Worst may be over for Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, as consumers return to online shopping

The worst is probably over for the e-commerce sector in India after the government further lifted the suspension of e-commerce services in the red zone on May 17, according to experts Financial Express Online spoke to. Ever since the Ministry of Home Affairs gave respite to e-commerce companies like Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart to deliver non-essential goods in orange and green zones earlier this month, the pent-up demand for such goods led to a surge in orders and product searches. Over more than two weeks, since the beginning of lockdown 3.0 and now in the fourth phase of the lockdown, consumers have been ordering apparel, electronics, household products, beauty, kitchen and home appliances, phone accessories etc. on Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal etc. This growth in online purchases will continue irrespective of the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in India.

“This (online buying) will happen even if the Covid cases increase in India including for non-essential goods. Such products anyway don’t have sustained demand like essential goods such as grocery. So there will be sudden surge and then it will normalize whether the cases increase or not,” Arnav Gupta, an analyst at Forrester told Financial Express Online.