Covid-19 forcing more Indians to buy online; e-commerce stores to cut discounts

Even after a month of lifting Covid-related restrictions on offline stores and malls, two-fifth of India’s consumers still prefer ordering goods online, whether essential or non-essential, to ensure contactless deliveries, a sign of a faster recovery in e-commerce space than physical stores, where rise in demand has led to the disappearance of big discounts.

According to a survey by online community platform LocalCircles, about 21% of 25,000 people surveyed in 231 districts of India, said they were buying from e-commerce sites, 19% said they were getting home delivery done from retail and local stores, while only 1% said they were purchasing the products from malls.

Of 25,000 people surveyed across the country, about a fourth were from Karnataka alone.

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About 11% said they were buying goods from departmental stores and 47% said they were still purchasing from local markets.

“This would mean that 40% consumers are now getting the majority of their essential and non-essential supplies home delivered via e-commerce or local retail stores,” said the survey.

When consumers were asked the key reasons for their decision to buy most of their essential and non-essential supplies online and delivered home, about 71% said minimising exposure to Covid-19 and convenience were the main reasons.

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However, the top issues faced by consumers on e-commerce platforms were long delivery times, higher prices followed by exchange, returns and refunds, according to the survey.

It said the rise in demand had definitely led to the disappearance of many of the so-called ‘big discounts’ which the e-commerce sites claimed to provide.

Most major grocery platforms, for instance, have reduced the discounts offered on even their in house brands from 25-35% range to 0-15% range.

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