The second wave of Corona in India staged a coup again in April 2021 when India witnessed a sudden surge in Covid-19, enduring over 3 lakh fresh cases every day. This hair-raising second wave changed everything from people’s thinking patterns to how they shop. Consumers have migrated towards online shopping to a great level while playing more smartly than ever in terms of availing discount offers to maximize savings.
Zoutons is a leading coupon and deals aggregation platform, trusted by millions of online shoppers across the world. Shoppers can easily find ponderous discount offers on their favorite brands/stores like Myntra, Nykaa, Ajio, Adidas, Pharmeasy, Grofers, and many others on Zoutons.com. The company has one of the biggest backend teams, that has been working assiduously in these challenging times to cater to its users’ needs while they lay recumbent at home, safe and secure.
Zoutons’ experienced around 60% more traffic during the second wave of Corona by people searching for discount coupons, promo codes, and deals on fashion, health & wellness, grocery, web services, games, and streaming services like Netflix & Amazon Prime.
COVID-19 + Online Food Industry
The pandemic has hit the F&B industry slightly differently. While indoor restaurant sales have gone down by almost 40% because of social distancing protocols, and restrictions in timings still being prevalent, online food delivery sales have skyrocketed. Zoutons’ Zomato, Swiggy, and UberEats store page swelled with users coming back every other day to grab promo codes and offers on online food deliveries from their favorite restaurants, and cloud kitchens. Online grocery services like Amazon Pantry, Grofers, Bigbasket, and others have skyrocketed as well.
COVID-19 + Online Grocery Trends
With consumers becoming more comfortable using digital tools, more consumers have started shopping for groceries online than ever before. About 58% of consumers now shop for groceries online, giving online stores like Amazon Pantry, Grofers, Big Basket, and Spencer’s, a highly engaged audience through special promotions and discounts.
COVID-19’s Impact On Apparel Industry
The second most hit industry from the second wave after F&B is the Apparel Industry with consumers spending more time at home. Before the pandemic, non-active casual wear was more in trend and took up more than half of the overall sales. The athleisure market now alone makes up to 20% of the total annual sales of the apparel industry. Consumers were always more comfortable shopping in-person for clothes than shopping online. But now, the consumers are at their ease with shopping online as well. This ambidextrous sort of consumer behavior is a great opportunity for the apparel industry.
COVID-19 Accelerates Online Real-Time Payment Option
Real-time payment options or the digital wallet payment options accelerated by 41% as consumers preferred using contactless, quick, and easy methods of payment. Top mobile wallets include- GooglePay, PayPal, AmazonPay, and Paytm.
The Digital Triopoly Aftermath Of The Second Wave
More consumers boosted their online shopping behaviors spiking the B2C eCommerce more than it has, since the dawn of digital. From essentials like groceries to bigger purchases like homes or automobiles, convenient shopping became a priority for 76% of the total shoppers today. Social media played a key role in impulse purchase as more than 70% of Instagram users made an impulse purchase during COVID-19 simply because of the ease of shopping. Social media is aggressively updating their platforms to make a 100% in-app purchase practicable. 9 out of 10 shoppers are prioritizing shopping online via retail sites for a seamless experience. So, social commerce, brought about by the pandemic, is what your brand would want to consider even when the pandemic is expunged.
“Retailers have been predominant in offering coupons, promo codes, and promotions throughout the pandemic to build, improve, and promote their stores online during the pandemic. At Zoutons, we follow the trend to get our users the latest offers on all popular online stores.” said Zoutons’ head Siddharth Arya.
Wrapping Up
The positive change in consumer behavior during COVID-19 is likely to be of a long-term nature, in light of possible new and more potent waves. Keeping up with these new trends, Zoutons’ recently launched its very own chrome extension to make shopping and saving online effortless and facile. It’s like your personal assistant that will automatically filter and apply the best discount coupon or promo code to your cart. All you have to do is download Zoutons Chrome Extension. It’s FREE!