Watershed Moment: Covid-19 Has Hugely Impacted Online Shopping

The Covid-19-triggered online shopping shift is considered one of the few plus points the pandemic arrived with. Ecommerce platforms worldwide have found a new lifeline as users are hooked to their home computers, ordering everything. Needless to say, ‘a meal is just a click away’. The most clichéd punch line many ecommerce or food delivery companies have used so far. This ‘click away’ never had an impact on an average user until the pandemic came looking for us last year.

With that said, ecommerce giants worldwide continue to expand their wings as the pandemic has turned the sector’s tables around. Let me tell you something about a Singapore-based company called Shopee that also operates in Brazil. The ecommerce company had just started its operations in the South American country when the pandemic hit the entire world. Even though the initial stages of the pandemic stagnated growth for every class of business, including Shopee in Brazil, the company has come a long way, leading the ecommerce pack in the country. When the governments worldwide, including Brazil, allowed users to order online, Shopee immediately offered coupons and many other related offers, to win more users. As a result, Brazilians responded and made Shopee the most downloaded shopping app in the country, in just two years. Yes, the ‘offer strategy’ has helped, but the pandemic-induced shopping rush made a difference. The ecommerce company rose to country-wide popularity, outrunning Lazada (Ali Baba-backed) and Tokopedia (SoftBank Group-backed).

In a nutshell, Covid-19 has rejuvenated the ecommerce space worldwide and the growth continues to skyrocket as the virus spread seems not to be declining.