The e-commerce industry witnessed a growth of 36 per cent in terms of volume and 30 per cent growth in terms of value in the October-December period in 2020 compared to same period in the previous year, according to a report by Unicommerce and Kearney.
The industry has witnessed a volume growth of 26 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the corresponding period in 2018, signifying a surge in demand for online orders in 2020.
“The growth accelerated in light of Covid-19 and the effects of lockdown led to a massive change in consumer habits with many new shoppers and sellers coming online. The offline retail continues to have a single-digit growth, whereas the ecommerce sector is growing at a CAGR of more than 20 per cent,” the report added.
Categories such as personal care, beauty and wellness as well as FMCG & Healthcare saw massive gains recording a volume grow by 95 per cent and 46 per cent year-on-year respectively. In addition during the October-December period, tier-2 and tier-3 cities a massive 90 per cent year-on-year incremental volume and value growth.
In a statement, Kapil Makhija, CEO, Unicommerce said, “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been widely visible ever since the lockdown was announced in March last year. The e-commerce industry has emerged as the backbone of the retail industry and small and big players have realized the immense potential that e-commerce holds.”
Added Siddharth Jain, Partner, Kearney, “The Personal Care, Beauty & Wellness category is an incredibly interesting area of growth online, as it has seen stupendous volume growth of in Q4-2020, as compared to the same period last year. Tier II and Tier III+ markets have shown maximum growth potential, outpacing that of Tier I cities.”