E-commerce companies' earnings grew during the Corona period

Posted on 17th Aug 2020 by rohit kumar

A few years ago, Arvind Singhal of Technopak Advisors predicted that the country would see a big change in the shopping sector by increasing the FDI limit in e-commerce and retail, but at the time, who was aware that An epidemic like Covid-19 will also increase its speed. Evidence of this was also recently found on Amazon Prime Day and Flipkart Sale on the occasion of Independence Day. Industry experts, however, say that record-level sales are not necessarily effective in boosting consumer confidence.

 

After a 48-hour sale exclusively for Prime members, Jeff Bezos-led e-commerce company Amazon announced that it was the largest ever sale in India. The recent Prime Day earned twice as much as last year. Sources say that comparing the sales on the first day of the sale, it was found that it was better than the previous Diwali sale.

 

This is no small feat for the company during such an epidemic, especially when the company offered simultaneous prime day discounts across the world, but India was the only country where purchases were fiercely made. While many other countries are waiting for the Covid-19 effect to wane to ensure the success of Prime Day, in India, Amazon, Prime Day Sale, and Diwali Cell wanted to avoid confrontation. In some places, there are plans for Prime Day in the third and fourth quarters.

 

Estimates suggest that the Prime Day India sale was around $ 45–50 million and the highest sales were in the category of smartphones and accessories, followed by large appliances, electronics goods, home and kitchen, and fashion. Purchased. As expected, Covid-19 and working from home, sanitizers, health-related items, comfortable home wear, laptops, and smart appliances topped the list of buyers. But the most different thing among all of these was that the shopping participation of the medium cities in it was increasing and at least one order was made at around 97% of the pin codes in the country. Officials say that the main thing during this event was that the company got Prime customers (who pay extra annually for value-added services and quick delivery). India has about one million prime members out of 150 million worldwide.

 

Walmart-owned company Flipkart also did well during its four-day August sale. A company official said that compared to last year, the transactions of sellers increased by 54 percent. The performance of local businessmen, especially small and medium sellers, on the stage of Amazon and Flipkart was quite impressive. The mobile and expensive smartphone sector saw good growth due to the trend of investing money in equipment related to education and office work.

 

The official said that the newly launched laptops sold out in 120 seconds and saw a considerable demand for the router on Flipkart. During the sale, trimmer sales were seen to increase significantly and during the Freedom Day Sale on Flipkart, a trimmer was sold every two seconds. Flipkart also sold plenty of power banks for 1,000 electric cars for 100 kilometers.

 

However, companies like Amazon and Flipkart are reluctant to use the sales figures as an indicator of business improvement as e-commerce's share in the country's total retail business of $ 790 billion is still limited to single digits. Devanshu Dutta, chief executive of retail advisory company Third EyeSight, says, "It will take time for the market to return to normal so these types of sales are for the short term and this does not indicate continued demand."

 

 Before Independence Day, there was no enthusiasm in the demand for retail sales at the shops, which indicated that it may take time for the shopping trend to pick up. Also, the fifth edition of the Business Survey conducted by the Retail Organization of India (RAI) on a fortnightly basis shows signs of slight improvement in July. According to RAI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kumar Rajagopalan, 'local lockdowns, weekend curfews and disallowance of food courts and cinema halls are also creating barriers to normalization of business'. The organization has spoken to various state authorities for measures to improve the business. It is most important to have confidence in the minds of people so that they can go out and shop. It is lacking now.

 

 Singhal, founder and president of Technopak, said that customers are currently looking for online shopping options, due to which the sale of Amazon and Flipkart was successful. He said that a large number of Indian incomes have come down, so it is a better option for them to shop during the e-commerce sale. Singhal says that but there are no signs of a jump in consumer spending. He says, "Consumer spending cannot accelerate until the money is returned to the hands of consumers." Neither the Industrial Production Index (IIP) nor the Purchase Manager Index (PMI) is showing any increase.

 

Even market researcher Nielsen said earlier this month that growth is expected to remain flat in 2020 due to epidemics and lockdowns in the FMCG sector. The second revision of its annual growth forecast for the region is