How is India’s eCommerce Market Doing in the Pandemic & What’s Next?
September 30, 2020As the global market finds new pockets of recovery and growth in trade amidst the pandemic’s unfolding, the Indian market is going on an unparalleled trajectory of growth. Between 2018 and 2019, the Indian eCommerce market witnessed a growth of about 23% in the gross merchandise value (GMV). During the same tenure between 2019 and 2020, the market witnessed a whopping 40% and touched $38 billion of GMV.
The growth being experienced in the market is much more than the froth of the topline. The total number of online buyers grew by nearly 19% in the same period and touched 165 million in 2020. These data-points indicate that any business eyeing for the eCommerce website and app platform is indirectly eyeing for growth in a highly expanding market.
Hyperlocal eCommerce Businesses: Real Winners in the Pandemic
While most industry analysts have been debating the vertical vs. horizontal eCommerce model, the real growth has been witnessed by the hyperlocal eCommerce market. The hyperlocal market covers the neighbouring vicinities of a buyer. Generally, this tends to include the mom and pop store formats for groceries, vegetables, and other household consumption products.
The idea is to have an online platform where local buyers can place orders and get them delivered within hours. Since the product goes directly from the store to the buyer’s address, the only cost incurred is that of packaging and last-mile delivery. Buyers have started showing an appetite for such services.
a. Biggest Players in the Hyperlocal Space: Zomato and Swiggy are the biggest players in this space. Companies like Dunzo have shown that you can buy pretty much anything in the hyperlocal market. Businesses focusing on just groceries have also clocked in growth, with Grofers and BigBasket being the biggest players.
b. Growth of Hyperlocal Companies During the Lockdown: In the lockdown, when most of the world was trying to understand how to get revenues for survival, hyperlocal startups were dealing with a good problem to have – the problem of rapid growth. Grofers witnessed a jump of 40% in its orders during the lockdown. Major companies like Paytm Mall are planning to partner with 10,000 retailers to take advantage of the hyperlocal market.
c. Reviving Growth in Legacy Businesses with Hyperlocal: Almond House, a three-decades-old business in Hyderabad, has also expanded its hyperlocal delivery operations. And its founder believes this has yielded very positive results. This shows that one concept of local deliveries is helping sellers across different scales and categories attain growth.
Recommended Read: On-Demand Grocery Food Business Ideas 2020
Looking Forward: What Happens Next?
In research laid out by Bloomberg, published data showed that eCommerce sales saw a growth of nearly 30% during the second quarter of 2020. The same research also pointed at a key metric – while online may seem like the ‘promise-land,’ it certainly requires much more than just optimism to succeed in the space.
Even the most successful online businesses faced some issues at the beginning:
1. Finding Your Differentiator: In your street, your store has a high degree of differentiation. Your buyers know your name and probably have been buying from you for years. How do you bring that differentiation to an online experience?
Everyone is creating an eCommerce platform. You will have to make sure the experience on your eCommerce website is seamless and fulfilling. For that, you can shed out probably lakhs of rupees and end up with something that may or may not work. Or, you can try out one of the most trusted free eCommerce platforms like Quick eSelling, WooCommerce, and Shopify. Some of them will offer you many features like quick launch, integrated CRM, and dynamic pricing.
2. Building an Online Platform: Note this as early as possible in the process – building a website and building an online platform are two different ideas. If you want to build a non-transactional website where people come and read your blogs, WordPress or Medium might be the best option. But the moment you start thinking about having a catalogue and processing payments, you have reached the online platform category.
There are only a few platforms that can offer you the functionalities of an operational eCommerce platform without burning a hole in your pocket. For instance, some platforms will have seamless integrations with several key payment processing platforms to help your customers use a wide range of payment options. This optimizes the online experience and streamlines payment processing.
3. Create a Digital Brand: Creating a differentiated and rewarding brand is a challenge in itself. Brand awareness has less to do with consistently producing content that shows what your brand might stand for, and more to do with what your operations have to offer and at what time. By that logic, you will need optimized communications.
For a business that has just gone online, it would be difficult for you to manage pristine communication while managing your operations. Hence, the ideal eCommerce store builder will help you manage CRM integrations for both your website and mobile app using the same platform. This will save time and give you a comprehensive understanding of the entire communication cycle.
4. Tie the Backend Knots: Finally, when you have customers coming to your platform, placing orders, completing transactions, and leaving happy remarks, you will have to ensure they get the right pricing and the right delivery. While these are two different points from the same operational cycle, they ensure that you remain profitable while your customers are retained. Hence, go for a platform that helps you offer targeted pricing to a specific set of customers for increasing profitability and helps you manage your logistics on the same platform.
Quick eSelling is Empowering SMBs and SMEs to Successfully Achieve Online Transition, within Minimal Go-To-Market Time.
Quick eSelling was engineered to address the needs of everyone in the eCommerce spectrum – from first-time online sellers to a seasoned platform seeking a better solution. It comes with all the features you will need to get your eCommerce platform running – multiple payment gateways, clear displays, Tax APIs integrations, and seamless user experience. On top of this, the base version is available for FREE.
Take Your business online, scale, and grow, all with Quick eSelling ecommerce platform at Zero Capital Investment.
References
- https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/pandemic-tailwinds-push-e-commerce-growth-estimate-to-40-in-2020/article32620816.ece#
- https://smefutures.com/covid-19-is-accelerating-indias-hyperlocal-economy/
- https://www.bloombergquint.com/businessweek/millions-of-small-businesses-don-t-sell-online-it-s-time
- https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/adv/article-as-e-commerce-expands-small-businesses-need-to-boost-their-digital/
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