Covid19 vs E-commerce

 

Effect of COVID-19 on E-commerce

Covid-19 has ignited a lot of customers to shift to online shopping which is going to be future normal of shopping.

Covid19 cases have crossed 17 million mark and taken more than 0.7 million lives all over the world. It has disrupted lifestyle of the people giving top priorities to personal hygiene and social distancing. As a result, online shopping became part of people’s lifestyle.

Initially, when the pandemic has started it had a very bad hit on e-commerce. During lockdown 1.0 and lockdown 2.0, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had limited the activities permitted for e-commerce to essential goods only. But for lockdown 3.0, e-commerce deliveries of all essential and non-essential were allowed but limited to green zones. This move is essential not only for e-commerce but also for the nation to sustain its economy.

The New Necessary

Till the Pandemic has started, e-commerce was limited to electronics and fashion. But due to covid19, where social distancing is necessary, and people are hesitant to shop outside they moved to online even for food and daily essentials.

“Prior to COVID-19, e-commerce in India was driven by consumer electronics and fashion. Now, consumers ready to shop online for food and essentials, and it is ready from a demand point of view."  - Ankur Bisen, Senior VP-Technopak

This suggests that e-commerce industries must raise their standards to cater to the demands that would rise post- covid.

During initial stages of lockdown, there have been a lot of challenges to whole retail industry and e-commerce as they were not able to cater the needs of people because (1) Demand has increased because of panic buying. (2) Supply decreased because the manufacturing has halted due to lockdown. But now although we cannot say that the situation has come to normal, but it is somewhat stable.

Present Scenario

According to a report by CRED, In cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru e-commerce spends surpasses the pre-covid levels. As the situation is these cities is still worse.

"E-commerce spends surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels post the lockdown across all three cities. Delhi spend grew to 135 percent, while Mumbai was at 133 percent, and Bengaluru at 124 percent,"-CRED

New Opportunities comes with increasing challenges:

Rapid growth of the e-commerce sector also has seen a rapid rise in frauds. Number of online frauds registered since FY17 stands at 13,993, out of which more than 40% of the cases were registered in FY20.

There have been cases registered saying that the customers have received fake, expired or damaged products from e-commerce sites. This is being done to meet the demand.

In order to tackle demand, e-commerce platforms started hiring employees in huge number without proper verification. This may lead employees to involve in unethical practices which eventually increases online frauds.

Because of Covid19 a lot of companies have shifted to Work from home. They have to take care of a lot of digital transactions and purchases where the security systems are not as strong as they were in offices. This might help the hackers to perform phishing/vishing attacks.

Being Vigilant:

As the number of cases of Covid19 are still going up, e-commerce platforms should increase their security and follow few practices like investigating the root cause of the complaints, conducting online awareness program for employees and customers and doing background checks for incoming employees. Following these steps would prevent online frauds.