- Overview
- How COVID 19 Impacted the Traditional Shop Owners
- Impact of Covid-19 on eCommerce Business Sales
- Final Words
- Frequently Asked Questions
Overview
Originating from China’s Wuhan city, COVID 19 spread all over the globe and brought a scary situation. It was on March 11, 2020, when WHO (World Health Organization) declared it a pandemic. With many infected people and various casualties, it brought a quite scary situation and impacted badly on people’s lives. It made them stagnant at their home and also made their life completely horrible.
Apart from people’s lives, Impact of Covid-19 on eCommerce business, shops, offices, or workers. It made everything standstill. It was a more fearful situation for businesses. Be it small or large businesses, everyone suffered a lot due to this global pandemic. COVID 19 made their operation stand still and thus created difficulty for them to sustain in today’s highly competitive environment.
Though businesses from all industries were impacted, there’s only one industry that was an exception that is none other than eCommerce. Well, Impact of COVID Pandemic on eCommerce industry flourished a lot and helped business owners earn higher revenue.
Since every country declared a lockdown due to rising cases of infected people, it was difficult for people to go outside to buy their daily needs. Maintaining social distance was quite necessary to get prevention from Coronavirus.
In this situation, online shopping was the only option for them. During a global pandemic, online shopping lured even those people who never preferred it before the pandemic. The reason was online shopping helped them stay at their home during pandemics and get their products delivered to their doorstep. It helped them protect themselves from infection while getting their daily needs at home.
How COVID 19 Impacted the Traditional Shop Owners
Well, the grim situations caused by COVID 19 not only increased the propensity of buyers but also changed the way traditional brick-and-mortar shop owners sell their products. The global pandemic also encouraged these shop owners to make their services online and deliver products directly to the home of buyers. It not only helped them in minimizing the loss of their revenue but improved their earnings.
Impact of Covid-19 on eCommerce Business Sales
During the starting period of a global pandemic, the entire situation was grim and people were quite scared. There was a panic situation everywhere. During the initial phase of Coronavirus, people were aware of the possibility of a lockdown imposed by the government. And this is something that prompted them to purchase and store all the necessary items.
People bought various necessary products such as rice, pasta, canned food, toilet paper, face mask, sanitizer, and many others. It, on the other hand, became difficult for companies to cater to the surging demand for products. So, it impacted the supply chain badly. As a result, shopping stores slowly faced a scarcity of products.
When the lockdown was declared by the governments of many countries across the world, people were unable to go outside due to curfews and they needed to abide by the rules and restrictions. And this is the actual reason why online shopping became the most preferred option among them. And this brought a great possibility for eCommerce to grow quickly.
Here are the ways how COVID 19 impacted eCommerce business and brought the possibility for its growth.
1) Increase in Average Order Value
As discussed above, online shopping emerged as the most preferred option among people due to social distancing and the growing infection rate of Coronavirus. So, even brick-and-mortar shops witnessed an increase in order value. People preferred online shopping for purchasing different items and thus increased the overall order value by approximately 10 to 30% in 2020.
2) Increase in Number of Online Shoppers
We already discussed above that COVID 19 changed the shopping habits of even those who don’t prefer online shopping as they think it’s less secure. More than 62% of people preferred online shopping to buy their daily necessary items.
The growing number of eCommerce buyers also impacted a lot and played a crucial role in the growth of this industry. And it’s expected that the online shopping trend will not fade out even in near future and will remain forever.
3) Growth of Fashion eCommerce
Well, if we talk about fashion eCommerce, it’s growing at a fast pace. The pandemic brought a change in customer behavior. Customers now prefer to get comfort compared to style when they buy any fashionable products. People have now changed their wardrobe.
They now most frequently prefer to buy daily use clothes such as shirts and jeans. Besides, they also prefer to buy various party wear items be it suits, attires, high-heeled shoes, and many more. They also purchase various other items such as pajamas, loungewear, sweatpants, and many others. When it comes to sportswear clothes, online shoppers nowadays prefer to buy these items to a wider extent.
4) User-Generated Content
In the year 2020, people gained opportunities to learn how to purchase products online. The main reason why some people don’t prefer online shopping is they can’t touch and smell the products that they wish to buy.
Meanwhile, once they learned the entire process of online shopping, it improved their confidence to buy products online. And they started purchasing products online and enjoyed the process after witnessing how convenient it was.
To make the right selection of products, they found options to go through customer reviews, user-generated content, ratings, images, etc. These also boost their confidence to a wider extent and help them in purchasing necessary products.
5) Growing Demand for Delivery Option
The delivery option was another reason why people preferred online shopping during the COVID pandemic. Customers get an option to choose their delivery place. The most important thing about an eCommerce store is it is capable of matching the delivery expectation of people.
As far as a home delivery option is concerned, it’s another reason why people get attracted to online shopping. Customers can avail of options such as click and collect, which helps them place an order for their favorite products online and get it delivered to their doorstep.
6) Boom in Grocery Shopping
With the growth of the eCommerce market, grocery shopping witnessed a tremendous increase. Lockdowns and also the compulsion of staying indoors during pandemics encouraged people to find several new ways for performing their daily chores.Those companies that were hit by the pandemic hard witnessed a great boom in eCommerce and grocery shopping. The percentage of online shoppers grew in different countries to a wider extent. Many countries such as Italy, Finland, France, and Spain witnessed the growth of grocery shopping at 20%, 11%, 22%, and 30% respectively.
7) Quick Delivery
Another reason why people prefer online shopping was due to quick delivery. Indeed, it sounds strange. But, it’s true! It’s an added advantage for online shoppers. Even in a pandemic, eCommerce stores fulfilled the expectations of people by ensuring the quick delivery of the products that they purchased.
Shoppers not only get the online delivery of their products at the doorstep but also get it within the estimated time. While placing the order of the product, one can easily see the estimated delivery of their products and they can order accordingly.
8) Growth of Different eCommerce Categories
Apart from the growth of grocery shopping, the eCommerce industry also witnessed the growth of some other categories. These categories grew, especially during the Coronavirus era. Many people prefer to purchase various other products such as decoration items, accessories, furniture, etc.
Final Words
E-Commerce Sales Surged During the Pandemic with increased sales and revenue. It continues grabbing the attention of buyers by letting them get a wide variety of products to choose from while ensuring quick delivery. Besides, many eCommerce stores offer heavy deals and discounts on various occasions to cater to lure more buyers.
