New Business Models in the Course of Global Crises in South Asia by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030799267
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

8.2 Literature Review

One way to mitigate this global crisis in economy can be the digitization of business, especially for the service industries. As a matter of fact, the pandemic has brought about a major change in the buyer’s mind-set and buying behaviour. Records indicate that online shopping at supermarket sites increased by a massive 135% by the end of April, 2020 (Shweta, 2020). Survival and contending in these hard times require a prompt adoption of a “digital-first approach” in vital business dealings. As per predictions, e-commerce would double in size by 2023 (Chawla, 2019). Nonetheless, the pandemic fastened the rate of growth, leaving the retailers with no alternative but to immediately optimize their dealings through adoption of a digitally improvised and reactive multi-channel strategy.

Digital marketing is a global phenomenon, as opined by Dahiya and Gayatri (2018), and India being one of the fastest growing economy is not exempted from the inevitable influences of it. Evidence of such enthusiastic endeavour can be found from the interactions and spontaneous reactions of both the marketers and consumers. Across diverse product categories, an inclination towards digital marketing can be witnessed for the marketers, with financial services and insurance, fast moving consumer goods, banking and cars being the highest spending brands (Mehra, 2012). Consumers, on the other hand, are also being part of this market digitalization by making purchases through digital channels, expressing their opinions and feedbacks, by giving recommendations and publicly manifesting their inclination towards a specific brand as also playing a pivotal role in propagating information and communicating with the marketers (BCG Study, 2013). The increasing digital records in terms of the Internet and mobile users base, data service expenditures and equal digital participation from both rural and urban areas coupled with the government’s impetus towards a “digital economy” are providing more encouragement to the recent market digitalization in India (Steenhoek, 2016; Delloitte, 2019).

A lot of initiatives have been taken by marketers to add value to the customers for using digital platform. For instance, online shopping offering a 24 × 7 accessibility, wider reach out to the customer base, a low set up cost for stores and low access cost for consumers (Berthon et al., 1996). A greater percentage of the Internet users are young and well educated, belonging from high income group categories (Sin & Tse, 2002). They are more time conscious, avid Internet users and carry positive attitude towards online shopping. A clear understanding of these demographic factors will help identify the customer requirements to a greater extent. Each and every business needs to focus on the requirements of the customers as well as take into consideration their demographics. Therefore, small firms need to do narrow level market segmentation in this regard.

Another emerging trend in the wake of new normal is predicted to be the use of “Contactless” shopping in retail and technology companies. In the post pandemic situation, shoppers are expected to rely more on contactless shopping as opposed to crowding in the stores. Hence, augmented and virtual realities are going to be the next big thing in retail.

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