Rise of Digital Platforms during Covid Pandemic

Everything evolves in the economical world the business evolves to

the modern era. As time progress the way we do business changes.
It’s been no doubt that in this modern era the technological
advancements have been dominating almost every aspect of our world
including the business world. The concept of the business has been
evolved into something that is much more advanced. All the business
transactions are done by online using digital platforms known as e-
commerce. E-commerce the activity of buying and selling products or
services over the internet. E-commerce now plays a vital role in our
daily lives. It is redefining commercial activities around the world.
Over the years, ecommerce has evolved in profound ways. with the
help of the internet, people can buy and sell virtually everything, like
books, electronics, apparel, software, furniture.

E-commerce provides a platform for people to buy or sell whatever

they want, whenever they want. Most businesses with an ecommerce
presence use an ecommerce store and/or an ecommerce platform to
conduct online marketing and sales activities and to oversee logistics
and fulfillment. For many small businesses, ecommerce adoption has
been a slow process. However, those who’ve embraced it have
discovered ecommerce can open doors to new opportunities.

Ecommerce (or electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of

goods (or services) on the internet. It encompasses a wide variety of
data, systems, and tools for online buyers and sellers, including mobile
shopping and online payment encryption. Slowly, small business
owners are launching ecommerce stores and diversifying their
offerings, reaching more customers and better accommodating
customers who prefer online/mobile shopping. In Maldives there is a
Page called Baaru Delivery , In there Customer should send a Message to the
page and describe what they want and transfer the money so they will buy
that and delivered to your door Safely.

Before the coming of ecommerce, the dominant form of commerce was

the brick-and mortar. Brick-and-mortar businesses are retail outlets
that have at least one physical location. Buying and selling goods
requires an active and physical interaction between the buyer and the
seller. Brick-and-mortar commerce still exists, but, is quickly being
replaced by ecommerce. In an evolutionary sense, most of the brick-
and-mortar stores are transforming into ecommerce stores. Thereby
requiring the establishment of an online presence and moving core
business operations online. For many retailers, the growth of
ecommerce has expanded their brands’ reach and positively impacted
their bottom lines. But for retailers who have been slow to embrace
the online marketplace, the impact has been different. Retailers that
fall into the middle ground are the ones feeling the biggest changes in
response to the impact of ecommerce.

As lockdowns became the new normal, businesses and consumers

increasingly “went digital”, providing and purchasing more goods and
services online, raising e-commerce’s share of global retail trade from
14% in 2019 to about 17% in 2020. Amid slowing economic activity,
covid-19 has led to a surge in e-commerce and accelerated digital
transformation. The findings show the strong uptake of e-commerce
across regions, with consumers in emerging economies making the
greatest shift to online shopping. Latin America’s online marketplace
mercado libre, for example, sold twice as many items per day in the
second quarter of 2020 compared with the same period the previous
year. And African e-commerce platform Jumia reported a 50% jump in
transactions during the first six months of 2020.china’s online share of
retail sales rose from 19.4% to 24.6% between august 2019 and august
2020. In Kazakhstan, the online share of retail sales increased from
5% in 2019 to 9.4% in 2020. Thailand saw downloads of shopping apps
jump 60% in just one week during march 2020.the trend towards e-
commerce uptake seen in 2020 is likely to be sustained during
recovery, the report says.

The digital Kazakhstan modules has caused massive disruption across

multiple industries and services and led to optimizing efficiencies
speeding up information sharing and dynamizing of business process.
This new phenomenon has pushed business into redesigning their
strategy and enabled economies of scale for several smaller
companies through the evolution of business ecosystems based on
digital platforms. Many of the world’s least developed countries,
consumers and businesses haven’t capitalized on pandemic-induced e-
commerce opportunities due to persistent barriers. These include
costly broadband services, overreliance on cash, lack of consumers’
trust, poor digital skills among the population and governments’
limited attention to e-commerce.

One of the challenges is that the pandemic has mostly benefited the
world’s leading digital platforms. Many solutions being used for e-
commerce, teleworking and cloud computing are provided by a
relatively small number of large companies, based mainly in China and
the United States. Smaller players may have gained a deeper foothold,
but their market presence is still dwarfed by the digital giants, which
could entrench their predominant role during the pandemic.

Pre-pandemic, small businesses were working to expand their

ecommerce presence. Today 23% of small business owners feel they’ll
have to strengthen their ecommerce capabilities in order to survive in
a post-pandemic world. Another 23% of small business owners have
created a website or updated their existing one since covid-19
lockdowns began. The report presents statistics and trends about
ecommerce since 2014 and also gives estimates of the future of
ecommerce up to 2023. Cumulative data over the most-recently
tracked period anticipates a 276.9% increase in ecommerce sales
globally. The following is a regional breakdown of the ecommerce
market ranks in 2019.

Another important factor responsible for the growth of ecommerce is

the low cost of running an ecommerce business. Unlike brick-and-
mortar stores, it is relatively cheaper to establish an online store than
a physical one. E-commerce eliminates the need to build physical
stores in which products are cataloged. Also, ecommerce stores are
accessible from any part of the world over the internet. As a result,
ecommerce stores are more accessible to customers globally and
provide a passive experience for commercial activities. Consumers are
usually in search of product offers at very affordable or discount
prices. Personalization holds a higher command on customer
engagement. Customers frequently encounter new product offers that
match their interests and they can get with simple taps of buttons,
without having to move their feet.

The ecommerce sector is rapidly evolving as the internet becomes

more accessible in different parts of the world. Traditional retail
businesses are migrating to the ecommerce space. Therefore,
expanding their reach to consumers and also staying in the
competition. The improvement of consumer experiences in
ecommerce stores is evident. An increase in internet accessibility,
ease of transaction, plenty of products and personalized offers,
absence of the constraints of a physical presence and interaction
makes online shopping desirable to consumers. Whether you are a
business or consumer, ecommerce has many benefits for you.
 Questions
1- What do you do during the Lockdown?
Ans-

2- How did you do your business in the lockdown?

Ans-

3- What is the main Platform used during lockdown?

Ans-

4- How was the demand Compared to Pre- lockdown?

Ans-

5- Did you manage to cover all the Costs?

Ans-

6- Would you say using digital platforms were innovation to the

business?
Ans-

7- What are the difficulties faced using digital Platforms?

Ans-