Even as the Indian government is trying to bring in new rules for e-commerce market place, the general public seem to be increasingly in favour of shopping online. The pandemic and the resultant lockdown have pushed the public towards preferring shopping on e-commerce platforms.
According to a new survey, 49% of Indians liked to shop online over the traditional shopping ways (brick and mortar).
An 18% of those surveyed said they relied on their local retail stores to for home deliveries, and 31% visited malls, local retailers, markets to pick up home-related goods.
The survey was carried out by community social media platform LocalCircles. It said it received 130,000 responses from over 42,000 unique consumers located in 358 districts of India.
Around 66% of the respondents were men, while 48% were from Tier 1 cities and 31 percent from Tier 2 cities.
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Reasons for shopping online
On the reasons as to why they preferred online shopping in the last one year, 86% of the e-commerce shoppers said safe deliveries or no reason to step out.
Around 50% said competitive prices, while 48% said ease of return.
The survey claimed 46% chose e-commerce sites for expanded product selection, while 45% said faster deliveries, and another 45% said increased product information and relatable reviews.
On the products that most online shoppers preferred in the last one year, 69% shopped for essentials and groceries, 54% bought medium-value items like electronic accessories, apparel, sporting goods. Around 32% purchased high-value discretionary items like gadgets, white goods, furniture, the survey said.
In all, 33% of e-commerce shoppers purchased everything they needed via typical sites and apps.
