertainment and the possibility of self-isolation.
- CVS Health – Pandemics did not put the planned operations and chronic diseases to a halt. On the contrary, they intensified, and the customer demand for medicine delivery sky-rocketed. Therefore, $62 billion profits occurred from the store chain-slash-healthcare juggernaut. Moreover, CVS partnered with Aetna Insurance that further intensified its rise to the market top.
- UnitedHealth Group – Another healthcare-related heavyweight maximizes their profits due to a 12% life insurance boost over the year. Additionally, they stayed relevant due to their ability to unite their efforts with data analytics groups and big pharmacies.
- AT&T – Similarly to Apple, this communications conglomerate broadened its services with entertainment. WarnerMedia partnership enabled this problematic provider to boost its profitability. Additionally, they invested in 5G development to assure stream speed and stay on the cutting edge of technology.
- McKesson – As drug prices started to grow, this largest drug distributor got 2.9% revenue growth. What is more, their focus on delivery services and online orders enabled them to save money from pharmacy operations.Light expenditures, sanitizing, social distancing, and individual protection means for their personnel were less required as the medicine could be delivered to the client’s door.
- Grubhub – While many restaurants and cafes closed, people still wished to get their favorite food. With Grubhub, the UK-based delivery service, both parties of the food industry remained satisfied. Grubhub became largely successful due to its ability to deliver from any available restaurant, national chains, smaller cafes, and provide multiple payment methods. They largely invested in their functional and intuitive application and matched market demand for no-contact delivery.
- ExxonMobil – Oil companies steadily make the list of the top-profitable facilities. The production rose 24% due to the extensive demand for petroleum required for the delivery segment and logistics. Crude oil extraction and its subsequent refinement into petroleum will stay profitable as long as the world needs fuel and high transportation demand.
- Facebook – The provision of digital communication was inevitable as people have to close themselves to their dwellings. No wonder the biggest social network overcame $1 billion people daily rate. As Facebook keeps its status as a world leader, it also strengthens its position with the acquisition of Whatsapp, Instagram, Messenger, etc.
2021 Trends
Two thousand twenty-one trends largely based on the highlights of 2020. Some business niches will continue to flourish, while others – decline by their stats and profitability. Everything depends on a particular company – if it can quickly restructure, find new innovative ways of getting profits, things will move forward for it for 2021 and beyond. We’d call fast thinking and quick adaptation the basis of the future trends.
As pandemics are going to last longer than expected, the following products and services are likely to stay in the highest demand for the same time. While 2020 was a difficult year, its end and the beginning of 2021 may be most successful in the following fields:
- E-commerce – The creation of a website can help many retail as the consumption online is at its peak. Consumers pursue their social distancing regulations and will fairly spend a lot of time in crowded shops. At the same time, the ability to purchase in several clicks is crucial.If the site is already created but lacks its traffic, web hosting services like InterServer might come of assistance. They include numerous features domains, encryption and data protection, credible Google rankings, etc. For further information on the website services, you should check this reliable one. Accordingly, starting your e-commerce business in 2021 will guarantee profits if you approach this issue correctly.Alongside with the booming industry of online businesses is the growing need for heightened and advanced online security. That’s why many business owners are now Investing and using a Top rated VPN. Virtual Private Network (VPN) is important to protect data in transit. It’s not only beneficial but vital too.”
- Delivery services – Many people will stay and work from home. Many of them currently lack time and effort to walk around the stores, while some of them are even closed. Therefore, food, products, medicine, technical appliances, services, and other stuff needs remote delivery and contact-free payments. No matter how many delivery firms exist already, this assistive feature will stay relevant for a long time.
- Healthcare – Telemedicine, life insurance, drug delivery, and online appointments. The lessons learned from such giants as McKesson and UnitedHealth Group show that focus on medical services has never been so relevant. If the firms that fell behind their margin previously regained their wealth in 2020.
- IT – Consulting, coaching, web-mastering, freelance writing, web design, and other distant jobs are gaining popularity. As customers realize the beneficence and safety of working within the home environment, they pursue new professions. Therefore, the assistance in computer skills such as to create their website, to monetize their blog, or to learn coding might become a valuable resource for smaller-scale businesses.
Conclusion
To conclude, 2020 brought not only challenges but great business opportunities and ideas. Thus, the four key directions, such as IT, healthcare, delivery, and e-commerce, can become the source of success for daring small businesses. Lessons learned from the large corporations show that the inclusion of online services into the already existing industry heavyweights contributes to their steady profits.
Moreover, some of them overcome considerable underperformance that plagued them for several years. Therefore, the four directions and certain insight into the most profitable 2020 companies give a credible picture of what services and endeavors will stay relevant in 2021.