Covid-19 is a bane for everyone but not for businesses to be honest. Reason – Online shopping and E-commerce. While “buy online ” culture was still there before the pandemic (especially Daraz and amazon had millions of users ), the closing of physical markets made it a new normal.
In fact, 43% of consumers say they feel ok if physical stores never open again, and nearly three-quarters of consumers (73%) believe e-commerce is the future of shopping.
Here are some of the reasons for online shopping:
1- Competitive Prices
In online market platforms, there are multiple sellers selling the same product and you could visibly see the price difference. Some sellers do it to optimize sales while others enjoy low costs due to economies of sale. Customers say that even with shipping costs included (there are many opportunities to get free shipping as well), products are cheaper than the physical market.
2- Convenience
The ease which online shopping offers is the gold standard. Maybe it wouldn’t be wrong to say that consumers favor shopping online for ease alone. In a few minutes, order the product, confirm payment, and see its shipping status sitting on your couch or lying in your bed with your eyes half-closed.
3- A vast range of products
Consumers can easily compare homogenous products by price. Could know the credibility by reviews, for almost all product categories, consumers prefer to shop online because a single platform ( Daraz, Amazon, eBay, or any other), are like a whole shopping mall-you get all types of products at a single place. Everyday essential items like groceries, cleaning products, and even over-the-counter medicines are no exception.
4- Discount offers and vouchers
Just like the optimization process of every website, online stores facilitate the consumers to search for deals, join rewards programs, and get promotions sent right to their inboxes. Shoppers have resorted to many cost-saving methods like tech-forward solutions and Virtual assistance; consumers also use deal-finding plug-ins like Honey, Pricescout, etc.
5- Health Safety
Despite a relative decrease in COVID-19 cases and vaccine rollouts, more consumers still try to minimize potential exposure by avoiding physical stores. Moreover, previous year trends have shown that a period of normalcy is followed by another wave of Covid, that why people never believe in “we are safer than before”
6- Evidence in form of reviews
I am sure that most of us before shopping anything from a new seller. First, witness product reviews and seller ratings. Crowdsourcing opinions heavily sway customer’s buying decisions and give online sellers a big credibility boost. I think it is the most beneficial tool of online shopping.
Final thoughts
Rather than spending hours skimming through the shops before finalizing the buy, you can order almost anything just one click away with a lot of convenience and credibility.
For online shopping, visit these platforms Amazon, Daraz, and Alibaba, etc.
