And as you can see, while it had a spike during the pandemic, it's roughly back to where it would be expected to be, growing, but the pandemic seemingly had no lasting impact.
The only statement about online shopping I find on that page is “online shopping […] becoming mainstream”.
Eyeballing that chart, if it’s at around 20% now and growing about one percentage point each year, it will be at 40% in 20 years time. I would call that mainstream.
the pandemic-fuelled (sic) a boom in digitisation, with teleworking, telehealth, online shopping and digital currencies becoming mainstream
That is their summary of the fifth "megatrend", "Diving into digital".
When you cut out most of the quote, unsurprisingly, you can claim anyone's wrong.
Logically, they make four claims in that statement:
The pandemic made teleworking mainstream
The pandemic made telehealth mainstream
The pandemic made online shopping mainstream
The pandemic made digital currencies mainstream
The last two of them are definitely wrong and that's what we're talking about. I cannot judge the first two having not looked into teleworking and telehealth.
I interpreted that in the context of “Seven megatrends that will shape the next 20 years”, and because of that, interpreted it as a prediction.
Rereading it, you’re right that it doesn’t say that, but I still think it’s intended as one.
The report (https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/data/Our-F... there even is a .txt version) doesn’t add detail, though. IMO, that makes that prediction one of the “bloody obvious” kind. Digital already is mainstream, and I don’t think anybody thinks that will change soon (except, maybe, those predicting a major global collapse of society)
Even in the middle of the pandemic, internet shopping never went above 40% of purchasing.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindust...
And as you can see, while it had a spike during the pandemic, it's roughly back to where it would be expected to be, growing, but the pandemic seemingly had no lasting impact.