Impact of COVID 19 on Flipkart's Online Business in India

This research focuses on the impact of COVID 19 on Flipkart's online business in India. It examines the concept of online business, drivers motivating consumers towards online shopping, and the positive and negative effects of the pandemic on Flipkart's business. Recommendations for improving Flipkart's online business post COVID are also provided.

RESEARCH ON HOW
COVID 19 CREATED
IMPACT ON THE ONLINE
BUSINESS OF FLIPKART
IN INDIA

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
AIM AND OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Background
In this modern and competitive world, the major focus or the current trend is of the online
business. The online business is the one which assist the consumer and provides the service of
buying the goods online with help of internet (Ota, Sangita Ray and Kumar, 2020). Under the
system of online business or the e- commerce the consumer searches the product or the service
over the e- commerce websites and then purchases the product or service and then the company
will deliver the product or the service at the doorstep of the consumer. This has made the
shopping very easy for the consumers and now they can buy any type of product from any place
and it will be delivered to the place where they need.
The present research is based over the company Flipkart which is an e- commerce
company which is headquartered in Bangalore and the registered in Singapore. The company
was founded by Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal in the year 2007. The company initially started
with the selling of books and then expanded itself in the different consumer goods as well like
the fashion, groceries and other households, electronics, lifestyle and other related product.
Under this the consumer just has to search for the required product or the service over the
website of Flipkart and place their order. Further the company will deliver the product or the
service to the doorstep of the consumer and as per the option of the consumer the payment will
be made (Sharma, 2020). The current research will outline the major impact which the current
pandemic created over the business of Flipkart. This is essential to study as the current COVID
19 created a lot of impact over the working of the online business and this will impact the
working of the company to a great extent.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
Aim
To identify the impact which COVID 19 created over the online business of Flipkart in India. A
study on Flipkart
Objectives
 To understand the concept of online business in India.
 To analyse the drivers which motivate consumer towards the online shopping.
 To evaluate the positive and negative impact of COVID 19 over Flipkart in India

 To recommend some of the strategies for the improvement of the operation of online
business of Flipkart in India post COVID.
Research questions
1. What is the concept of the online business in India?
2. What are the major drivers that motivate the consumer towards the online shopping in
India?
3. What are the positive and the negative impact of COVID 19 on the business of Flipkart?
4. What are some of the recommendation for the development of Flipkart from the impact
of current pandemic?
In the current working environment the competition within the business environment is
very high and in order to manage this the most essential thing for the company is to have the
online presence as well. In addition to this the current pandemic is the situation which affected
the business to a great extent (Bhatti and et.al, 2020). Thus, the major reason for the selection of
the research topic was that the current pandemic has affected the working to a great extent and
because of this the online business is much affected. Thus, the current study will outline the
impact of the COVID 19 over the sales and the online business of the Flipkart.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1- Concept of online business or the e- commerce.
As per the views of Pantelimon, Georgescu and Posedaru (2020) the online business or
the e- commerce is defined as the buying or selling of the product and services with the help of
the internet. This involves the electronic commerce which involves the different types of the
product and services which can be purchased with help of the e- commerce websites. Thus, this
will increase the business of the company as more people will be happy in buying the product
and services online. The major reason for this is that when the consumer will buy the products
online then it will be delivered to the doorstep of the consumers. Thus, the consumer will not
have to go anywhere in order to manage the product at their place without going anywhere.
On the other side Sharma, Gupta and Jha (2020) argues that in India the online business
is being at popularity as this is the current trend which is going on in the business environment.
Along with this there are different types of business which are providing the option of the e-
commerce within the business. The major reason for this is that when the company will provide
the option of the online business that is buying and selling at the online platform then this will be

assistive to the company in increasing their consumer base and the market area. The main reason
under this is that when the online option is available then this motivates the consumer and they
like to purchase the product and services with the online mode only. Furthermore, when in India
the consumer are moving towards the modern culture and because of this the consumer are much
more attracted towards the online business. In addition to this because of the current COVID 19
the consumer are getting more attracted towards the online shopping. The major reason is that
without going anywhere the consumer can get their products at their doorstep only.
Hence, in the end it can be said that the online business is in trend as if the consumer will
not be in position to have an effective online business then this will affect the working of the
company to a great extent. Thus, for the business to be successful it is important for the
businesses to have a good online presence and attracting online website so that consumer are
attracted towards purchasing the product and services.
Theme 2- Drivers which motivates the consumer in indulging in online shopping
According to Tandon, Kiran and Sah (2018) consumer motivation pertaining to the online
shopping mainly refers to the factors which contributes towards or grab the interest of the buyers
towards it, that is, the online shopping. These factors include interest in making use of the
technology, easy navigating system along with the convenience. The major motivators behind
the increase in the shopping through the online mode is the rise in the use of the internet. As
there has been a huge increase in the usage of the internet along with the easy access has resulted
into the development of the significant market for it. The online business is growing at the fast
pace and businesses are focusing on the developing the online channels in order to procure the
greater market share. As defined by Arora and Aggarwal (2018) apart from internet other
important drivers are – 24 hour access which is being provided by most of the online shopping
platform, this results into making the consumers using the online channel for making a purchase
instead of going through in-store. This provides an opportunity to the buyers to have a look at the
various categories of the products and buying it at the leisure of the buyer.
Another factor of motivation is the convenience in doing the online shopping as now the
consumers are not required to go to the stores and have an experience of hazzle of purchasing the
goods. According to Bell, McCloy, Butler and Vogt (2020) the shopping convenience is ranked
at high among the buyers in regard to the terms of motivators on account of online shopping.
Greater bargains is also an important factor pertaining to the increase in the usage of online

shopping portals. The consumers are provided with heavy discounts on the branded products
which grabs their attention and turn them towards it which consequently leads to increase in the
online purchase along with increasing the expectations of the consumers in regard to the prices
which will be lower than that of in-store prices. As stated by Anand and et.al, (2019) the other
factors that contribute towards increasing the interest of the consumers in carrying out the online
purchasing is the free delivery of the products which are being purchased and also the everyday
low prices in relation to the retail stores. Another key motivator is the access of the products
which are not otherwise available in the local shops. But this is considered as the least
motivating driver pertaining to the online shopping.
As emphasized by Xu and et.al, (2020) the other key factor in respect to the online
shopping which results into persuading consumers to do online shopping is that it is a time
saving process, the consumer can easily surf the online shopping site without the need to visit the
store which results in saving the travelling time. The author further added that instead of moving
from one shop to another, the buyers can easily access the different brands under the same roof
without any difficulty. It also involves avoiding of being in the check out line and avoiding
crowd. These factors are very important and considered to be in the top in regard to the drivers
which motivates the consumer in going shopping online. Apart from these drivers there are other
drivers as well which results into persuading or encouraging the consumers in making a
purchase. Bulanda and et.al, (2018) stated that the ability to compare products and prices across
different brands and similar products through which the consumers can effectively navigate the
products as per their requirement and resulting into effectively making comparison. This helps
the consumers in making better decisions which results into saving money. This feature of the
online shopping helps the consumers in having a look at the different products and making a
comparison based upon which the consumer undertakes the decision whether to buy the product
or not.

The graph provided above shows the various reasons which is behind encouraging the
consumers to shop online instead of going in-store. The ability to shop and ability to compare the
prices is the major drivers towards online shopping. Another important factor is that the easy
access and flexible navigation of the shopping site. As per the view of Desmichel and Kocher
(2020) the online shopping platform site also plays an important role in influencing the
purchasing pattern of the consumers. This factor is very specific to the online shopping website
which the buyers visit but it provides the motivation to some of the buyers and is associated with
the overall shopping site experience. The researcher further stated that the above stated factors or
the drivers are the key motivators which resulted into increase in the or the expansion in the
online shopping business. Based on the views of Deng, Zhang, Ye and Chi (2020) the business
organizations are required to effectively analyse the changing consumer perceptions and factors
which are encouraging them to persuade the changing behaviour in regard to the online
shopping. Through this way and the drivers identified, it is important for the organizations to

effectively analyse these drivers or motivators in order to successfully implementing the
changing consumer behaviour.
As per the view of Sreeram, Kesharwani and Desai (2017) the online shopping is
changing scenario which will further expand and therefore, it is important for the business to
effectively take account of it. These drivers may vary from time to time which completely
depends upon the buying behaviour of the consumers. Thus, regular monitoring and analysing of
the same will be beneficial for the organization in order to gain an understanding about the
changing customer perception and preferences. Author further stated that these drivers are the
major reason that has caused the consumers to move towards the online shopping channels which
results into paying more attention towards the online approach of shopping instead of visiting the
stores. Therefore, in a simple terms, it can be said that the online shopping is growing a fast rate
which is only expand and nothing can limit it and thus, it becomes essential to the management
or the organization to identify the change and implement the same in order to achieve growth and
success.
Theme 3- Positive and negative impact of the COVID 19 over the business of the company.
The present era of the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all the industry sectors. The
market research provides that the business of the companies are highly influences due to the
virus. Due to the lock-downs and other government restrictions imposed on the business
prohibits it to make the sales of its products and services. But the online market on the other has
excelled considerably in this time. There are both positive and negative effects on the business of
company due to the pandemic. It could be evaluated that personal lives of people have changed
to a large extent as per Ratten (2020). positive impacts due to the virus are seen in the lowering
cost for social media and search ads. It has made the businesses to go online to sustain in the
market as all the consumers have started purchasing products online avoiding the retail stores.
Due to increase in ads, advert companies have lowered their costs that make companies to
increase its global presence and reduce its advertisement cost to a considerable extent. The cost
friendly ads is giving more opportunities to the business to grow.
On the other it has made the sales of products and services considerably lower. Industries
have seen drastic decline in their revenues due to the pandemic as people are not allowed to go

out of their house for making the purchases. It is causing the companies to bear unnecessary
stores cost as the sales from such stores is not even able to cover their administration cost. It is
very difficult for the business to manage the costs and expenses. Suppliers and business avoid
dealing with online companies such as flipkart as they have to pay considerable amount of
commission to the company for selling their products online.
The above graph highlights the positive impact of the pandemic for the e-commerce
companies is that it has made significant shift in the behaviours of consumers as the number of
new users of flipkart is higher than Amazon in the view of Glynn, (2020). The widespread
consciousness and restriction of staying at home had resulted in change in behaviour of people.
The new consumer behaviour has made shift towards online business. People are shifting
towards online products at considerable speed due to the pandemic and it has made the online
sales to reach new record levels. E-commerce industries are seeing significant hike in their
revenues from sales. As per business that were previously only existing through offline mode are

now extending their existence on online platforms. The number of business that had online
existence has increased to more than double after the pandemic. The value of brand is enhancing
everyday and also it is extending the reach towards new areas.
In the view of Zia, (2020) the pandemic has increased the cost of distribution of products
and services for the companies. Flipkart has collaborated with new distribution partners to
deliver its products and services to the extended areas of country. Consumers are demanding the
e- commerce platforms to their doorsteps even in rural areas. It has increased the costs of
company. It has to manage increased operations of business after the pandemic. Also the
workforce constraint is affecting the management of company as the work is increased more than
ten times and the employees are limited.

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