Page 70 - IBT December 2020

Logistically, health safety has been
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E-commerce in
Numbers THE IMPACTS
In the pre-pandemic world, the OF COVID-19 ON
estimated global annual growth of
traditional trade during E-COMMERCE:
(2015-2020) was around 2%. In
contrast, during the same period, Bhutan
the annual growth of the Sonam Chophel explained the
e-commerce sector was expected to
be 50%. Consequently, the impacts of the pandemic in
Bhutan's e-commerce sector. He
projected worth of e-Commerce in
the aggregate global trade is restated the fact that the country
has been slow in adapting to the
around 3.5 trillion USD which is
13-14% of the total. sector. A significant portion of the
population is still unable to grasp
the full implications of
South Asian e-commerce fully. Conversely, the
Perspective pandemic has forced people to
look for alternative means for
E-commerce in South Asia lags accessing essential products.
noticeably behind the rest of the People have increasingly been
world. The industry has failed to leaning towards e-commerce for
capture a significant percentage of essential products as opposed to
sales in their respective markets, non-essential ones in the
and the numbers paint a pre-pandemic times. Concurrently,
standardized picture across the social commerce has picked
region. Despite phenomenal widely, businesses across the
growth, under two per cent of total country have started using
sales in India is done through Facebook and Instagram to
e-commerce. The number is even promote their products, and there
lower in Bangladesh, making up has been a spike
less than one per cent of the total in the domestic
sales. Srilanka's domestic The impact of markets for
e-commerce industry was the pandemic buying goods.
projected at around 40 million US on the Secondly, the
dollars in 2020. On the other e-commerce shift in consumer
hand, e-commerce has been a sector in behaviour has
game-changer for Bhutan, become very
especially during the pandemic. Bhutan has noticeable,
been through
Bhutan is one of the first besides shifting
countries to impose nationwide the significant to essential
change in
lockdowns, and e-commerce items, they are
facilitated access of essential consumer looking for
behaviour.
products to its citizens. products online.
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the main priority of consumers.
Therefore, e-commerce started to
gain attention from the general
population in the post-pandemic
world, and startups have started
to invest money in the sector.
There are significant challenges
for e-commerce in Bhutan like a
small domestic market and
challenging geographical terrain
for delivery. The impact of the
pandemic on the e-commerce
sector in Bhutan has been through
the significant change in consumer
behaviour.
Srilanka
Dulith Herath divulges the impacts
of the pandemic on Srilankan
e-commerce sector by equating the
implications on his own business,
Kapruka. When the first lockdown
was announced, Kapruka's orders
went from 5000-7000 to 80,000 a
day. It was challenging for the
company to get a grasp on the
number of orders that were
pouring in. The biggest mistake of
the company was to continue
taking orders despite the
limitations. It resulted in a
considerable backlog, which
resulted in an unusual delay in
delivery time. Instead of providing
next day delivery, Kapruka's
delivery time often stretched to a
week. Also, they had to refund for
nearly seventy per cent of the
orders placed. After assessing the
sustainability of the surge,
Kaprika decided to double its
capacity. Concurrently, a large
percentage of the surge consisted
of first-time customers, a portion
of which will continue to use the
platform for procuring essential
items. Herath also explained that
the surge was artificial, and the
expansion of the company has
been based on logical forecasts. In
the end, the most crucial aspect of
e-commerce is logistics. It is not
about the number of vehicles
available, preferably the number of
people working in the warehouse
and delivery who are expecting
better pay and insurance facilities.