The novel coronavirus outbreak and the resulting three-month-long lockdown in India has thrown e-commerce businesses out of gear, with many such firms forced to evolve ways to stay afloat, according to a survey by e-commerce platform Unicommerce, which found the e-commerce sector has recovered at a much faster pace in the country than anticipated.
Though e-commerce players plied on essential products for the past two months, it was in June that they became fully operational. Unicommerce analysis shows the sector has recovered by over 90 per cent compared with its pre-lockdown order volume. The consistent growth indicates more and more customers are adopting online shopping.
According to Unicommerce’s consumer trend analysis, the e-commerce industry is predicted to fully recover and achieve the pre-lockdown order volume by the end of June. The analysis notes that companies with a strong online presence and their own e-commerce websites have exhibited faster growth when compared to other brands. Companies with direct-to-consumer presence through their own websites have 25 per cent higher recovery as compared to other online selling brands. However, the average cart size has decreased by around 5-10 per cent, as people ordered more low-value items required to operate from home, according to Indian media reports.
In terms of the online fashion sector there has been a 70 per cent recovery rate when compared to pre-lockdown levels. Although, the cart size has dropped by 25 per cent signifying that demand for high-value products has decreased as compared to affordable products.
