Does
Level One lockdown, starting today, mean e-commerce will revert back to
pre-lockdown levels?
While
the hard lockdown saw e-commerce activity skyrocket to unprecedented levels,
trade volumes in brick and mortar stores have already started to see a pick-up
during the previous shift down to Level Two. As restrictions ease further off
the back of last night’s announcement, questions have been raised as to whether
the spike in e-commerce activity will wane and what the future holds for the
sector.
Based
on international market trends, Matthew Leighton, spokesperson from OneDayOnly.co.za, believes
that continued growth is inevitable.
“Well-established
e-commerce markets are still experiencing growth, and we expect to see the same
locally,” he says. “A recent example was Asian e-commerce giant,
Alibaba, which reported a 34% sales growth in the June quarter.
“With
the rapid growth experienced in early lockdown along with the sustained
business from both our new and existing suppliers, trade at OneDayOnly is up
100%. Level 5 lockdown gave e-commerce a massive shot in the arm, and it’s hard
to see how the easing of restrictions will affect that. The beauty of
e-commerce is its unparalleled convenience – once you realise how easy it is to
shop online, it becomes the obvious and more natural option.”
In
addition to this, Leighton says that those who are visiting are buying.
“Weekly
sales figures are up significantly from pre-lockdown and remain consistent with
hard lockdown numbers. This could point to the fact that we now have a much
more savvy, and trusting e-commerce consumer than we did before lockdown.”
He
says that in Level Two already, with the opening up of brick and mortar retail,
the average basket spend for OneDayOnly.co.za
customers had also surpassed Level Five and Four averages.
“During Level Two, customers were spending
almost R1000 per order (up from around R600 in Feb and March and approximately
R800 between April and July).”
