Yes, it has become as simple as this. You sit on your couch in the comfort of an air conditioner, press a button, and you’re assured of a new television set arriving at your doorstep the very same day! No ruckus of bargaining for that one pair of footwear you’ve set your heart on. No one bulldozing over you in a flocked store during the post-Christmas sale. Benefits such as convenience and affordable prices have trodden worldwide shopping trends onto paths that run through our mobile phones and laptops.
Every day you catch hold of the newspaper, you’d find a new add-on to the already boundless lists of companies with e-selling apparatuses and digital marketing achievements. Well, since the time physical markets were steadily being replaced by online selling setups, it was realised that the Indian market has great e-commerce potential. And we, in the present era, are striding onto this very road of sought-after potential. One of the most recent events revolving around the same is Amazon exploring the terrain by launching Amazon Prime Air in India. It’s the first e-commerce platform to announce its air cargo service in the country. Look up in the sky and you might find your future mobile phone flying past in a drone or a shipping plane!
All that we see today, transcending the digits of flourishing e-commerce, can not be understood as something immediate. E-commerce began proliferating around the first decade of the twenty-first century. Since then, people’s shopping habits have been changing, although gradually. However, later, when we stepped into 2020, there was trepidation hovering all over our heads. COVID-19 became our all-time new bulletin! This microscopic virus had enormous implications. It was more than what it seemed. It was a crucial catalyst. It made the world completely veer its shopping trends. Lockdown necessitated the very need for e-shopping. People were limited to their homes. Physical stores were shut. Most brands shifted to e-selling. Overall, these trends can be visualised as an already thriving graph that further shot up as the pandemic hit the nation.
These trends are never mere lines on a graph. There had always been more of these. These are lines that meander around our lives, taking twists and turns with our constantly changing lifestyles. Craving to eat a gulab jamun as you watch your favourite web series? Order online. You have an exam tomorrow, and you just didn’t listen to mom about checking your stationery before? Order online. We are gradually transcending into beings who want everything—quickly and swiftly. We simply want everything as soon as possible! For some, online shopping would be almost like Aladdin ka Chirag. You think of it, and it’s with you in no time. It does, however, differ in that we are not fortunate enough to be rubbing that aureate lamp for free! Regardless, the icing on the cake is that online shopping provides options. From a plethora of sellers, people can choose the most affordable fit for their needs. What else can online shopping be thus considered if not a double bonus for shoppers?
As we look around, we realise how the internet and online setups have seeped into our lives, everywhere—these are beyond retail markets and have penetrated into our personal spheres, lifestyles, and workspaces. Everywhere, in today’s world, we find new online work-from-home setups that drive online meetings to decide upon the best ways of selling online to prospective online shoppers.
Ours has thus become a world of the online.