Consumer behavior has changed in past couple of months owing to the unprecedented pandemic. People are turning to online stores to buy groceries. India’s online grocery industry can cross $3 billion in sales this year which is a 76% increase from 2019. Analysts and industry experts predict that the increased demand during this period is expected to sustain throughout rest of the year.
According to Forrester Research, this hike of $1.3 billion in additional online grocery space could be the biggest supporter of e-commerce, which is expected to grow by just $2 billion this year. In 2020, the e-commerce industry is fixed to grow by 6% which is equal to about $35.5 billion The demand in the last 6 weeks might not continue but there is a good number of households trying to order online and that is expected to continue.
This trend in e-commerce has been observed globally. BigBasket and Grofers told that they have seen a fivefold increase in demand during the initial phase of lockdown. The number of orders has decreased but the volume still remains high.
Before the crisis, BigBasket used to complete 150,000 orders a day but since the pandemic has been announced, they have been completing 300,000 orders which is almost twice the number previously. Hari Menon, CEO of BigBasket said,
“Demand continues to be very strong. In May, we are growing by around 35% over April. We have scaled up on our people availability because of which, in most cities, slots are available”.
Grofers too has been seeing a similar pattern in growth. Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of Grofers said in a statement,
“We continue to see a surge in demand with a daily gross merchandise value that is 60% higher than pre-Covid-19 levels. This is lower than the 2X jump that we witnessed in the first week of the lockdown as consumers are now buying what they really need, instead of stocking up excessively”.
Amazon and Flipkart are expected to rule the market in metro cities.