customer’s Shift towards brands’ websites during the pandemic

Before the pandemic, the major market covering online consumers was Amazon, Myntra,
Flipkart, etc. selling branded, non-branded both types of products and consumers were also
very much relying upon these big brands for purchasing especially rural area side consumers
as it was difficult for them to get the collection, design and quality to get in their city at an
affordable price. But during pandemic mostly consumers shifted towards the website for
online purchasing. People are more comfortable and open to buying from websites as
compared to online stores.

The News Minute Article mentions that “Brand websites have witnessed 88% order volume
growth compared to 32% order volume growth on marketplaces”. These changes are mainly
the result of the Beauty & Wellness, Fashion & Accessories and FMCG & Agricultural
sectors. People’s choices and priorities have changed especially for the above-mentioned
categories.

The market is emerging around e-commerce patterns where most of the companies saw a
large increase in the online segment, which is going to be the future of India. The brand
started approaching customers directly via creating a website and via social media
promotions like Facebook, Instagram, e-mail, giving a marginally good discount compared to
the portal as they will save on commission, return charges implemented by the e-commerce
portal. One of the reasons brands started moving directly towards customers is that almost
every marketplace owns a brand and mainly focuses on their brand.

From The News Minute Article report “it has stated that the growth has been constant for the
overall e-commerce industry, in order volume, there is 20% growth and GMV (Gross
merchandise value) also increased by 23% and the average size of the order is from Rs.
1100”

From The News Minute Article report “Beauty and wellness has the highest growth of 130%
and then FMCG by 55% and health & pharma by 38%.

Another reason why the brand can direct contact with customers is the increase in logistic and
transportation support from 3rd party companies. Many companies are now providing B2C
logistic support at a reasonable price. The brand does not need to rely on the e-commerce
marketplace for any logistic support. Strategically, Brands started giving emotional benefit to
the consumer during the pandemic, mainly the fashion and luxury brands, which connected
with the customer very well as some people were alone, staying away from their family and
looking for some comfort, good experience. Brands ran advertisement campaigns targeting
women who are working from home with taking care of their children and family. Brands
also focused on the creative design in the new variety of products. Like giving matching
mask with the Kurtis as per the new trend. Event planner companies started promoting
different ideas of celebration to the users. Mostly Big brands in supermarkets like big bazaar,
D-mart, Metro etc. also started their website, though it was earlier not very actively
functioned in the market during the pandemic, as they saw the requirement of the customer
they also started actively working on their website and started attracting the customer for the
big discounts. Other than big brands some social media brands also took advantage of
pandemics, by promoting their products in different styles like video, music which is very
attractive to the users. As working from home people were very involved with social media
and that will a better source for people to communicate.

Earlier, online footfalls were mainly from the young crowd but after the pandemic, many
elderly people also started shifting towards the online platform for shopping for clothes and
foods and groceries etc. And if I segregate more in the consumer segment, medium and high-
income people are more inclined towards online shopping. With all the research I realised
that this online trend is going to continue for the upcoming long time as people became
habitual about this.

The basic issue that brand is going to face is people are fluctuating demands, there is less
brand loyalty in the consumer, and some of them are very loyal to their brands and sticking to
them for a very long period. For those who are facing retention of the customer, they should
approach on different point as every brand is trying their efforts to lure customer from their
side, how one particular brand is different from other is the current requirement of every
brand. Here, the Brand can’t afford to go to stock-out as there are many competitors are
waiting to grab your customer. Now we have smart customers who know what they are
buying, if it is worth it or not. So, the brand should also be very careful about this. There is
one more point the brand should keep in mind that now the competition is not only with
competitors but also with customers’ last experience.

The marketing team should keep these insights in the market, Brands can maintain the market
if they follow different marketing approaches from others. They can organize a virtual event
that can help the customer by sitting at home and engaging with the brand. Now, people are
celebrating all the occasions from home only, these special moments can be targeted by
brands and can get emotionally attached to the customers. Give customers a choice of a
variety of options targeting your customer need and wants. The marketing team should focus
and the retention and loyalty of the customers. Customer should be the key focus for any
upcoming strategies.