eCommerce News- September 2021
1. Kidswear Sales On Snapdeal Grew By 493 % in 2021.
- Shopping trends showed that consumers are now more inclined towards purchases which provide ‘more value’.
- Track pants registered the highest growth of 17x while T-shirts clocked a 8X growth.
- Popular kidswear brands such as Luke and Lilly, Hopscotch, Gini and Jony are some recent additions to Snapdeal’s store.
2. Amazon Revamps Delivery Service Partner Programme in India
- The e-commerce giant will extend support of technology, human resource and logistics through the DSP programme.
- The revamped programme shall include allocation of an account manager to the DSP partner and value-added tools for hiring, legal and technological support.
- Amazon has 300+ DSPs in India operating a delivery network of 1,500 delivery stations across 750 cities and this has helped the e-commerce major reach remote parts of India.
3. Leading Singaporean E-commerce Site Shopee May Be Launched in India.
- With 12 million monthly visits, Shopee was the most visited e-commerce marketplace in Singapore in this year’s first quarter.
- Headquartered under Sea Group, the e-commerce firm promises free shipping for buyers and zero commission fees for sellers.
- Shopee is all set for a launch in India post a successful foray in Latin American countries earlier this year. Within 2 years of its launch, it has become the most downloaded app in Brazil.
4. Learning: Indian Pharmacy Chains Go Phygital
- The pandemic has replaced the sickness-followed-by-diagnosis approach to health with a prevention-better-than-cure approach.
- Retail Pharmacies are adopting hyperlocal delivery points while following an omnichannel model.
- Pharmacies are now aiming to create an ecosystem that allows them to source products like fruit and vegetable produce, organic and herbal items, etc.
5. As Economic Activity Rose, Digital Transactions Increased By 9%
- July saw 3 billion UPI transactions for the first time, amounting to INR 6,06,281 crore.
- PhonePe led the UPI segment in terms of market share at 46%, followed by Google Pay(34.45%) & Paytm(11.9%).
- The market leaders have been given a 2-year deadline to limit their UPI transactions share to 30% in order to create a level playing field.
6. Super-Fast Grocery Delivery Faces Backlash From Bengalureans
- Twitterati criticized Dunzo & Grofers’ quick delivery plans terming it as unnecessary & highlighted safety concerns for the delivery agents.
- Some felt that the plan won’t find success once Bengaluru traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels.
- Grofers founder Albinder Dhindsa responded to the criticism stating that they have no reported accidents. He also claimed that they can deliver 90% of orders within 15 minutes since their stores are densely located.
7. MSMEs From Gujarat to Export Products Through Amazon Global Selling
- As part of the agreement, Amazon to conduct training sessions, webinars and onboarding workshops for exporters.
- The sessions will train MSMEs on B2C e-commerce exports & selling on 17 foreign Amazon marketplaces.
- Through Amazon’s Global Selling programme, more than 70,000 exporters in the country have been empowered to sell Made in India products across the globe.
8. 50% Of Offline Shoppers, Research Products Online
- Groceries, fashion and health, beauty and personal care were the most searched product categories.
- The report stated that 62 percent of urban users are researching products online before making any purchase either online or offline.
- A whopping 50 percent of offline shopping across categories involves online product research.
9. Snapdeal Now Covers Over 26,000 Pin Codes in India
- Snapdeal has stated that it has set up 130 new distribution hubs since the start of the year.
- The e-commerce major has multiplied its logistics network in northeast India and J&K.
- The idea behind setting up distribution hubs is to enable quicker deliveries to consumers and rapid pick-ups from sellers. The new hubs are established in areas with either a density of sellers or areas with a growing frequency of orders.
10. Want To Give Your Customer The Option To Pay Later? Choose From These New-age Cards
- BNPL provides customers with instant access to credit. This scheme provides customers with easy and flexible repayment options.
- Most of the BNPL service providers do not charge any interest.
- Here is a list of Pay Later cards you can choose from.
11. RBI’s New ‘tokenisation’ Option Comes As A Relief To E-commerce Companies
- In a move to ensure a better security framework for digital transactions, RBI has expanded the tokenization facility from earlier device-based tokenization framework to card-on-file tokenization (CoFT) services.
- RBI has set a December-2021 deadline to prohibit payments aggregators, merchants and service providers like Amazon and Netflix from storing customer card details in their servers.
- Tokenization means replacing the actual card details with codes known as “token”. The token is much safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing.
12. More Than 30000 Indian Pharmacies Are Now Registered With Sehat Sathi App.
- Healthcare app Sehat Sathi now has digitized pharmacies across 600+ Indian towns.
- The app currently delivers healthcare products & services to over 35 lakh families.
- Pharmacies get a website, customer relationship management along with access to new products.
13. Durga Puja Shopping Trends this Year
- As the festive season rolls in, most eCommerce sellers are rolling up their sleeves. Here are a few trends being witnessed in Kolkata right now, with Pujo shopping.
- With the pandemic restraining shopping activity, boutiques & stores are showcasing their products through social media.
- A drawback of stores going digital is that customers miss out on trial sessions. Now, most cloth retailers discourage trials to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Pic Credit: Telegraph India)
14. Soon, Instagram Business Profiles with get a Whatsapp Message Button
- Facebook aims to offer a more personalised experience to users with this new feature.
- Karandeep Anand, Vice President of Business Products at Facebook, stated that adding this new feature is important in countries like India & Brazil where Whatsapp is widely used.
- Additionally Facebook said, it will test the ability for brands to send emails through Facebook Business Suite.
15. Tata Digital Ventures Into Online Beauty and Cosmetics Product Selling
- The upcoming e-commerce platform will exclusively sell beauty & cosmetic products and will compete against the likes of Nykaa, Purple and MyGlamm.
- The store will be separate from Tata CLiQ which sells beauty products, electronics, apparel.
- Recently Tata Digital had acquired major stakes in online grocery store BigBasket, online pharmacy platform 1mg, and fitness startup Cult.fit.
16. US-Based Social Commerce Platform Poshmark Enters the Indian Market
- India happens to be the first market in Asia for the social shopping giant with 80 million plus registered users across the US, Canada, and Australia.
- Anuradha Balasubramanian, General Manager at Poshmark India stated that sellers can list products priced at Rs 500 and above, and the platform will charge a commission to the seller.
- She further added that Indian sellers will have the advantage of Poshmark’s buyer protection and authentication services and PoshPost – Poshmark’s simple and easy shipping service.
17. Flipkart To Have Over 4.2 Lakh Sellers, MSMEs Onboard By Year-end
- The e-commerce major currently has 3.75 lakh sellers with 75000 sellers added in the last few months.
- The new batch of sellers & MSME comprises of mainly residents of tier-II and -III markets such as Agra, Indore, Jaipur, Panipat, Rajkot, Surat, and many others.
- Also, Flipkart sellers can now receive payments within a day with the next-day payment programme.
18. Learning - Know How Local Businesses Are Benefiting From Social Commerce
- Local merchants along with consumers have utilized online platforms to research new trends in the market.
- Social commerce gives consumers the luxury of personalization and easy discovery of products.
- Businesses offering social commerce solutions have established quick and direct communication between the buyers and sellers.
19. Amazon India Witnessed 70 Per Cent Y-o-Y Growth in the Consumer Electronics Segment in Coimbatore.
- After Coimbatore; Kanchipuram and Chennai were noted to be the top two cities that are driving further growth. Madurai and Vellore were also significant contributors.
- Amazon has now announced expansion of its consumer electronics portfolios ahead of the festive season.
- The e-commerce major in a statement said that it has expanded the consumer electronics’ selection to more than 2 lakh products from top brands.
20. Learning: Healthcare Ecommerce Trends Since The Pandemic
- With restrictions in place, online platforms came to the rescue of medical professionals and hospitals by meeting all their needs. This played a significant role in reducing the trust deficit between the medical professionals & the e-commerce industry.
- Easy accessibility of products on online platforms has forced vendors to improve their customer experience through provisions like same-day delivery and direct-to-door supplies.
- Customers want to access products through multiple channels, and soon omni channel selling will become common in the medical industry.
21. Pickrr Launches A New All-in One Mobile App
- The easy-to-use mobile application has been launched to give Pickrr a competitive edge in tier 2 and 3 markets.
- With the app, sellers get a comprehensive business performance analysis. They can track orders and avail 24×7 customer service support.
- Pickrr is known to be the only logistics brand that offers its dashboard to in 10 regional languages.
22. Flipkart Forays Into General Merchandise
- With this new development, Flipkart Wholesale will compete with the likes of Udaan, Amazon and Reliance’s JioMart.
- Around 24,000 product categories including home accessories, cookware, storage, toys, luggage, sports and fitness categories will be up for sale.
- This comes as a part of Flipkart’s recent efforts to connect with local Indian manufacturers.
23. A First-of-its-Kind eCommerce Platform Dedicated to Beverages, Launched
- The platform launched by The Cocktail Story, is an extension of the company’s vision of building an ecosystem for bartenders, alco-bev enthusiasts and restaurateurs to unite.
- The marketplace will have top brands under categories such as Drinks & Cocktail Mixers, Beverages like Tea, Coffee & Kombucha, Syrups & Bitters, Barware & Accessories and Zero Proof.
- It isn’t clear if the platform will list alcobev products given India’s licensing rules; however, they will surely have everything to support it.
24. This Festive Season, India’s Online Sales Are Projected To Grow To $9 Billion.
- India’s online festive season sales are projected to grow by nearly a quarter over the previous year.
- The jump in sales is seen as a direct result of consumers now preferring online shopping to offline shopping due to the pandemic.
- Flexible payment options like BNPL(Buy Now Pay Later) are also playing a part in driving the sales.
