Since the country went into a nationwide lockdown mode from March 2020 with the outbreak of Covid-19, e-commerce sites and apps have become the preferred mode of shopping reveals a LocalCircles survey.

As per the survey which received over 130,000 responses from over 42,000 unique consumers located in 358 districts of India, 49 per cent said they preferred eCommerce sites and apps for shopping in the last 12 months; 18 per cent said they called local retail stores and got home delivery, 31 per cent visited malls, local retailers and markets to shop, while 2 per cent couldn’t say. Forty eight per cent of the study participants were from Tier 1 districts while 31 per cent were from Tier 2 districts and 21 per cent were from Tier 3, Tier 4 and rural districts.

The point to note here is that while shopping online for essentials was inevitable during the lockdown, consumers still continue to use e-commerce sites and apps from June 2020 to date, despite local markets, retail stores and malls being fully open.

Eighty six per cent said “safe deliveries and no reason to step out” was why they trusted or took to e-commerce. Asked why they continued to use e-commerce sites and apps to regularly make their purchases in the last 12 months, the top reason cited was “personal safety or social distancing norms due to Covid-19” followed by convenience, ease of return and refund, and better value.

The eCommerce industry saw both new and existing online shoppers buying more essentials and groceries, high-value discretionary items, medium-value items as it offered faster deliveries, expanded product selection, increased product information, and relatable reviews, with competitive prices and ease of return.

According to Forrester Research, eCommerce sales in India are estimated to have risen by 7-8 per cent in 2020. Another report by fintech Razorpay in January 2021, said that online transactions grew 80 per cent in 2020 over the previous years, suggesting a huge adoption of digital payments by consumers and businesses. The same report added that e-commerce witnessed a significant growth of 148 per cent. An FIS report in March 2021 says, the eCommerce market is estimated to grow by 84 per cent to $111 billion by 2024 driven by accelerated adoption of digital technologies. Even the Confederation of Indian Traders (CAIT) announced the launch of its own Made in India ecommerce platform Bharat Ecommerce which is targeting to onboard 7 lakh merchants by the end of 2021.

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