How the advent of e-commerce has reinvented the growth of traditional retail
Employment and Consumer Welfare’ released on Wednesday. The report’s findings are principally based on a panIndia survey of 2,062 online vendors, 2,031 brick-and-mortar vendors, and 8,209 consumers of products from ecommerce websites. It was conducted across 35 cities in 20 states and UTs.
The survey itself was guided by a robust methodology and conducted by PRICE (People Research on India’s Consumer Economy). Given the veracity of the survey findings, it would be most useful for policymakers to take cognisance of these empirical findings.
One of the most striking takeaway is that the apocalypse narrative of large-scale destruction of kirana stores is rejected by brick-and-mortar vendors themselves. The survey asked vendors if they were aware of any physical stores that had shut down in their vicinity since 2020, and what they thought the contributing reasons were. Less than 20% reported a physical store closure in their neighbourhood since 2020 when the pandemic drove an ecommerce boom. Only 6% of offline vendors attributed these store closures to consumers shifting to online shopping. A slightly higher proportion — 8% — attributed physical store closures to the growth of large organised retail.
Indeed, the advent of ecommerce has reinvigorated the growth of traditional retail by introducing a competitive impetus to keep up with evolving retail trends. Physical retailers today are more engaged in digital adoption, customer satisfaction, advertisement, home delivery and after-sales service than ever before.
