Pandemic Causes ‘Massive Shift’ in Business Spend in 2020
Remote work, and food and other delivery services, replace traditional suppliers >>
by: Harvey Chipkin
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive shift in business spend in 2020, according to the annual Spend Trends report from Expensify, a pre-accounting platform. In the first quarter of the year, business travel services such as Uber, Lyft, Marriott and Hilton held their usual spots among the top 10 most popular expenses. The airline industry, however, was absent from the list and already starting to show signs of decline. From February through March, airline receipt volume plummeted more than 60%. Beginning in the second quarter, many companies refocused on financing healthier remote environments for their employees, as working from home became the norm. In terms of pandemic success stories, the explosive growth of Zoom in the second quarter and beyond is worth highlighting, according to the report, among other companies that skyrocketed in 2020 due to the demand for apps that help facilitate remote work. Also of note are food delivery apps, which surged at a breakneck pace into the third quarter and now verge on 300% receipt growth from 2019. In the fourth quarter, airline and hotel receipts started to trend positively again, but they had already been replaced by newcomers to the list of most popular expenses. Those newcomers were FedEx and USPS, which moved into the top 10 after months of growth in home deliveries. By year-end, said the report, “it was crystal clear that workers had fully embraced the work-from-home lifestyle and settled into their remote routines more than ever.”
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