For many who crossed the digital divide this year, there will be no going back. The Covid-19 pandemic forced millions of Americans to swap the physical for the digital world in a matter of months. As retailers learn to operate without stores, business travelers without airplanes and workers without offices, much of what started out as a temporary expedient is likely to become permanent. “Covid has acted like a time machine: It brought 2030 to 2020,” said Loren Padelford, vice president at Shopify Inc. “All those trends, where organizations thought they had more time, got rapidly accelerated.” Merchants using Shopify's e-commerce platform shot up more than 20% between January and June to 1.4 million, according to broker Robert W. Baird & Co.