There was a time when people thought that E-commerce will never run out of business, rather it would be the cause of the shutdown of many small scale businesses if they did not change with respect to time. Well, many businesses came online for a wider reach but at this time all are drowned due to the COVID tsunami. Online retail, Stock trading, food delivery, cab services, and the element of E-commerce has been hit. There are namely two or three sectors that are still doing business, they might not be having a profit as projected for this FY commerce but they are running, like grocery services, payment gateways, and entertainment services. Zomato even started to deliver groceries instead of meals which clearly shows the eagerness of Zomato for still being in the game and prevent itself from a huge loss. This was a smart move and a quick one too. Many people might not be having grocery delivering apps like Grofers and Big Basket but the majority of the mass has food delivering apps like Zomato and Swiggy. Zomato has a reach and they saw it as an opportunity.
Rest every business from Amazon to Flipkart and HomeShop18 and many more are facing a lot of trouble, they canceled many orders placed before March 24th if it was not essential. Flipkart had its system shut down and reopen for deliveries of groceries and essential items. They both have rich parents, commerce with some deep pockets so they might recover from the loss, but small businesses might not be able to recover from this tsunami.
Websites like Nykaa, PeperFry, Zivame, Lenskart, and all the similar sites that sell items that are listed as non-essential by government. These websites are trying to come up with some ideas to be back in the business.
Nykaa shifted their sale towards hygiene stuffs, which indeed is good and essential step.
D.P Chand, a cloth seller, who used E-commerce platform like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra to achieve a wider reach said commerce that he is facing trouble in even earning a minimum wage, his savings are coming to an end and that he might himself in a position where he’ll have to do something to save his small scale business.
“We are working with the local authorities for the passes and permits that allow movement of personnel and vehicles involved,” grocer BigBasket said in a statement, who has another deep pocket parent Alibaba.
People are putting their health at risk in order to bring necessities to people. Companies are currently not offering any provisions to delivery help. Some businesses are only offering insurance if people get infected with the virus.
Overall at this stage every single business is facing a commerce major setback. This is a time where people will find themselves much more frustrated and in a panic due to many reasons. They might lose jobs but all we can hope is that everything should be fine again at the end of the day.
Adwitiya Sahay
Law student, Amity Law School, Ranchi
Adwitiya is a law enthusiast and a keen observer of the financial market. He looks forward to every worldly affair and tries to stay updated with those topics.
