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Contributed on June 19, 2020

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Recognizing Opportunities

Blog: NASSCOM Official Blog

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis’. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger–but recognize the opportunity”

                                                                                                                                    – John F Kennedy

We are living in a pandemic hit world and adapting to what everyone is calling the “NEW NORMAL”. Everyone knows how this pandemic has affected the world’s economy. So, here I’m sharing a few thoughts around the opportunities that we can explore to try and minimize the losses.

During the lockdown, since people do not have much to do, so they have started spending more time on the Internet. According to reports “Internet consumption in India has increased by 40%” compared to before Covid-19 period. With people spending their maximum time online for business purposes, shopping (groceries & essential commodities specifically), news, finance, and entertainment (gaming, watching movies, or TV series on different OTT’s), we can see that there’s a huge opportunity in the digital world.

A recent survey by eMarketer shows that both Online & Offline are struggling to meet customer demands in some way or another. So highlighting a few thoughts which I think can help in overcoming these challenges & improve the customer’s experience:

1. Getting your business online– most of the businesses which got affected because of the unprecedented times, social distancing & hygiene norms are the businesses that are operating outside digital. With major online retail sites like Flipkart, Amazon & Snapdeal, are providing options to register as a seller. This looks like the easiest way for small businesses or shop owners to get their business online or selling their products online.
2. For Online Businesses– because of the broken supply chain, the opportunity which seems relevant for online businesses is by partnering with local retailers/shops, which will make sure they keep on delivering to the customer expectations in these tough times when people are avoiding to go out.

For example:

• Pharmaceuticals Industry: from this research, we can see that the Pharmaceutical industry in India is very fragmented and unorganized.

Unorganized Pharma Structure

During the current scenario again due to the badly affected supply chains, Online pharma businesses were not able to run their businesses. However, retail outlets were still open because they are part of the essentials. Here, if Online joins hand with Offline, they will be able to cater to the following challenges:

• • Reach – since online pharma businesses do not have a presence in many smaller cities, with the partnership with the offline sector they will be able to reach out to that audience.
  • Fulfillment/Delivery issues – with partners in every city the order fulfillment issues will be resolved. Brands will be able to deliver things on time.

• Retail/Fashion & Other Verticals: as highlighted in point (1), partnerships of Online & Offline can be beneficial for both, in the following ways:
  • Online Retail Sites – they will be able to increase the reach or will be able to offer more products to their customers.
  • Offline Businesses – without investing much, they will be able to sell their products online.

Another option in the fashion or essential commodity industry is to buy online, pick up in-store (or BOPUS). This trend is on Boom in US & European countries. These options are helping customers by:

• Saving their time in checkout lines or browsing the products.
• Avoiding shipping charges (wherever applicable)
• Same-day delivery in most cases

So, to run this model efficiently you need to have more partnerships with offline retail stores, which will make the customer experience better. Some of the brands like Decathlon, ShoppersStop, and others are offering store pickup option in India.

Also, during COVID crisis, there are some partnerships which I came across:

– Airtel doing partnerships with :

• Banks, so that during COVID-19 situation people can recharge through ATM’s.
• Apollo Pharmacy giving the option to recharge phones from their offline retail stores, which indirectly giving them in-store traffic.

– JioMart starts taking orders through WhatsApp & delivering through local Kirana stores is another example.

With the COVID crisis, all the businesses are looking for various ways to survive, and I believe the partnership of Offline & Online is the way forward, where both parties can contribute towards the missing piece in each other’s puzzle.

References Used:

1. https://www.indiatimes.com/technology/news/india-internet-usage-increased-by-40-percent-in-covid-19-lockdown-says-report-512955.html
2. https://redseer.com/newsletters/med-tech-market-updates/
3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/05/22/online-ordering-is-key-to-retails-post-pandemic-future/#94606db50462
4. https://www.indiaretailing.com/2019/07/15/fashion/growing-importance-of-brand-partnerships-for-long-term-business-success/
5. https://www.digit.in/news/telecom/airtel-users-can-now-recharge-their-numbers-through-atms-apollo-pharmacies-and-big-bazaar-stores-53363.html

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