In hindsight, we can say that no single person or company had enough
time to prepare for this global pandemic. Basically, we were caught off guard
and simply reacted to the swift and tectonic changes that occurred about a year
ago. Even those businesses that had a backup plan for worst-case scenario
hadn’t anticipated that things would go from bad to worse so quickly.
The latest measure against the pandemic is the mass vaccination that is
taking place all over the world and while some believe that means the worst has
passed, we can’t really be sure. At least not yet. What we do know is that many
companies have suffered significant losses and that many industries have experienced
major changes. One such example is definitely the e-commerce industry, which
has technically flourished in these trying times. The world of online shopping
has become more competitive, which means it’s quite difficult to stay in the
race, but that also means that only those companies which react appropriately
to the current situation can hope to stay in business. Let us take a look at
some of the ways in which the pandemic has affected e-commerce.
A surge in demand
During the first few months of the pandemic, a lot of cities across the
world went into full lockdown. People were not allowed to leave home for
several days in a row, especially at the weekends. In many cases, everything
closed down except essential businesses, such as pharmacies and supermarkets,
but since people couldn’t go outside, the only option was to shop online. On
top of all that, the mass hysteria took over consumer shopping behavior and
people started panic buying items in bulk, which
meant that online stores quickly ran out of stock. While you might conclude
that this led to a massive rise in sales, you shouldn’t forget that both the
global and local supply chains were disrupted, and stores couldn’t restock fast
enough for this to mean something other than significant losses in the months
to come. Finally, we recorded a high demand for products, but a low supply to
meet the new demand.
The positives
Even when things looked bad at the beginning of the pandemic, it didn’t
take long before they started settling down a bit. E-commerce businesses
endured losses, but some of them started recovering relatively quickly. One of
the reasons is that despite fewer lockdowns, people remained focused on
avoiding crowded places, such as grocery stores and supermarkets. Also, supply
chains are mostly up and running again, but there is a noticeable trend of
buyers turning to local e-commerce retailers, such as the popular Shoppster, which offers products
from different brands on a single platform and regularly comes up with sales,
when some in-demand products can be purchased at slashed prices. All this makes
the shopping experience very positive, which is why the number of both new and
returning customers is constantly rising.
Purchasing behavior is not the same
Even before the pandemic, online
shopping was changing consumer behavior. Needless to say, the
effects of the pandemic have contributed even more to the changes to the
purchasing behavior of consumers all over the world. With more and more people
affected by job losses and uncertainty, many people have been forced to cut down
on spending, stockpile some items and spend less on overall expenses. On the
other hand, there is a smaller portion of consumers, who claim the pandemic
won’t affect their purchasing behavior and that will remain more or less the
same. What this means to e-commerce is that most companies will see their sales
flatten out or declining, while only some e-commerce businesses in the world
will increase their sales as a result of the pandemic.
Can behavior be predicted?
Now that we’ve learned how to live and work in the time of the pandemic,
e-commerce businesses are again trying to predict patterns in consumer
purchasing behavior. They are analyzing the products in demand and trying to
acquire them in sufficient quantities, thus ensuring a boost in sales. At the moment, for
instance, medical supplies and groceries are products with the highest demand,
followed by books, cosmetics and fashion items. Knowing what is in demand and
what might be in demand soon allows online retailers to procure required items
and redesign their supply chains for items that sell fast, so that they don’t
have to waste resources on items that are currently not very popular.
Basically, it’s all about optimization. Should this trend continue as
predicted, e-commerce stores will slowly recover from all the losses they
experienced at the beginning of the pandemic.
Life in the time of the pandemic is not easy for anyone, but the
e-commerce sector has generally dealt well with all the issues that have
arisen, despite initial losses. While it is impossible to predict exactly how
the situation will unfold, we can be certain that online stores are now much
more aware of the situation and that they are, more or less, ready to face
whatever comes next.
