Consumer Behaviour After COVID-19: Will eCommerce Demand Remain the Same?

We all know life would never be the same after COVID-19 as it has shaken us to the core turning our life upside down. Everything from the way we think, act, go out, interact, in short, our entire way of life has been changed and the most drastic change that we are witnessing and will continue to see in the future is the twist in the consumer’s behaviour. Will it bring good or bad for business, is what we have to observe.

The Brutal Effect of COVID Pandemic

The mounting cases of COVID-19 are creating an impact on every dimension of our life – Physical, Mental, Social, and Economic and the worst affected among all is the economy. With countries going under complete lockdown for months, the livelihood of many came to standstill causing a large void which may take years to recover. Those with traditional bricks-and-mortar retail have slipped into darkness coming out of which will cost their entire life savings.

Due to the COVID crisis, people began to shop online due to the closure of all but essential retail outlets (supermarkets/grocers, pharmacies/drug stores, post office and banks) thereby crippling the offline retailers by all means. The fear of coronavirus bought a sudden change in the shopping habit of customers which is now posing the question of whether the current surge of eCommerce will remain the same post-COVID or not? Let’s understand.

The Changes Observed in Buyer’s Behaviour

• The priorities changed. The COVID pandemic made people realize the importance of basic essentials and hygiene products for survival, hence; categories like groceries, medicines, toiletries, has now become the top priorities for customers who were into shopping fashion, beauty, electronics and other non-essential items like crazy earlier.
• The mode of payment has now become completely digitalized. COD is now temporarily disabled due to the fear of the spread of the virus from currency notes, which has given a push to digital payments.
• Due to the panic of lockdown, people are becoming frequent online shoppers in order to stock up the basic essentials in their home, which is causing many eCommerce brands and marketplaces to go out of stock.
• The eCommerce market is turning into a battle. With more and more online shoppers emerging from all over the world, meeting their demands and delivering the essentials to them on-time is becoming challenging for eCommerce owners day-by-day. Therefore, the competition among them is getting fierce and it is also inspiring a lot of entrepreneurs to come with unique and creative eCommerce startup ideas which will boom within a short span of time.

The Future of eCommerce: What to Expect?

As per the COVID-19 e-commerce data, the numbers are plateauing – but at 63.6% higher than before. Although the world has not yet become free from the deadly pandemic, many countries have begun to remove stay-at-home orders and re-open their societies, as we can’t stay locked up the whole time. Thus, it would be interesting to see if the convenience and safety offered by moving online will remain as popular as it is today.

If we look at the present scenario, the virus doesn’t seem to leave us soon until a vaccine comes into light and also some experts are predicting a second wave of the virus accompanied by shut-downs, so there is a high possibility of eCommerce to continue booming in the coming years, with or without COVID.

Moreover, many local retailers are accepting the fact that a crisis like this can arise anytime in the future and during such tough times, an online presence can help them keep going to some extent than putting shutters to their business for a very long time, henceforth, a lot of small local retailers, as well as national providers, are finding innovative and digital ways to cope by switching to eCommerce development or b2b ecommerce software solutions. 

In short, a continued strong growth of eCommerce over the coming years, which will be mainly driven by the further adoption of mobile shopping can be expected.

Recommended Blog: 5 Benefits of Getting an Online Business Presence during COVID-19

The Digital Approach

Taking a jump online is not as easy as it sounds, there’s a need for implementing tactical solutions to help you get through the immediate crisis, but they have to be in the context of a broader digital strategy. So, let’s check out which digital approach can work and how those digital experiences need to be carefully and seamlessly managed across all customer touchpoints so as to get the most out of it.

1. An eCommerce Business Model 

There are various eCommerce business models among which you need to decide what would you prefer, for example, B2C, B2B, or B2B2C, and according to that, you can pick the software solution that works best for you by all terms.

2. Select the right eCommerce development partner

Behind the success of an eCommerce platform lies the hand of an experienced ecommerce website and mobile app development company, hence while you have time due to the lockdown, you can search for a seasoned eCommerce development partner to build a productive platform for your business.

3. Enhance if you already have one

If you already are into eCommerce you can enhance the credibility of your store even more by implementing some latest features like; chatbots, voice assistants, real-time contextual personalization and merchandising, a combination of both – headless commerce and CMS etc.

Conclusion

We have no idea how shopping will be in the future, will things get back to normal or will we have to live with the new-normal, anyhow, investing in an eCommerce platform was, is and never will be a waste as eCommerce game is definitely going to go strong in the future.

In a nutshell, to match the current buying behaviour and to meet the future growth, you will need a well-designed e-commerce solution developing which none other than Mobicommerce is the best.

Dipika Jadwani

Dipika is a skilled marketer who manages marketing communications at MobiCommerce. From content and social media to branding and PR, Dipika overlooks all aspects of digital marketing meticulously at MobiCommerce. She collaborates extensively with the sales and operations teams to bring more business and build a loyal customer base.