COVID 19 and the rise of E-commerce in India

COVID-19 has changed the way the world thinks, works, plans and dreams. Man is no more a social animal; instead, social distancing has become a part of our lives. As a result of this, online shopping has become not only a necessity but a way forward. E-commerce proves to be the biggest boon in the scenario.

E-commerce is seeing in every sector. Online payments are the best things to save oneself from human contact while paying cash. Just like we see people paying online for purchasing e-learning modules for exams like ibps so, to access learning from home. Similarly, we see people paying online for e-commerce based shopping for vegetables and fruits!. Yes, e-commerce is now not limited to just apparels, accessories, footwear etc. but Grocery shopping has emerged as one of the most significant additions to e-commerce based shopping.

The e-commerce in India faced challenges in the initial days of the lockdown due to a shortage of a lack of infrastructure and uncertainty related to rules. But gradually, India could cope up using innovative solutions and implementation models that used the existing infrastructure in a better way.

For example, the fleets of food delivery and cabs were used for delivering necessities to people with proper precautions and methods to ensure the safety of the receiver as well as the delivery executives.

Players like Swiggy and Zomato have evolved their modules and apps to support grocery shopping of grocer, medicines and literally everything from any part of your city. Just like students download their admit cards like the IBPS SO Admit Card sitting at home, people order medicines and vegetables by browsing through a simple mobile application. The order gets delivered at their doorstep, by a delivery partner.

Not just products, but services also come under the ambit of booming e-commerce in India. A lot of people in Salons and Gyms that had to stop their business due to the lockdown were able to come on the e-commerce portals and sell their services. The salon workers used e-commerce portals to provide home-based services, and the gym trainers switched to video-based services for fitness management.

Big industry giants also stepped in to support the local retailers and brought them on e-commerce mode.

Amazon launched its project named ‘Local Shops on Amazon’ which much helped shopkeepers to make up for their losses due to the lockdown.

.Flipkart, another eCommerce industry giant partnered with 37,000+ Kirana stores of which 12,000+ are authorised BuyZones.

As per reports, the e-commerce sector recovered by more than 90 per cent as compared to its pre-lockdown order volume. The recovery was much faster than actually expected.

Instead of going to physical stores, people switched to online shopping as soon as rules became a little lenient and delivery was allowed in non-containment zones. The huge sales registered in Myntras EORS or Amazon Great Indian sale is proof of this fact.

Apart from big marketplaces like Amazon and TataCiq, other independent brands created a place for themselves during the lockdown. While people were not buying apparels and footwear much due to ‘stay-at-home’ conditions, brands like Mama Earth that provide self-care products, found a considerable customer base. People looked out for products that eased their stay at home; hence, the brands that captured this customer sentiment flourished big time!

The rise of e-commerce during the pandemic in India has proven to be one of the best examples of converting a crisis to opportunity.