{"id":30613,"date":"2020-04-28T12:16:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T06:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getvymo.com\/?p=30613"},"modified":"2023-05-18T08:10:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T08:10:52","slug":"observations-from-leading-merchant-businesses-on-operating-remotely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/observations-from-leading-merchant-businesses-on-operating-remotely\/","title":{"rendered":"Observations from Leading Merchant Businesses on Operating Remotely"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With governments globally only allowing e-commerce as an exempted business model during an extended lockdown, brick & mortar retail chains struggle to spruce up digital sales initiatives. The FMCG industry has seen a sharp increase in revenues, with consumers stocking up on essentials, as well as an increase in general consumption due to consumers staying more at home.<\/p>\n

Marketplaces like Amazon, or a Flipkart are in this situation, taking on opportunities with hyperlocal delivery players, the way food-and-grocery retailers functioned. The online grocery market is divided into two models \u2013 inventory-led and hyperlocal-delivery. Head of Supply Chain at Grofers<\/a>, Rohit Sharma<\/a> said if retailers approach their platform now, it could bring forth a strong logistic partner network, exactly what they needed to scale.<\/a><\/p>\n

Asian consumers <\/a> have also been stockpiling personal hygiene goods in the wake of the outbreak, according to Nielsen. Shares of top 3 brands dropped from 85% in Jan to 39% in March, after almost 152 players entered the segment. Similarly, about 65% of the consumers have tried new or alternate brands, of which nearly 10% intend to not switch back<\/a>, according to a latest McKinsey study.<\/p>\n

On the bright side, brands now have more time on their hands to introspect on how to improve certain aspects of their businesses when they\u2019re not hustling – like they used to. Learnings from this economic disruption will go down in history, and a few strategies may just be developed, to stay.<\/p>\n

It all depends on how teams – online and offline, utilize their time, ensure business continuity, improve productivity, and most importantly, run operations by keeping up with safety standards, maintaining customer satisfaction and retention.<\/p>\n

Recently, we ran a survey with our merchant business community. An interesting trend we saw was that 58% of merchant leaders are prioritizing product innovation to emerge stronger post the crisis, as compared to 21% who voted for business model and service delivery innovation.<\/p>\n

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Industry body RAI (Retailers Association of India) CEO Kumar Rajagopalan announced that they\u2019ve reached out to the government to include home delivery services, and not just e-commerce, as exempt businesses so that even the small and medium retailers can deliver to home. He said the large chains are already on e-commerce.<\/p>\n

Governments, brands (private and public), retailers and medical institutions – basically everyone is planning strategies keeping health and essential demands on top priority, followed by product innovation and the rest.<\/p>\n

Countries in SEA didn\u2019t immediately go into lockdown, hence the demand here didn\u2019t see sudden drops. We saw categories such as entertainment, medical services,gaming, groceries – grow exponentially. Interestingly, we saw a jump in charity initiatives by 80%, which is really great!<\/p>\n

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While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to force retail stores to close, signaling an unprecedented disruption of commerce, the post-pandemic world will be primarily impacted by 3 factors –<\/p>\n