How is Coronavirus Evolving E-commerce Businesses?

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With over 27.2 million coronavirus cases and more than 891 thousand deaths across the globe, people have started taking major precautions and preventions. People are not ready to go back to their work stations and resume their work from the office as this COVID-19 pandemic has shocked people’s confidence.

The recently advanced lifestyle of staying at home is turning to be one of the safest measures to prevent the fatal disease. This COVID-19 effect on e-commerce business has resulted in increased demand for online shopping and virtual shopping leading to the massive growth of e-commerce businesses across the globe.

According to the Digital Commerce 360 study, online spending with U.S. retailers grew by 30.1% with $60.42 billion – year-over-year for the first six months of 2020 to reach a total of $347.26B. From 2018 to 2019, E-commerce sales have grown by 12.7%.

Further, in Q2 2020, $1 of every $5 spent by U.S. consumers came from online orders. Online spending with U.S. retailers grew by 44.4%, with a total of $200.72B spent during this period.
Before the outbreaks of this virus, people were free to interact and move in all kinds of businesses and thus the market for e-commerce businesses was not that trending as it is nowadays. The fear of getting affected by the virus and losing life is encouraging people to shop online and thereby resulting in an increase in online shopping or should we say coronavirus online shopping.

Thus, today in this blog, we will discuss what is the coronavirus impact on e-commerce business across the world, the positive impact, challenges faced, and how to overcome such challenges.

So, let’s start!

How Coronavirus is Impacting E-commerce Business- Positive Impact

Since more than 52.0% of customers are trying to follow social distancing, there is an increase in online shopping with the surging number of new product lists.

Due to the strict government instructions on social distancing and health measures, people are restricting themselves from going to crowded places for groceries or shopping which is apparently impacting E-commerce business positively.

People from healthcare products, apparel, beauty products, books, to groceries, every business that is online is gaining traction in the market. The businesses that have invested in e-commerce website development services earlier are now earning a good amount of profit.

So, with the help of some recent data, we will see which e-commerce sector has gained most of the profit and had the highest spike in online search traffic.

– Healthcare E-commerce Market

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Image Source: freepik

According to a BusinessWire study, the global healthcare e-commerce market generated a revenue of $181.0 billion in 2019 and it is predicted to reach $311.0 billion in 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, massive growth is witnessed in the demand for medical supplies, such as gloves, facemasks, and PPTkit. Furthermore, healthcare e-commerce businesses have seen a growth in coronavirus online shopping, like healthcare and sanitizing products. Big pharmacy businesses are undoubtedly dominating online searches like Riteaid, Walgreens, and others.

According to the Nielson report, products such as medical masks and hygienic product sales are increasing by over 300.0%.

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Image Source: bigcommerce

GoodRx, a telemedicine startup, is the third most visited site that allows people to track prescriptions, drug discounts, and prices on medications. Below is the graph showing the increase in the website traffic of the healthcare e-commerce website due to this pandemic.

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Image Source: freepik

The healthcare e-commerce websites are attracting many customers across the globe and this is the perfect time to invest in e-commerce software solutions now. You can consult an e-commerce website development company to build your own amazing e-commerce websites.

– Books and Literature E-commerce Market

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Well, it is quite not surprising that the books and literature category have seen the highest spike in the market as a lot of people from ages between 25 to 70 years already have the habit of reading but there is a surge in the demand during this pandemic. Further, there is a rise in the demand for audiobooks with Scribd and e-books too.

Ecommerce websites such as Chegg and Scholastic are now a top-most choice of students who are staying at home and studying. The books and literature selling e-commerce websites have seen a good amount of raise in their website traffic during this pandemic.

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Image Source: freepik

According to statistics, overall, e-commerce websites selling books and online reading material have nearly had 1.5 billion visits in March 2020 surging from 1.34 billion visits in January 2020.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, people across the globe are forced to stay home and millions of college students and school students have shifted to digital classroom materials, the e-commerce website of books and literature is witnessing a boom.

– Fashion e-Commerce Market

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Image Source: freepik

Staying at home cannot keep fashionista and shopaholic people far from thinking about fashion and abandoning their shopping habits. Besides, big brands like Zara, H & M have started their big sales and discounts campaign to drive consumer demands.

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Image Source: semrush

Nearly 2.6 billion people visit fashion websites such as Wildberries, Nike, Macy’s, and H & M in a day.
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Image Source: semrush

According to globe newswire report, the global fashion e-commerce market has generated nearly $25.0 billion revenue in 2019, and it is predicted to reach $485.62 billion with a CAGR of 8.59% at the end of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to various restriction including remote working and social distancing.

With the introduction of new technologies like AI and ML, blockchain in the fashion website development, the fashion e-commerce market is witnessing a massive growth.

For instance- In June 2019, Amazon introduced an AI-powered tool called style snap, which deploys machine learning to search for similar clothes and styles. StyleSnap is an app that helps its users to take a picture, upload, and search for similar kinds of clothes available on Amazon.

Investing in fashion e-commerce websites is an all-time great option as fashion is something that is not going to stop until people are alive. So, if you are thinking of building your personalized fashion e-commerce website then you need to consult an ecommerce website development company for sure.

– Grocery eCommerce market

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Image Source: freepik

Grocery e-commerce has witnessed a huge jump in the second week of March after retailers or shoppers turned online to search for the goods they required but weren’t available at their local shop.

According to retail4growth.com, the online grocery market generated nearly $180.32 billion in 2018 and it is predicted to boost at a CAGR of 20.63% due to the growing demand for online groceries among consumers.

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Image Source: commonthreadco

According to a report, Walmart Grocery, Shipt, and Instacart have witnessed a major growth of 124.0%, 460.0%, and 218.0% in average daily downloads.

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Image Source: snl

– Retail e-commerce market

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Image Source: freepik

In comparison to previous industries, it may be seen that the retail websites, such as Amazon, eBay have witnessed a substantial growth of 14.0 billion in the monthly traffic, in which from January to March, it gained more than 1.5 billion new visitors.

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Image Source: semrush

Where almost all brick-and-mortar retail is getting shut down or considered as the most dangerous place to visit, the everyday necessities from groceries to mobile chargers, have to be bought online.

Amazon, Walmart, Apple, and Aliexpress are some of the giants who are winning hearts and gaining an amazing amount of profit in this coronavirus crisis.

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Image Source: semrush

Undoubtedly, for various businesses coronavirus has been seen as a big nightmare but for many businesses, it opened a plethora of opportunities too. Well, of course, it wasn’t so easy for them also, many businesses have various challenges too due to COVID-19. Let’s see how COVID-19 affected e-commerce businesses in a negative manner.

Coronavirus Impact on E-Commerce- Explaining the Challenges!

Like in most of the cases, with opportunities challenges come side by side. Coronavirus’s impact on e-commerce business is both positive and negative. We have already discussed the positive impact let’s discuss the challenges that an e-commerce business has faced/is facing during the pandemic-

– Supply chain issue
– Product shortages
– Same-day delivery
– Pick-up and drive-up issue
– Pressure to meet excessive demand

Well, there are some measures that can help in meeting these challenges positively. Following are some of the measures that businesses can do to cater to coronavirus impact on e-commerce business –

– Reframe your efforts and look forward
– Shift your sales channel mix
– Adapt new innovation and technology
– Boost digital marketing efforts
– Stimulate and sustain demand
– Consider discount and sales strategy

Now, the question arises: is this safe to buy products online? Let’s explore!

Is it safe to start an e-commerce website during COVID-19?

While some areas have begun re-opening their shops, restrictions make it tough to return to “normal” life. At the same time, the effect has proven to be devastating for companies who were selling products and services through traditional brick and mortar stores.

But looking at the digital enterprises, the lockdown has massively had the opposite effect. With people restricted to their houses more, they have shifted to eCommerce platforms to buy products and avail services.

The coronavirus effect is twofold, business with traditional brick-and-mortar faced huge loss and on the other hand, the COVID-19 effect on e-commerce platforms was quite beneficial and offered an unprecedented spike in sales.

Starting an eCommerce business anytime is a good option as people are always more likely to buy products online while sitting in their comforts rather than shopping outside by compromising their comfort. However, starting an e-commerce business during the COVID-19 pandemic is a wonderful idea and it will offer you a great amount of return on investment in the longer term.

Conclusion

Thus, the advantages of starting an eCommerce business or we will say the COVID-19 effect on e-commerce business is quite evident. Now, between brick-and-mortar closure and a spike in online shopping usage, eCommerce businesses not only offer a way to stabilize the business but also helps in gaining a competitive edge that will last even after the virus too.

Ved Raj
Ved Raj is a technical expert, a passionate writer, and a seasoned IT professional and who is working with ValueCoders for nearly 13 years. His role includes overall quality assessment and business development for ValueCoders. He also holds in-depth knowledge of IT outsourcing services and remote hiring of developers.

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