E-commerce destinations are now competing with social media networks and OTTs

The Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the adoption of e-commerce in India. Interestingly, the majority of respondents shopping online tried at least two new e-commerce shopping sites/apps in the past year, the report titled ‘The rise and rise of E-Commerce in India,’ by Tonic Worldwide’s insights division GIPSI, revealed. The rise has been led by several categories such as social commerce, conversation commerce, homegrown small commerce, delivery commerce, video commerce, sustainable commerce, thrift commerce, gift commerce, creator commerce, among others.

As per the report, currently there are 1103 most used e-commerce apps in India and shopping apps have today captured the mobile home screens and they have made it to the top four categories in the list of Most Used Mobile Apps in India, in 2021. Every month approximately 6,20,000 searches take place for social commerce, increasing month-on-month. With the average Indian today spending about 2.25 hours on social media everyday, commerce has become content now.

Interestingly, about 54% of product searches take place on Amazon, with respondents attributing to the same, rather than using a search engine. Moreover, there is a rise of experience in e-commerce. “Today, from chatbots, live videos, conversation commerce to AR features, the options are plenty. Inclination towards conversational commerce is on the rise, with 79% increase in industry-led conversations on decoding conversational commerce, and the technologies involved,” the report added.

What’s more, e-commerce destinations are now competing with social media networks and OTTs, with customers spending more and more time on these shopping destinations. Soon, this experience will replicate malls – with the option to watch movies, shop and order food, all in an ‘e-comm mall.’

Moreover, visual platforms are seeing a whopping surge across all the platforms. For instance, preference for ‘Instagram shopping’ rules the roost, followed by Facebook, Youtube and Pinterest. There’s also a strong inclination towards Pinterest shopping, with 799% growth. Led by the creator economy phenomenon, e-commerce reviews are also determined by social media creators’ reviews and recommendations which can make or break brands on digital. There has been a 1447% increase in conversations, with a three times positive sentiment and further 25,000 conversations specifically on reviews and recommendations on e-commerce destinations.

The boom of small commerce has seen an immense growth with creators, home businesses and local stores which have moreover taken their consumer experience completely online, with over 155% increase in adopting Whatsapp catalogues and over 46% increase in Shopify app downloads. This thriving space has seen over 1.5 million searches on topics related to build or set up e-commerce websites, free tools and related queries. Further, there has been a growth of over 73% in monthly active users of popular hyperlocal delivery players from the beginning of 2021 – to now. Furthermore, there has been a rise of ‘eco-activism’ in e-commerce, witnessing an over 50% surge in conversations around the topic and specifically 8,33,000 conversations on eco-friendly and sustainable packaging, this conscious shopping behaviour is now on the rise.

“Who knew that the biggest barrier ‘contactless shopping’ will become the biggest trigger for the rise and rise of e-commerce. With abundant data, there is no looking back on the reasons to adopt commerce on digital. Trends are available to all but brands which identify undercurrents will have an advantage. Our GIPSI report is for anyone who is riding, considering or fearing the rise and rise of e-commerce,” Anjali Malthankar, national strategy director, Tonic Worldwide said.

For Unmisha Bhatt, chief strategy officer and director – India and MENA region, Tonic Worldwide, in the last year and a half, e-commerce and digitisation has been a game changer for multiple companies of all sizes. “In an effort to accelerate their business, GIPSI’s ecommerce insights report focuses on ways and means to see higher growth by adopting best practices,” Bhatt stated.