International Journal of Business

Management & Research (IJBMR)

ISSN (P): 2249-6920; ISSN (E): 2249-8036
Vol. 11, Issue 1, Jun 2021, 57-62
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

ONLINE SHOPPING – PRE AND POST LOCK DOWN STATUS

Dr. SWARUPA. R
Associate Professor, Mahatma Gandhi College, Iritty, Kannur, India
ABSTRACT

Online shopping is a fast growing phenomenon. The number of consumers who depends on online shopping for
purchasing goods and services collect product information or even browse for enjoyment play an important role in the
overall relationship between market and their consumers. Consumer purchase is mainly based on cyber space
appearances such as images, picture quality, information and video clips of the product and not on the actual experience.
As the internet has now become a truly global phenomena, there is a rapid increase in the number of internet users
worldwide. The wide use of the internet and the rapid growth of technology have treated a new market for both customer
and business. Online shopping allows the buyers to purchase products from the convenience of their homes by using the
net. The internet shopping website allows buyer access to purchase the product they want to have. Instead of physically
visiting a store for shopping, people tend to be more dependent for shopping online. This has increased the presence of
online marketing portals around the world. However, the two months of internment is forcing us to accept new habits

Original Article
and customs that we will have to maintain till the situation changes. Otherwise, it will leave consequences in multiple
aspects of our lives. Both marketers and customers do face uncertainty in health, social, and economic stability with no
immediate end in sight. In-store traffic and demand are falling daily as users stay home. Online retail is there to satisfy
your needs and now it has more prominence than ever. The post-Covid 19 world seems to be more digitized in which the
battle to get users to choose us will be even aggressive.

KEYWORDS: Online Shopping, E – Commerce, Lock down, Covid 19 & E – Commerce sites

Received: Jan 03, 2021; Accepted: Jan 23, 2021; Published: Apr 24, 2021; Paper Id.: IJBMRJUN20217

INTRODUCTION

Online shopping has become a fast growing phenomenon. The number of consumers who depend on online
shopping for purchasing goods and services collect product information or even browse for enjoyment play an
important role in overall relationship in between market and their consumers. Consumer purchase is mainly based
on cyber space appearances such as pictures, image quality information and video clip of the product and not on the
actual experience. As the internet has now become a truly universal phenomena, there is a rapid increase in the
number of internet users worldwide. The extensive use of internet and the swift growth of technology have treated a
new market for both customer and business. Nowadays, internet is not merely a medium to get in touch with
customer, but it is an imperative channel to find prospective customer as well as channel to maintain relationship
with the existing customer.

By definition, “Online shopping is a platform which a allows consumer to purchase online with the
convenience of shopping from his/her own comfort”. It is commonly referred to as e-commerce, online retail,
internet shopping or the virtual store and can be used on mobile devices like tablets and smart phones. From the
marketing point of view, online shopping is a process involving business-to-consumer (B2C) approach. Essentially,
the idea of online shopping is to lead customers to a more convenient way of shopping. Customer will, thereby, be

www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org
58 Dr. Swarupa. R

able to save their money and time and also retrieve all the product information with just a few clicks in a few minutes plus
purchasing can be done anywhere any time as per their preference.

A lockdown is a situation which happens during different kinds of emergencies and it disrupts normal life. A
widely accepted definition for lockdown is “an emergency protocol implemented by the authorities that prevents people
from leaving a given area”. A complete lockdown means that the people in the specified area should stay where they are
and must not exit or enter a building or a given area. The nature of the lockdown protocol ordered at a given time is based
on the kind of threat and will feature the needed flexibility to handle the situation faced during the phase. In India,
Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete nationwide lockdown for 21 days from 24th March
midnight (25th March to 15th April) following the alarming rise of coronavirus (Covid 19) infection in some regions and the
term Covid 19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘Corona’, 'VI' for ‘Virus’, and 'D' for ‘Disease’. Previously, this disease was referred to as
'2019 novel coronavirus' or '2019-nCoV’. On 14thApril, it was extended to 3rd May (15th April to 3rd May) with conditional
relaxations after 20th April in those areas where the spread was minimal. On 1 st May, the national lockdown was further
extended to 17th May (4th to 17th May) with relaxations applicable to different zones, red, orange and green based on spread
of Corona virus. On May 17th, again the lockdown was extended to 31st May (18th to 31st May). On 30th May, it was
announced that the lockdown would be further extended to 30th June (1st to 30th June) in containment zones (specific
geographical areas where positive cases of corona virus are found) with services resuming in a phased manner starting
from 8th June.

Pre-Lockdown Status

Consumers can buy a massive variety of items from E-commerce stores and anything can be purchased from companies
that provide their products online. Books, dresses, household items, toys, hardware, software, and various insurances
including health are just some of the hundreds of products consumers can be bought from an online store. Many people
choose to buy online because of the convenience.

Consumers can check the product of their interest directly among alternative sellers by searching directly on the
market website or by using the shopping search engine. When a particular product is found on the seller’s website, many
online retailers use shopping cart software, which allows the customer to store a variety of items and fill a physical
shopping basket or basket in a traditional store. The “checkout” process follows the process of collecting payment and
delivery information if required. Some stores allow customers to sign up for a lifetime online account so that they only
have to enter some or all of the information once. Customers will receive an email confirmation after the transaction is
completed.

The real advantage of using online shopping is that the search for products is not limited to a specific geographical
area. By providing an easy flow of communication, it opens up marketing avenues for global companies to expand their
markets and provides small companies with the opportunity to grow globally. There is a nominal cost to build and maintain
a website for a business. However, this is very low compared to the business opportunities that arise from the growth of
potential customers.

The shopping habits of consumers have also been changed considerably over the last few years, thanks to the
explosion of E-commerce. Where offline shopping was once the predominant way to shop, online shopping has quickly
become a preferred way to shop for consumers around the globe. E-commerce is the driving factor behind this shopping

Impact Factor (JCC): 8.9193 NAAS Rating: 3.43

Online Shopping – Pre and Post Lock Down Status 59

evolution. Consumers no longer have to go out of their home for shopping. E-commerce has taken the shopping experience
to their fingertips through computers and other electronic devices, totally changing the way the consumers shop.

Online shopping cannot always be taken as an advantage for individual consumers, but it can only be considered
as a platform that allows the consumers and business to exist hand in hand. Customers trust online shopping as a nearer
substitute of catalogue shopping or traditional shopping. Companies opt to use the internet to lessen their marketing costs
and thereby cut down the price of their goods and services in order to remain competitive in the market. There are 7 C’s of
Online Shopping.

Creative content: Without unique content, whatever be the image, audio-visuals, article, info graphic, posters,
descriptions, titles or any other marketing material — all these mediums are useless.

Communication: Communication must be specific and highly informative. Emails, chats, after sales messages,
newsletters and the mode used to communicate with your audience will define how much you are concerned for them.
Professional, social, formal and casual relationships over networks including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook form the
basis of this.

Coupons: Consumers view coupons as special offers, so redemption of coupons does have a positive effect on regular
sales. Moreover, they increase the income and help to score some new customers.

Convenience: E-commerce will allow people to complete their shopping in a few clicks, but it is not enough till your
products/services are easily available to the consumers.

Consistency: Whenever a product is purchased, whether in-store, online or over the telephone, the same standards and
levels of service should be maintained.

Competition: It is a lesson to learn from competitors and provide improved quality products, services, price, quantity,
after sales services, incentives, and everything to the customers. Time should be spent in searching for those specific areas
which your competitors have no yet discovered and start rolling the ball.

Choice: Broader range of products or services, more payment methods, flexibility in delivery, including ‘on-demand’
options, etc need to be provided.

Online shopping is not preferred by consumers because it has some common issues, say for example, the website
is not dependable or not safe for making payments or the product quality is not as good as mentioned on the websites, etc.
Consumers also point on factors like post-purchase experiences, including items reaching late, expensive
shipping, inaccuracies while tracking, returns policies being confusing, and lost or incorrect items as reasons
for their dissatisfaction. However, to those consumers who prefer online shopping, it helps them to save energy, time,
and travelling expenses and for them, the moments of delight in digital are real. In today’s market where there is extensive
competition, companies are trying to get more customers than their competitors. They try to improve their technologies and
knowhow of interactions and advertising and selling their goods and services.

During Lockdown

Supply of non-essential commodities through online shopping was prohibited during the lockdown period by the Ministry
of Home Affairs. At the initial stage, the government had allowed the vehicles of E-commerce operators to run with
necessary permissions. The guidelines of the Government did not specify that E-commerce companies would only be given

www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org
60 Dr. Swarupa. R

permission to deliver essential goods which implied that they would be able to deliver non-essential goods as well (March
24th to April 20). The guidelines issued thereafter stated that that a particular clause would be excluded from the original
set of regulations and they were allowed the delivery of essential commodities including food items, medicines and
medical equipment through these platforms.

E-commerce sites such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snap deal, E bay, Myntra, etc were allowed to vend non-essential
commodities with effect from April 20. This permission meant that customers could place orders for electronic items such
as mobile phones, refrigerators, televisions, laptops and stationery items from April 20 onwards. This move can be viewed
as an attempt by the Government to resuscitate industrial and commercial activities caught up since March 25 due to the
coronavirus lockdown. According to Health Ministry guidelines, all facilities in the supply-chain of essentials whether it is
involved in manufacturing, wholesaling or retailing of such things through local stores, large brick-and-mortar stores or E-
commerce corporations should be allowed to function ensuring strict social distancing without any limit on their timing of
opening and closure.

While providing essential services, the main challenges faced by the E commerce companies were the safety of
their employees and customers all over the world. Some of the safety measures adopted by them include:

Distribution of face masks and sanitizers and implementing of temperature checks at locations to protect
employees and supporting staff.

Sanitization of door handles, handrails, lockers, lift buttons, touch screens etc.

Introduction of extensive social distancing measures to help protect associates.

Use of bulletin boards for information sharing in the place of stand-up meetings and spread out chairs in break
rooms.

To protect the customers, most of the companies removed thousands of offers from supplier stores due to COVID-
based price squeezing.

Post Lockdown Status

The outbreak of coronavirus and the consequent lockdown in the country might lead to a major change in the shopping
behaviour of people all over the world. Both dealers and clients face vagueness surrounding healthiness, social, and
economic consistency with no immediate end in sight. This situation introduces a new group of consumers to online
shopping and a large number of retailers will have to adjust their focus to take advantage of digital sales. Due to the
ongoing lockdown, old-style shopping behaviour of consumers has seen significant disruption. Most of the retail stores
remain closed or sadly went out of business altogether. In addition to this, normal consumers are reluctant to go to the
shops unless there is an emergency. Due to social distancing remaining in place indeterminately and people do not wish to
join long queues, it is time they think more about online shopping. Shoppers may continue to buy online from the security
of their homes for a long time to come. Online sales are showing an upward fly with no mark of deceleration and lockdown
has brought a change in the purchasing behaviour of people with little chance of it reversing in the near future. It is highly
needed that businesses should try to sell and increase their variety online as soon as possible as a rush in post-lockdown
sales is of high risk to rely on. Again, the companies will face a problem of sudden increase in pressure on deliveries. As a
result, the companies must be able to shift from one courier to another easily through a tie up with multiple couriers.

Impact Factor (JCC): 8.9193 NAAS Rating: 3.43

Online Shopping – Pre and Post Lock Down Status 61

Many customers who had not previously shopped online had to do so during this lockdown. This has created a
new trend for digital customers, most of whom will continue their purchases online even after the situation changes. This is
a factor to change the future of online shopping for consumers and businesses. Businesses are being forced to accelerate
their online fulfilment and respond to digital demand that may arise in the near future. If businesses focus on online retail
and know how to cater to the employees working from home, the business will thrive. Retailers have already taken action
to counter the threat posed by E-commerce companies. Numerous studies have exemplified the potential for retailers to use
it as a catalyst for their E-commerce development. For example, the grocery segment offers retail businesses looking for
online access to reduce the cost of investing in E-commerce’s new trend systems, additional vehicles and other logistics
upgrades.

It is time for a change in business and consumer habits. At the end of the lockdown, there will be a lot of people
who will fall in terms of employment and investment. There may also be a reluctance to travel. The money they save
without spending will be used to bake from scratch, have fun at home and enrich their living environment. This habit lasts
for a long time.

CONCLUSIONS

Although this is an extremely difficult time, the E-commerce companies could make a big difference in people's lives. E-
commerce sites such as Flipkart, Amazon, etc has started preparing to increase delivery. Though the firms have acquired
permission to resume delivery of non-essential commodities, they are facing logistical challenges. There are multifaceted
issues behind the technology that still make online shopping susceptible. There is no sign that advancement in technology
will make it a better place to shop in the future. “Play your cards right and you could save yourself a few hundred dollars,
play your cards wrong and people might use your credit card to shop for luxurious items”. However, online shopping
opens innumerable possibilities for customers looking for cheap bargains and convenient services. It is accessible to
anyone around the world with an uninterrupted internet connection and is simple to use. Whether to shop online is the
responsibility of one’s own, but being conscious of the open and hidden risk is a smart move. It is well said "When
something bad happens, you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it
strengthen you" and found this to be very relevant in the present scenario. Looking back at the past, market recessions and
rebounds will give the E-commerce companies a glimpse of how customers will spend after COVID-19 crisis. This
knowledge can empower them to create marketing strategies that will accelerate growth when we rebound together
globally.

REFERENCES

1. Prussakov, Evjenii. Online Shopping Through Consumers Eyes: A Study of Online Users' Responses to 107 Questions.AM
NAVIGATOR LLC. 2008

2. Joseph P T, S J. E – Commerce – An Indian Perspective. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Ltd, 2008.

3. Miller, Michael. Selling Online 2.0: Migrating from eBay to Amazon, craigslist, and Your Own E-Commerce Website. 2009

4. Neelameghan, S. Marketing in India-Cases and Readings. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd, 1987.

5. Tanwar, J. S. Marketing in the New Era-Compacting Competition in a Globalizing Economy. New Delhi: Response Books,
1997.

www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org