E-commerce Sector Recovers Over 90% Compared With Pre-Lockdown Order Volume, Says ReportCompanies with their own websites and direct online sales channels have recovered 25 per cent more compared with other brands

The coronavirus outbreak in India has thrown businesses across the sector out of gear. With the three-month stringent lockdown, businesses have been forced to evolve or find ways to stay afloat. Though e-commerce players plied on essential products for the past two months, it was in June that they became fully operational.

According to a survey done by Unicommerce—a SaaS based e-commerce platform—the e-commerce sector has recovered at a much faster pace than anticipated.

As per the latest analysis report by Unicommerce, the e-commerce sector has recovered by over 90 per cent compared with its pre-lockdown order volume. The e-commerce sector commenced operations around 45 days back, and an initial recovery was anticipated due to a large amount of pent up demand during the lockdown.

The consistent growth indicates more and more customers are adopting online shopping.

According to Unicommerce's consumer trend analysis, the e-commerce industry is predicted to fully recover and achieve the pre-lockdown order volume by the end of June.

分析指出,强劲的公司line presence and their own e-commerce websites have exhibited faster growth when compared to other brands. Companies with direct to consumer presence through their own websites have 25 per cent higher recovery as compared to other online selling brands.

According to the analysis, the consumer electronic appliances category (excluding smartphones) has witnessed the strongest growth among other categories. " The sector has not just recovered its pent up volume but also shown great improvement with over 45 per cent growth in the overall order volume compared to pre-lockdown levels," read the report.

However, the average cart size has decreased by around 5-10 per cent, as people ordered more low value required to operate from home.

In terms of the online fashion sector there has been a 70 per cent recovery rate when compared to pre-lockdown levels. Although, the cart size has dropped by 25 per cent signifying that demand for high-value products has decreased as compared to affordable products.

Speaking about the report and the impact, Kapil Makhija, CEO, Unicommerce said, "The e-commerce sector continues to lead the growth for the overall economy of India. The increasing change in consumer behaviour to prefer online shopping has come as a great surprise and relief for online sellers and marketplaces. This will lead to the rising adoption of omnichannel solutions by companies across sectors and focus on digital transformation to significantly improve customer buying experience with the help of relevant technology solutions. With the current pace and recovery rate, we are positive that the sector will fully recover in the next couple of weeks."