So with digital India, the scope of e-commerce has expanded and it is expected that it will show green signals in the future as well. So when we are discussing about e-commerce, the one name that we can never miss on the list is Amazon. Amazon is one of the trusted e-commerce and has many types of products to offer, including gadgets, essential goods, furniture, apparels, etc. This is the reason that many vendors find this platform suitable for their online business. After launching the store on Amazon, The first step is to list your products with related description. This step plays a crucial role in the sales of your products. Let’s explore more about it.

Catalogue listing: The fundamental step that can improve your reach

Catalogue or product listing contains basic and genuine information about the product that can convince the potential buyer to buy it. An Optimized listing can help your potential customer to reach your product when he not even aware of the exact product. According to the Baymard study, 61% of sites require their users to search by the exact product type. That means if your product is listed as ‘hair dryer’, the potential customer searching for ‘blow dryer’ won’t be able to come across your product. So Product listing has the power to assist you in reaching the right customer.

Common challenges faced by every Amazon vendor while product listing

• Delay in reaching the customer visibility 

While listing your product on Amazon or any other e-commerce platform, the listing is moderated by the authorized team to check if it follows all the compliances. This takes some time, and if you are not professional, then this time may extend to many weeks. This leads to a delay in sales. It negatively affects the sales and products which need to be updated frequently like anything related to fashion as trends keep on changing in a short period. And in the meanwhile, your competitors will be gaining a profit.

• Inefficiency to analyze and create rich metadata for the products

It is important to understand the behaviour of the potential consumer. Many vendors are not able to scale their product listing as they are not able to create rich metadata. On Amazon, the products are filtered by different attributes, and the vendor needs to understand how to list the attributes to scale up the reach. For example, you can increase the chances of sales of black party wear by categorizing it as “sleeveless, black, party-wear dress, short dress, plunge-neck”, rather than “black party-wear dress”.

How can we overcome all the challenges and optimize our product listing? 

The simplest and feasible way to optimize your product listing is by taking help from the professionals. For this, you can contact Visveya for their catalogue management services. Being a professional, they know how to list the products precisely and efficiently. Moreover, Visveya can even help you with discount and inventory management. This lessens up your burden of operations and you will be able to work on core business strategies. 

Visveya: a helping hand in e-commerce management

Visveya will help you list the fresh arrivals and monitor its stock. According to the product, appealing title and related keywords are planned to assure efficient listing and wider visibility of the product. At the same time, the competitors are closely followed to offer the right discounts and attract more customers. So in a nutshell, Visveya has the solution for all the problems related to e-commerce management. You can consult them to grow your business online on Amazon or any other top e-commerce marketplace.

References

https://vue.ai/blog/vuetag/ecommerce-catalog-management-challenges/
https://www.nchannel.com/blog/ecommerce-product-catalog-management/
https://azbigmedia.com/business/why-to-hire-experts-to-handle-amazon-optimization-for-listings/

Therefore India also faced many economic downfalls soon after the cases of Coronavirus were identified, chaos was created, and people were advised to stay in their homes to prevent the deadly microorganism’s attack.

As a safer means of shopping, people now prefer online over the offline retail store. While comparing Indian e-commerce, the retail market of around 850 billion dollars experienced a big push in 2020. More and more people are opting for an e-commerce platform due to safety and convenience. Let’s look at this subject in-depth.

Transitions in the Indian e-commerce industry in 2020

• Not limited to metro-political cities

In the initial steps of e-commerce, it was observed that the reach of e-commerce was primarily catering orders of people living in metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and other major cities. But as the Indian e-commerce was going through an evolution phase, the popularity of online shopping caught users from small towns as well. But a broader picture came into the mainstream in 2020. By a report presented by Bian & Company and Flipkart, it was observed that online shoppers in Tier-II and small towns constitute more than 50% of total online shoppers, and their order contributes to 3 out of every 5 orders for top retail market platforms.

• Double boost in online sales 

Presently, the Indian e-commerce sector shares 3.4 percent of the overall market. But the top-notch Indian companies observed a very high positive response from their consumers through online mode. People are worried about getting infected if they shop at the offline outlets and are directed to the online channel to get the same products.

According to Sanjiv Mehta – the chairman of Hindustan Unilever, the largest Indian FMCG company, many of their physical stores are still not opened, but this has not curbed their sales. Presently there is a hesitation in the crowd for offline shopping, and thus many offline outlets may remain shut for a while.

In 2017, the online grocery sales contribution was just 1%, but now in 2020, it is around 1.9%, which is almost double. Even the online sales contribution of Parle products jumped up and has doubled to 4% of the overall sales.

Apart from the necessary products, people are switching to online shopping for other types of products. This trend changed the online sales of other sectors too. The online sales of Godrej doubled to 8-10% of the overall sales.

• Swift from offline to the online retail market

As there seems to be a change in customer behavior and the growth of e-commerce favored many online businesses, the retailer tried their best to hold this momentum and capitalize it well. Many retailers started selling their goods online. Initially, they started with the necessary items, but later on, they added other products according to the market demand.

According to the experts, even the local retail has to move their store to this online channel to fairly compete with local stores present in the neighbourhood as they are also adopting digital technology to improve their sales in the lockdown period.

As per Walmart India Chief Digital Officer Chandan Khaitan, customers are sticking to online shopping even after the relaxation in the lockdown. Also, Walmart seems to observe four times more sales through online mode in 2020. LOTS Wholesale Solutions MD, Tanit Chearavanont, also affirmed that there is a change in consumer behavior, which is leading to reinforcement of new habits towards online channels of shopping. They are even focusing on online business strategy and also observing a healthy number of orders.

Launching store on an online platform- a path of great opportunities

According to the Boston Consulting Group, it is estimated that India will have 850 million online shoppers by 2025, which is a significant number. So migrating your online store to a top e-commerce platform is a wise decision. But to multiply the growth, you can take expert help for your online marketplace management. Contact Visveya today and get professional solutions to handle the e-commerce store’s operations at each phase. From inventory management to shipping orders on the timeline, everything can be managed effectively by Visveya so that you have ample time to plan the strategy for the business.

So move with the market trend to upscale your sales!

References

https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/covid-19-momentum-in-online-app-based-sales-to-continue-for-retailers-120062900038_1.html

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/fmcg/online-sales-doubles-for-top-consumer-brands-in-india-due-to-covid-19/articleshow/76533563.cms

https://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/with-3-out-of-5-orders-tier-ii-smaller-towns-leads-online-sales/story/407132.html

The current crisis leading to “unusual” business

As the situation worsened in almost all the countries, 50 to 60 percent of the top brands’ stores have been shut. According to the Swedish brand, from a total of 5,062 worldwide stores of H&M, 3,441 stores are shut down. This has caused a considerable negative impact on their business. The Japanese brand has declared that there is a prediction of a 44 percent dip on annual operating profits.

As a large proportion of stores are shut worldwide, the brands are working on cost-cutting steps to survive in this predicament. These brands have called off their plans for dividends, creating turmoil in their equity share value. Also, the jobs of many people have gone under the knives of management to save some costs as their operations are jammed and facing a deficit in their annual financial goals.

These high-end brands were mostly dependent on the retail traffic on their physical stores. The goodwill of these brands always attracted their customers to check out their exclusive collection. So, although they can manage to get some sales through online e-commerce, this won’t be equivalent to their sales ratio earned by physical stores. According to UNIQLO, their online sales account for 10% from Japan and 20% from the rest of the world.

A long battle to fight

As shoppers are locked in their houses to prevent widespread COVID, the retail business has been slammed down which compelled them to close their stores. After this lockdown period, the priority of these retail brands would be to open their outlets as soon as possible. But according to the trends in China, where the lockdown phase is over, these retailers may not be convinced to open their stores early. The prime reason behind it is the changing behavior of shoppers. Though lockdown has ended in China, shoppers still prefer to maintain social distance and stay at home. 

As per H&M quarterly report, around 64% of the stores were shut in China which resulted in a drop of 89% sales while comparing it with the previous year. Even after the re-opening of the stores in China, they are not getting sales according to their normal days. In the first week after reopening stores in China, H&M saw only 16% growth in their sales as compared to their performance in 2019. But in the fourteenth week, they recorded a sales growth of -23%. The reason behind this trend can be the fact that the sales benefits are lower when compared to the costs of keeping stores open.

So now these brands are only willing to open the store to clear off their stocks and expect some improvement in sales at a slow pace.

The evolving strategy

During the period of February end till March, most of the top retailers  like H&M, Nike, UNIQLO, and others observed sharp decline in retail sales in China and therefore they had to close down their store in China. Though  some of them reopened some of their stores, but the future still remains uncertain. Now when everything has been shut down and even the opened stores are not able to get profitable sales, then this is the high time for retailers to shift their business to the online platform. The digital world has its unique existence and the e-commerce sector is spreading its wings every day. Also, according to the current situation, even buyers prefer to shop online. Even after the end of the lockdown period, they are more likely to turn to e-commerce to buy their stuff. So taking the store to the online platform can maximize the horizon of sales. Even this strategy can help to approach too many new customers without limiting to one single town. Some futuristic brands like Xiaomi have always seen high potential in online business and that’s the reason they launch their products first on their online store and then make them available on their physical outlets.

As there is no reason to delay your plan to digitalize business, create your online store now and give a boost to your business. Don’t miss this chance to introduce your brand to the global market without taking much time.

Reference Links –

https://hypebeast.com/2020/4/fast-retailing-uniqlo-annual-profit-decline-coronavirus

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/23/h-m-layoffs-job-cuts-coronavirus-covid-19/2898115001/

https://qz.com/1835802/once-covid-19-is-tamed-stores-still-may-not-want-to-open-right-away/     https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-h-m-staff/hm-in-talks-with-tens-of-thousands-of-staff-to-cut-working-hours-due-to-pandemic-idUSKBN21K1EV