Retailers facing continued disruptions from the pandemic plan to ramp up their spending on social media next year to reach consumers who are expected to spend a significant amount of time online, Smartly.io’s survey of marketers indicates. While medicine researchers this month offered encouraging results from tests of several possible COVID-19 vaccines, distributing the treatments will take time and it’s not clear how quickly and how many people will return to their former shopping habits of visiting stores. E-commerce is likely to remain a priority for retailers in the near term, especially as the virus continues to spread and reach record levels.