With coronavirus gripping the country and Lockdown becoming a part of life, the people in India have also changed the way of shopping. About 40 per cent of the people are now buying essential and non essential supplies through e commerce or home delivery from local stores.
Majority of the people ordering through eCommerce and home delivery services are doing it to minimise exposure to others and also for convenience, said a survey by Community and social media platform LocalCircles.
While 21 per cent said that they chose the e-commerce platform for minimizing exposure to others 6 per cent said they went for the system as it was convenient. The survey said that 71 per cent said both minimising exposure and convenience were the reasons to choose the new platform for buying essentials and non essentials.
When 21 per cent of the people relied on e-commerce, 19 per cent of the people got it through home delivery from local stores. The survey said that one per cent of the people bought essential and non essential things from the mall. When 11 per cent said are buying from department stores, 47 per cent are still buying from local markets, the survey said.
LocalCircles also looked into the several issues faced by the consumers while buying from online platforms. The issues related to price, long delivery times exchange, returns and refunds. When 20 per cent of the people raised complaint about the price, ten per cent of t5he people who participated in the survey talked of product quality. When 13 per cent of the people had issues related to exchange, returns and refund, eight per cent talked of payment issues. Long delivery timing was raised by 32 per cent of the people, the survey said.
The survey also said that major grocery platforms had reduced discounts offered even on their in-house brands from 25-35 per cent range to 0-15% range. It also said that a popular ecommerce platform added about 2.5Lakh new customers on the first day of its annual sale. Apart from this, the survey said that several stores are now taking orders over phone and whatsapp and delivering within a few hours. It said that 40 per cent of the consumers are using both these options effectively not just in metros but also in tier 2 and 3 cities.
LocalCircles said that they received 25,000 responses from 231 districts of India. When 61 per cent were men 39 per cent were women.
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