e-commerce: Revising the Year 2022: The e-commerce sector faces a post-Covid test

There’s by no means a uninteresting second in Indian e-commerce. After two years of the Covid-induced increase in on-line purchasing, 2022 has seen shoppers return to purchasing issues offline.

New gamers corresponding to e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon and Meesho had an eventful yr. One other massive growth was the launch of the a lot extravagant Open Community for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

Let’s check out an important tales and developments shaping India’s e-commerce universe in 2022.

Flipkart vs Amazon and others

After a comparatively quiet begin when it comes to person consumption within the first half of the yr, retailers like Flipkart and Amazon noticed a surge in demand earlier than and through their Eid gross sales.

Flipkart group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy told ETtech about this during this interview. Within the first week, demand in segments corresponding to electronics, grocery, private care, well being and prescribed drugs was 40-60% greater than final yr.

This set the stage for an intense battle between retailers.
and they have not been disappointed with consumer demand.

Walmart-owned Flipkart has largely maintained its lead in Amazon India, in response to ETtech’s evaluation primarily based on enter from trade executives and studies. Meesho additionally stated that he noticed the perfect vacation season sale ever, harking back to Amazon India. Tata Group and Reliance Industries didn’t trigger a critical lower available in the market share of incumbents.

However there was extra that occurred outdoors of the festive season gross sales.

Flipkart after a number of M&A
investments last yeartargeted largely on scaling new enterprise verticals corresponding to groceries and residential providers, in addition to social commerce (by way of Shopsy) and journey (by way of Cleartrip). Shopsy is a direct competitor of Meesho.

Opened on each Flipkart and Amazon
logistics branches, Ekart and
Amazon Transportation Services, respectively, serving exterior orders. In addition they made their most aggressive bets ever in stay buying and selling.

Learn extra about it right here
The countdown begins: Flipkart and Amazon prepare for festive war.

Amazon India 2022: It was a comparatively devastating yr for Amazon. Whereas the rise continues in India, the US retailer had a really attention-grabbing yr.
Finally shut down its main vendor Cloudtail after years regulatory stress and stated he would do the identical for an additional main
vendor, Appario Retail, next year.

Amazon had stakes in each distributors. This meant that Amazon needed to make just a few modifications to maintain its e-commerce operations operating as easily as doable.

Learn ETtech’s evaluation right here
Here’s how mini Cloudtails appeared on Amazon India.

Amazon’s progress in 2022 has been marked as unimpressive by Bernstein.
He said he continues to face regulatory hurdles in India. The vendor has now spent 9 years right here. Right here he determined to shut numerous small companies corresponding to meals, academic know-how and others.

However nation supervisor Manish Tiwary instructed us that this merely shuts down experiments that do not work, and the Seattle-based firm stays dedicated to one of many largest markets outdoors the US.

Learn the interview with here tiwary:
Amazon isn’t closing businesses, it’s reviewing experiments

Amazon also acquires social commerce company Glowroad whereas head of india
Amit Agarwal was also given additional responsibility of the APAC market.

Meesho, FirstCry, Tata Neu others: SoftBank-backed rival e-commerce firm Meesho has been aggressively buying bigger opponents like Flipkart and Amazon, however
As the funding winter took effect, it had to make the necessary changes in its expenditures.

vertical retailer
FirstCry almost completes its $1 billion IPO plan Nevertheless
had to postpone it, citing market conditions. We reported how
Working on secondary share sale to bring SoftBank’s stake below 25% thus, it will probably revive its IPO plans within the new yr.

Tata Digital has lastly launched its “tremendous app” Neu, nevertheless it’s been a bumpy experience for the Mumbai-based conglomerate in e-commerce.
slow sales to fixed modifications within the high ranks. Egrocer BigBasket and epharmacy 1mg stay the primary development drivers.

Delhivery IPO, logistics jolt: Relating to e-commerce, logistics can’t be far behind. Delhivery, regardless of the unstable market situations,
continued its public offering and performed successfully in the stock markets Till just a few months in the past, a information to transport volumes within the coming months led to an enormous drop within the share value.

Logistics and collectors, consolidation:
ETtech cracked a number of stories This is how Delhivery, Ecom Categorical and Xpresbees are concurrently elevating charges for orders from the three largest third-party logistics firms, aggregators like Shiprocket and others.

Because of this, consolidation quickly started. Shiprocket acquires smaller competitor
Pickrr is in a $200 million deal. The dust here has not completely subsided, and there may be more such actions in 2023.

Ecom Categorical, Rivigo fireplace sale and Shopee outlet: Ecom Categorical, a competitor to Delhivery and Xpressbees, had a troublesome yr and misplaced its quantity two place in e-commerce logistics after an extended hiatus.

ETtech Lengthy Studying:
Why does Ecom Express leave its competitors behind in the game of thrones of the logistics industry?

2022 was additionally that of the logistics unicorn Rivigo, one of many largest fireplace gross sales.
He held talks with many players, including Flipkart. and Xpressbees for a sale however
Mahindra group finally bought their B2B express business for just Rs 225.

Final however not least,
Singapore-based Shopee abruptly leaves India got here as a shock to many. This has additionally raised Ecom Categorical’ considerations because it serves numerous deliveries for the agency.

Bulk e-commerce: After back-to-back funding rounds at Thrasio clones like Mensa Manufacturers and Globalbees final yr, the hype round this enterprise mannequin appears to have stopped in 2022.

Subsequent yr may very well be a failure for many operators in house.
We reported how Thrasio changed his plans for India due to the turmoil in its dwelling market,
while a shake-up is imminent in the wider industry.

That is all from us for now, however way more awaits you in 2023.

(Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi)