As covid-19 put us all in a situation that was never assumed to be, each and every person, as well as industries, is dealing with this situation in its own way. Since all of us are struggling to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic and adapt to it, there has been a lot of discussion in the news about stashing and how the way of living badly impacted us during covid-19.
There is a clear difference between what we want, what we have, what we need in the future, and the essentials to must-have. It is all happening because everything changed, the empty shelves, low production, no outgoing activity because of social distance; these causes impacted e-commerce and business industry all over the world.
Finding Solutions in Extraordinary Times of COVID-19
Generally, people come to terms with the complexities of our interconnected society and how impossible it is to temporarily sever such relationships with others. It feels like an underestimate to suggest we are living in extraordinary times.
One of the solutions we have found about how people are handling this time of loneliness and confusion is that their shopping habits are shifting enormously overnight. People adjust what they’re purchasing, where, and how, from bulk-buying to online shopping.
Many e-commerce firms around the world have had to reorganize their business strategies and have seen an increase in eCommerce purchases, whereas individuals are unable to shop because of lockdowns imposed by the government.
The pressure has been felt by supply chains and suppliers, but as the conventional high street market has suffered, e-commerce has found success. COVID-19 has changed the priority to online shopping in a way that has never been felt before, enabling e-commerce to prosper worldwide in a time of great economic and social instability due to the influx of sellers.
Impact Of Lockdown On Shopping Online
The way consumers invest in digital platforms is altered by customers. An obvious rise in the usage of online platforms has been identified by several businesses. It is becoming the new normal to not go out and get stuff delivered at home. Many eCommerce sites selling critical goods are witnessing an increase in traffic and transactions in this new age of social distancing.
People became panicked to restore food and essentials to stock them up when the government announced the lockdown. Hand-washing products were sold out, with people clearing the shelves, such as hand sanitizer and soap. Toilet rolls, snacks, medicines, face masks, and all necessary items are limited in stock to fulfill the clients’ needs, but shopkeepers have no access to refill their stocks.
The go-to place for everything has been shopping online. It has been filling the gaps with people unwilling to leave their homes. For such goods, there has been an increase in demand.
CNBC quoted Paul Marsden, a consumer psychologist at the University of the Arts London, as saying: “Panic buying can be understood as playing with our three basic psychological needs.” These criteria are autonomy (or the need to feel in charge of your actions), connection (the need to feel like we are doing something to help our families), and competence (the need to feel like smart shopping is the correct choice).
In a lockdown, as no one is allowed to go out, all the system of study, jobs, and work shifted to online as well as shopping. People prefer to have necessary items at their doorstep instead of going and buying their selves. The most common things to buy online during this pandemic are:
· Hygienic products like sanitizers, face masks, gloves, etc., are in demand the most.
· Medicines to avoid any future incident are chosen to be available at home instead of going, and check-up as hospitals are also not entertained as they used to in normal routine.
· The groceries for daily use are used to buy online.
· Other than all, this increase in buying beauty products, books, gaming, etc., is also found in order to have indoor activities.
Further, I’m attaching some stats to show clearly which products are most in demand.
Health Category
Sales of hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap, and masks have exploded, with availability always insufficient worldwide demand. Studies have shown that sales of masks have increased by 600%, 450% of hand sanitizer, 150 % of medical gloves, and 30% of toilet paper and hand soap. The below graph clearly shows the results.
The demand of other health items lie medicines, supplements, etc., are shown in the picture:
Groceries
As people are reluctant to go outside and shop their daily used items by themselves, they preferred to order them online. Demand for vegetables, meat, and fish has increased significantly, with some businesses seeing income and profit margins rise by more than 500%.
Delivery Food
As restaurants closed, people switch towards food delivery apps to have their favorite meal online. Food delivery apps announce their different deals to attract their customers widely, drastic change among this business has seen during this pandemic. People used to have small food shops moved their business from home and sell their food online.
Beauty Products
Salons and spas are also closed, and those who can’t afford to live without beauty care used to have these services at their home. In this way, the rise of home salons is also increased as well as people also offered to give their services at home by sending their employees to doorstep.
High Social Media Usage
On popular social media like Facebook and Instagram, users spend more time and consume more content. Compared to the 1.5 hours they spend before the lockdown, people spend an average of four hours on social media. This is an improvement in social media use of 87%. With strong customer interest, online gaming is also booming. People switch to have online courses offered on different social sites to make their time beneficial; in all this way, the rise in usage of social platforms is drastically increased.
Many new apps and sites are made during this lockdown that offered interesting packages to attract users and people also. Apps used for entertainment like Tiktok, Snapchat, Instagram used widely all over the world.
Video apps such as YouTube are becoming number 1 apps; increment in YouTube channels during a pandemic is also noticed widely. Other video apps such as zoom, Google classrooms for online class purposes also in much demand.
A whole New World for E-commerce
To be realistic, while Coronavirus has created a lot of problems for retailers, e-commerce as a whole has a lot of positive long-term potential for this situation. People are forced to learn how to shop for new products and in new ways online. This pandemic will affect how people view e-commerce forever, no matter what the future holds. Ahdus Technology is a pioneer in e-commerce development and is also providing e-shopify commerce development services.
The vast majority of retail spending still takes place offline, despite the widespread advancement of online shopping. These days, where you can buy almost anything online, many people still regard e-commerce as a digital collection. They can browse for exclusive or particular items online that are difficult to find elsewhere, but from online shops, they buy everything else.
For example, before paying the amount, many individuals still want to see and touch their groceries (especially manufacture). Visiting the grocery stores now, however, is a walk on the wild side. You might find what you need, you might need to check out a couple of shops, and you might just catch the Coronavirus while you’re there. That’s why it is highly prohibited.
Improving your online skills is the new standard for all to learn the newest and most useful ways of searching online, where any other person finds it difficult to deal with certain circumstances. A whole other dramatic increase in e-commerce is remarkable.
During this entire pandemic, online consumption increased widely; in some countries, the change is highly noticeable, while in some countries there is no big difference because they already preferred to buy online like Switzerland and Brazil are the examples where no such big difference in e-commerce found.
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated extreme chaos. The effect on supply and demand and the way individuals work is constantly in the news and can be seen in the above results. Relative to the individual impact, the effect seems negligible. However, it is crucial to ensure that food, medication, and other necessities find their way to individuals globally to keep society working as normally as possible.
What you should be doing for your e-commerce shop
With the rise of e-commerce, the need to improve the strategies to work more efficiently to remain competitive after this covid-19 as well. More the choices, the more chances of difficulty to maintain the audience and reputation of work. Taking your business online can only help grow the sales. There’s no distinct con and who’d hate those extra dollars coming in one’s pockets. Trying to turn your commerce business into e-commerce? Ahdus Technology can be your go-to partner with all the tools that’ll make sky the limit for your store.
