Analyzing the pradigm shilf of consumer behaviour towards e commerce during pademic lockdown

RESEARCH REPORT
Analyzing the Paradigm Shift of Consumer Behavior Towards
Commerce During Pandemic Lockdown

E-

MBA
MARKETING & SALES

SUBMITTED BY: HIMMGIRI CHAUDHARY
(A0102219122)

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF: DR. SHIV SHANKAR KUMAR YADAV
(MARKETING & SALES DEPARTMENT)

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Certificate
This is to certify that Himgiri Chaudhary student of Masters of Business Administration – M&S
at Amity Business School, Amity University Uttar Pradesh has completed the summer
internship Report on “Analyzing the Paradigm Shift of Consumer Behavior Towards ECommerce During Pandemic Lockdown”, under my guidance.
The report has been checked for plagiarism and is within limits of acceptance.

Dr. Shiv Shankar Kumar Yadav
Assistant Professor
Department of Marketing & Sales

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CANDIDATE'S DECLARATION

Project Title
Analyzing the Paradigm Shift of Consumer Behavior Towards E-Commerce During Pandemic
Lockdown.
I declare
(a) That the work presented for assessment in this summer internship Report is my own,
that it has not previously been presented for another assessment and that my debts (for
words, data, arguments and ideas) have been appropriately acknowledged.

(b) That the work conforms to the guidelines for presentation and style set out in the
relevant documentation.

(c) The Plagiarism in the report is

% (permissible limit is 15%)

Date:

HIMGIRI CHAUDHARY
(A0102219122)
MBA (M&S)

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to place on record my deep sense of gratitude to Prof. DR AMIT KUMAR
PANDEY of Marketing & Sales, AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL, NOIDA, U.P, INDIA for his
generous guidance, help and useful suggestions.
I express my sincere gratitude to Prof. DR. SHIV SHANKAR KUMAR YADAV Dept. of
Marketing & Sales, AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL, NOIDA, U.P, INDIA for his stimulating
guidance, continuous encouragement and supervision throughout the course of present work.
I also wish to extend my thanks to colleagues for their insightful comments and constructive
suggestions to improve the quality of this research work.
I am extremely thankful to DR. SANJEEV BANSAL (Dean of Faculty Management studies)
for providing me infrastructural facilities to work in, without which this work would not have
been possible.

HIMGIRI CHAUDHARY
(A010219122)
MBA (M&S)

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TABLE OF CONTENT
TOPIC

PAGE NO.

ABSTRACT

6

CHAPTER – 1 Introduction

7–8

CHAPTER – 2 Literature Review

9 – 12

CHAPTER – 3 Research Methodologies
3.1 Purpose Statement
3.2 Research Methodology
3.3 Data Collection Techniques
3.4 Data Collection Tools
3.5 Research Design
3.6 Sampling Design
CHAPTER – 4 Data Analysis and Interpretation

14 – 22

CHAPTER – 5 Findings and Discussion

23 – 24

CHAPTER – 6 Conclusions and Future Scope

25 – 26

REFERENCES

27 – 28

APPENDIX

29 – 30

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Analyzing the Paradigm Shift of Consumer Behavior
Towards E-Commerce During Pandemic Lockdown
ABSTRACT

As the E-commerce industry is growing tremendously in the Indian market. The cheap
4G internet packages in India obviously gives a push to these industries. So, as Covid19 first hit in India, people got scared to go out from their homes because, in their
mind, it’s a fear of coronavirus. They even hesitate to go out to buy essential (FMCG)
goods. Panic buying also has seen and to avoid this fear of COVID-19, people are
giving preferences to the E-Commerce sites to buy essential goods and some
customers are new which signed up to buy essential goods during this Pandemic
Lockdown period. Many customers are shifting their buying behavior from offline
retail stores to online stores. In this questionnaire collected from 153 respondents,
some of them are old customers which used to buy some of their essential (FMCG)
goods online and some of them are new users. This whole paper shows and puts light
on how consumer behavior has changed and they are shifting towards E-Commerce.

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CHAPTER - 1
INTRODUCTION (Ecommerce Industry in FMCG sector)

E-commerce is also called as electronic commerce or internet commerce, it refers to buying
and selling of goods and services through the mode of internet and transfer of money through
online platform and data to execute these transactions.

According to Statista India has more than 483 million internet users in 2018. Due to cheap
4G data, everyone can easily access it. So, on the contrary, the e-commerce industry is also
growing exponentially. Due to the overnight demonetization of some selected notes, India
starts its digital India movement from thereon. The government is also working very hard
towards it.
When the first coronavirus case came in china and after that china went on complete
lockdown, Only essential goods and services were working. In China, there was a huge boom
in the e-commerce of FMCG goods.
In India sales of Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) online are expected to go further 4
billion dollars by 2022, and 5% contribution is of online packaged consumer goods, said by
market researcher Nielsen.
Right now only 2% has been contributed by the online FMCG. And sales keep on growing as
the mobile penetration with increased data consumption and make available every product
online whether it is being done by small or large companies.

The first confirmed case of Coronavirus was on 30th January 2020 in the state of Kerala.
The person who was affected had a travel history from Wuhan, China. On 25, march,2020
India gone into complete Pandemic Lockdown. After the lockdown some strict rules set by
the government of India like, there was a ban on people on people from stepping out from
their houses, all the shops and services closed expect pharmacies, hospitals, banks, grocery
shops and other essential services, for both public and private government asks them to work
from home and many more.

Ecommerce surge sales of FMCG goods in India during pandemic lockdown as
consumers are scared to go out from their home because of the fear virus. Even 2-3 weeks
earlier before the lockdown, there was a huge demand for FMCG goods, sanitizers, etc.

According to the FMCG companies, there was a sudden jump in demand around 15-45%
according to the category. Products such as rice, atta, pulses, edible oil, sugar, biscuit, tea,
instant noodle, frozen food, soaps, hand washes, and floor cleaners are flying off the shelves
from almost every state of India. Even small, medium Kirana shops are going towards the
online selling due to huge demand, and they are doing it by creating their own website or

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joining a different platform like Amazon, Flipkart, Grofers and other e-commerce industry to
increase the sales and fulfill the demand of the customers.
E-Grocers like Bigbasket, Grofers, Amazon says that their sales are up by 100% and there is
more jump in the sales of staples, biscuits, frozen soaps and handwashes. FMCG industry
trying to speed up the supplies of the goods, so that there should be no shortage of goods.
Panic buying of FMCG goods also took place and everyone started buying goods in huge
quantities to store the goods for more than a month. Due to this, It becomes very difficult for
the FMCG companies to complete the demand of the consumer. Because orders were coming
from both sides Kirana shops which are offline and online grocers. Some FMCG companies
like ITC Ltd, Parle Products, Amul and Godrej Consumer were going out of stock from the
stores and most of the goods doesn’t last for even a week said by the RS Sodhi (Amul
managing director)
Shortage of delivery persons because of the huge online demand for FMCG goods. Online
Grocers like Bigbasket, Grofers, NaturesBasket were going out of delivery guys due to the
surge in demand and because of that, these companies were given 2 weeks or sometimes 3
weeks ahead of dates from the time they put on delivery option. Those people who haven’t
used any type of online shopping platforms were also signing up and putting orders.

People are getting used to E-Grocers platform in the time of pandemic lockdown,
everyone is trying to buy essential goods online. Even new customers are coming on this

platform to buy their goods online. So, those customers who haven’t tried these platforms
before they are giving it a call and ordering their essential goods online. It’s been almost
more than 3 months of lockdown and constantly increasing in the covid19 cases after the ease
of the lockdown, still, there is a huge demand for essential goods.
But some of the restrictions also put by the online companies to avoid panic buying like,
customers can’t order lays chips packet more than 2 or customer can’t add more 10 kg of
flour. Even after an ease in the lockdown companies are not getting enough workforce to
work efficiently to fulfill the demand of the customers.
Amazon, Big Basket starts hiring delivery guys temporarily to complete the demand of the
customers but still, the customer has to wait for more than a week just to its essential items
which are a lot of time than it takes it usually.
JIO has also stepped into this industry during the pandemic lockdown and start its services on
27,4,2020 to take it as the opportunity and get the permanent base customers. Reliance saw
the huge demand in this pandemic lockdown of FMCG goods and after this consumer Buying
behavior towards e-commerce is totally going to be different due to this Covid-19 pandemic
lockdown. So, every Kirana which is offline they have to go digital by creating their online
website or joining hands with the existing e-commerce industry.
This report will give the bigger picture that what consumer behavior would be after the
pandemic lockdown and how fast steadily shift consumer from offline retail to online ecommerce and what will be the future of the e-commerce industry in India and how ecommerce industry starts gaining the trust of new as well as existing customers.
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CHAPTER – 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.Aneesh Reddy,(April,14,2020) Covid-19 impact: Consumers move towards digital
Aneesh Reddy explained that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the way we work has totally
changed, the way we used to shop and communicate with people. People are only going out only to
buy essential items from the retail stores and sill they are worried to go out to buy essential gods
because they are constantly worried about getting infected. Reddy said that according to trifecta, due

to a cheaper 4G network and constantly increasing consumer wealth, Indian EE-commerce is
expected to grow to US$200 billion by 2026. But these projections were based on the pre-covid19.
But as COVID-19 hit India, the surging demand of e-commerce for the past few months is so high
that the e-commerce industry could hit $200 billion much earlier.

2. Bansal.S,(April 02, 2020) Opinion|will consumer behavior see shift post-covid-19
Shuchi Bansal said that, as a consequence of COVID-19 lockdown, there would be a major shift in the
supply chain and an increased consumption of e-commerce portals through the internet. It has been
estimated that the online stores engaged in sales of groceries and other FMCG products could see a
massive shift in demand to avoid going out to crowded shops and marketplaces.
After analysing the consumer buying behaviour from the time India first encountered COVID-19 till
the time it went under the lockdown, it could be said that people have become more conscious about
health and hygiene and there would be fewer visits to stores and more online shopping for customers.

3. Nath.S,(April 28, 2020) Did the lockdown accelerate the digitization of India Inc?
Sanstuti Nath threw light on the term 'digital consumption'. Her study on the consumption patterns of
consumers post-pandemic lockdown, showed that the e-commerce companies have seen a significant
growth of 70-100% for essential commodities. And this sudden adaption of digital platforms can be
allocated to mobile advertising. Top companies and brands were already benefiting themselves from
these platforms, and also now post lockdown this whole scenario is going to change how consumers
buy.

4. FE Online, (April 29, 2020) Millennials will buy in revenge once lockdown lifts;
consumer behavior to change in these ways It said that as the country is under lockdown for
such a long time, the buying behaviour of the consumer, especially the Millennials are expected to
undergo massive changes as most of them are going to do revenge buying, as they didn't get to buy
goods as they used to buy in the pre- lockdown period. And if the e-commerce industry is talked
about, they are estimated to be the clear winners, especially in the FMCG online sales, in the short and
long term both, as part of the strategies of FMCG companies.

5. Euromonitor International, (April 20, 2020) Coronavirus effect on Indian FMCG
industries and services During the lockdown period, the industry that has been impacted the most
is the FMCG industry, being affected due to the breakdown in the supply chain of the country. Also,
the consumer's definition of essential goods has also been changed, with masks and sanitizers entering
into the category, while the other FMCG goods like beauty products, footwear, clothes have taken a
back seat with groceries and packaged goods with high demand among the consumers. Where grocery
retailers accounting for about 60% of store-based sales have been permitted. With a threat of getting
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infected consumers are now shifting to online stores for making the purchases of essential
commodities so that they don't have to go anywhere else and confined to their homes safe and secure.

6. PTI, (April 24, 2020) Majority of Indian consumers may shift to online shopping in
the next nine months The surveys done have estimated that the pandemic breakdown and
lockdown are going to bring major changes in how the Indian consumers going to buy goods or their
buying behavior. If essential commodities are talked about, there will be a major shift from 46% to
about 64% in online shopping in the next 6-9 months. Also, as compared to 59% of consumers,
around 46 % of consumers are going to buy from physical stores. A survey conducted showed that
nearly 74% of consumers prefer to buy online post the lockdown.

7. next News desk (April 29, 2020) Bengaluru-based startup wagon fly secures $500k in
investment from ITI growth Companies like Wagonfly which is a contact-free shopping and
delivery services startup, has just raised $500,000 funding, where its founder Raghavendra Prasad, has
claimed a major shift to take place in the overall operations of the retail stores. As a consequence of
this Covid-19 lockdown, consumers are now going to prefer contact-less shopping through online
stores or portals and this is going to completely change to their buying and consumption behavior and
patterns. The company's venture called cafeFly, an online marketplace focuses on meeting the
consumer's changing demands for FMCG products who fear to step out due to the pandemic.

8. PTI (April 19, 2020) Post lockdown, online-to-offline strategy to get prominence in
the retail sector: LOTS Wholesale The retail outlet LOTS wholesale have stated that as
consumers are now more conscious of their health and protection against the pandemic, there is going
to be a drastic change in the consumer behavior especially in buying FMCG goods and all retailers
will be bound to do the sales on online platforms, that is the e-commerce portals to meet the demands
of consumers and promote contact-free ordering and Delivering services. Also, they said that to cater
to the changing needs of customers there would be a need to have an omni-channel strategy, online to
offline. As for now, there is increased demand for only essential commodities but a considerable
amount of time will be taken for shopping behavior to get normal, as purchasing habits are going to
change drastically.

9. Mukherjee.W, Bailay.R, Srivastava. A (March 16, 2020) consumer goods flying off
the shelves Covid-19 lockdown has witnessed a sudden rise in the online sales of consumer goods
like groceries through the emerging online platforms like Grofers, big basket, etc. in the form of panic
buying. Various FMCG companies have witnessed a 20-25% rise in the sales of these goods in each
category. E-commerce companies like these have stated that they are stocking these goods in advance
as compared to the pre-lockdown period and are seeing this as an opportunity to encourage customers
to go online shopping and benefit from the same. And they have allowed the reason to the consumer's
concern about social distancing and as a preventive measure against the pandemic.

10. PTI (April 06, 2020) Preference for hygiene products to rise, online sales to zoom,
amid COVID-19 threat: GCPL GCPL MD and CEO told Vivek Gambhir told that a major shift
in consumer buying behavior and preferences is going to take place as a consequence of Coronavirus
and they are going to be more conscious about health, hygiene, and sanitation. And as a result of this
threat and concern, he says that there is a good opportunity for e-commerce companies to boost their
online sales as people would prefer to go for contact-free buying through these platforms. After this
analysis, FMCG companies are now entering into the manufacturing of sanitizers and related health
products as a rise in the online sales of FMCG products through e-commerce platforms can be seen
clearly.

11. Shashidhar.A (March 20, 2020) Covid-19: FMCG majors Amul, Godrej, ITC hike
output up to 20% as anxiety buying spikes Due to the pandemic lockdown consumers have
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been witnessing stocking out of consumer goods like milk, flour, rice, groceries and personal care
products like soaps, sanitizers, handwashes, etc. And in this time e-commerce platforms have been
trying their best to meet the consumer's demand for FMCG products. FMCG companies like Amul,
Godrej, and ITC have raised their production as well as rates as a result of a huge increase in the
demand for these goods. They stated that this has been due to the reason that people are preferring to
be confined in their homes and buy goods that are contact-free through these portals and see this as a
great opportunity for the e-commerce industry in the country to boost and emerge as a profitable
platform in the coming years. And with the end of this lockdown period, consumer's buying behavior
and preferences are going to change drastically.

12. Yatti Soni (April,30.2020) The Reset: Covid-19 Highlights Direct-To-Consumer
Potential For Indian Ecommerce Even before the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, e-commerce
becoming the need the every household. Due to the pandemic now e-commerce is only supplying the
essential goods so that consumers feel safer and not be fearful to go out to buy essential goods from
retail stores. According to Capgemini's research on consumer sentiment, this report states that the
consumer of e-commerce is going to increase from 46% to 64% over the next to nine months.

13. Anirudh Laskar (May,15,2020) Lockdown impact: India e-commerce market picks
pace, may touch 7 trillion rupees by 2023 Due to the coronavirus pandemic it has pushed the
consumer to shift from offline retail stores to online shopping, according to CAGR it says that in
2023 Indian e-commerce would be 7 trillion rupees by 2023. CAGR mentioned that the annual
growth of e-commerce is 19.6% between 2019 and 2023. The major growth can be seen in the 2
leaders of e-commerce Flipkart and Amazon. And because of online shopping, the shipments of

smartphones in India rose by 8% YOY to 152.5 million units, which makes India the fastest growing
market among the top 20 in the world.

14. Writankar Mukherjee, Sagar Malviya (May,04,2020) Top multinational from HUL
to Apple brace for rising online sales post Covid-19 India’s largest FMCG goods company
HUL chairman Sanjiv Mehta said customer has this fear of coronavirus due which they are scared of
going out to buy even essential goods for them. Online FMCG sales rose to 50% YOY during the
March quarter as consumers are more interested in shopping e-grocers instead of local kiranas. In
Nielsen report, they mentioned that local retailer share fell by 220 bps, entirely taken by either ecommerce or modern retailers in this pandemic lockdown.

15. Warc Data points (March 2020) Ecommerce shopping more frequent because of
Covid-19. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) more consumer shifted their consuming habits to
online. According to the latest report by IPSOS, the jump in e-commerce shopping where India
(55%), China (50%), Italy (31%), and Vietnam (56%). This new habit of consumers going to be long
last for decades for the e-commerce industry.

16. Suneera Tandon (May,13,2020) Lockdown: FMCG companies see a surge in online
business Both big and small companies in India have built the expansive distribution networks
through kirana shops and supermarkets during COVID 19 lockdown, with this reason large scale of
customers moved towards the online retailers and buying essential goods on the internet. As Sunay
Bhasin (marketing head at the company that makes a variety of packaged food products) he said that
e-commerce business double, lots of tie-up has been done, and created its own website to reach more
cities and pin codes. Beverages companies like parle agro sell the frooti and appy fizz brands have
seen the jump of 300% increase in sales through e-commerce from the past 1 month. Overall the ecommerce is expecting 15% in this lockdown period. Elite foods ( Kerala – based packaged foods
company) saw a 100% increase in the sales in some of the food products they deliver like, cakes,
bread and buns, instant mixes, specialty flour, and healthy range.

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17. Basu.P, Raina.R (April 24, 2020) The impact Covid-19 pandemic is exerting on ecommerce The e-commerce industry gained its momentum much before the pandemic, however,
with the implementation of pandemic lockdown a pressure has been imposed on e-commerce
companies, not for the non-essentials but the essential commodities like groceries and medicines
which can be seen both as a challenge as well as a greater opportunity. As earlier, shopping online
was a matter of convenience but now it has become a necessity to protect oneself from the virus by
avoiding crowded places. The Covid-19 lockdown has resulted in a rise in online sales, as it has also
been estimated that the industry would have a growth of 200 billion dollars much before the predicted
2026.

18. Khetarpal.S (May 13, 2020) lockdown perks for e-commerce; online sellers recover
30% order volume in a week. Everyone, especially businesses are curious to know how consumer
behavior is going to change post lockdown period. As to meet the demands, consumers have shifted to
the online Industry, have witnessed a rise of 100 percent as compared to the pre lockdown period in
FMCG products. However, these companies are allowed to do their operations as per the red, orange,
and green zones in the country. While, the online fashion industry is expected to rise again after the
lockdown, whereas, the cosmetic sector has not seen any recovery till now and will take a little longer
to recover.

19. Bailey.R, Mukherjee. W (April 16, 2020) large retailers to focus purely on ecommerce during lockdown 2.0 due to exemption. As an exemption to the e-commerce
industry, retail chains are now focusing on bringing their products on online platforms to boost their
sales. Big retail companies, like fashion retailers which is a non-essential commodity during the
lockdown, have stated that they are now going to make an online presence of their products. Seeing
the growth opportunity of e-commerce, big retail companies from essential to non-essential are
planning to collaborate with top e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart for a stronger
supply chain and logistics.

20. Avatar.P ( May 05, 2020) lockdown 3.0: Flipkart, Snapdeal sees heavy traffic for
non -essential items. As with the ongoing lockdown period, FMCG products are on high demand,
but once the lockdown gets over, how consumer behavior is going to change is a big question. With

the lockdown 3.0, e-commerce platforms have been permitted to sell non Essential items in the orange
and green zones and with this Flipkart has stated that the most searched belongs to the personal care
products like trimmers, electronic goods like mobiles, laptops, and fans air conditioners to beat the
heat. Snapdeal claimed that they have received a huge proportion of 75% of the total orders from
these orange and green zones in the country. Estimates are that, there would be huge demands for
items like these post lockdown period.

21. Tech desk, (May 19, 2020) Lockdown 4.0 relief: Amazon, Flipkart welcome non
Essential deliveries in red zones. Till lockdown 3.0, the e-commerce companies were allowed to
deliver the essential commodities as well as non-essentials to only Orange and green zones but with
lockdown 4.0 E-commerce companies have welcomed the guidelines of the government to deliver
essentials and non-essentials in all the three zones, however, containment zones will be getting only
medicinal deliveries along with the groceries and so. With all this e-commerce companies are trying
to meet the ongoing demand for all the categories of goods and are estimating this to be an
opportunity for e-commerce platforms.

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CHAPTER-3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 PURPOSE STATEMENT
The research has been conducted in order to study the paradigm shift in the consumer’s
behavior towards e-commerce (FMCG) goods during Pandemic lockdown. The study shows
that how rapidly consumer is moving towards e-commerce and how offline retailers are
switching towards online sales of essential (FMCG) goods during the pandemic lockdown,
like many Kirana stores owner moving towards online to increase the sales and fulfilling the
demand of consumers. This study also shows that what impact has been done in the ecommerce (FMCG) industry.

3.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1. To study the shift in consumer buying behavior as a consequence of the pandemic
lockdown.
2. To analyze the impact on consumer behavior and satisfaction of the e-commerce (FMCG)
industry during the pandemic lockdown.

3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN
For carrying out the research work, exploratory data has been used. In order to identify the
dimensions of consumer buying behavior shift towards e-commerce during pandemic
lockdown and get the satisfaction level of the consumer towards the e-commerce (FMCG)
industry.

3.4 DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
In order to carry out this research and to collect the raw data, an online survey or
questionnaire has been used.

3.5 SAMPLING DESIGN
To avoid the loss of valuable resources, the sample size decided to be 100.

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CHAPTER- 4

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

This questionnaire is based on knowing the paradigm shift of consumer behavior towards ecommerce during this COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The recorded responses of a total of
152 consumers of E-Commerce buying FMCG products online before lockdown and during

lockdown from online platforms. This questionnaire gives a view of customer behavior
changes towards buying FMCG essential goods through offline retailers. The questionnaire
contains 15 questions so far which covered to know that at what income level consumers are
shifting and it also shows that whether that consumer used to buy online groceries or not, or if
that person is a first time user of e-commerce just signed up during the lockdown period. The
questionnaire also helps us to know whether the customer is going to buy in post lockdown.
And how much they are satisfied with the online shopping. Whether the consumer assumes
that offline retail is going to replace with the e-commerce industry and customers to know the
satisfaction level in buying essential goods online. The respondents are required to choose
one option based on their behavior like strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and
strongly agree. The second half of the questions consist of demographics like gender,
occupation, income level. going to replace by the E-commerce industry in the future.

These Pie charts are going to show how different respondents reacted towards
the survey and there are different sets of questions to know the consumer
behavior shift towards the E-Commerce (FMCG) during the Pandemic
Lockdown.

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There are 30.1% are Female respondents and 69.9% are male respondents who participated in
the survey and helps to give a bigger and clear picture on shifting of the consumer behavior.

In this questionnaire, there are different age group respondents, as shown in the chart, 58.8%
are between the 20-30 age group, which are the maximum number of respondents who
participated in the survey and next to the maximum number of respondents are 30-40 of age
group and 13.7% are between the 40-50 of age group and the least amount of respondents are
50 and above of age group.

This question shows the income level of respondents and the maximum number of
respondents customers have less than 20,000 income which are 47.4%of respondents and
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next 21.7% respondents has income level between 20,000-50,000 and 23% respondents has
income level of between 50,000-80,000 and the least the number of respondents has which
are only 7.9%.

This question shows the different occupation of the respondents and according to the chart
the greatest number of respondents are students with 45.8% participation in the survey and
30.7% are corporate employees and 12.4% are government employees, 5.9% are selfemployed and the least number respondents have chosen others option with 5.2%.

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This question shows that how many customers used to buy before pandemic lockdown and
how many customers are haven’t bought anything through online platforms. So as in the
figure, it shows that 72.5% of respondents have bought (FMCG) goods online before
lockdown and 27.5 respondents haven’t even considered buying (FMCG) goods online.

This question gets the information from the respondents on whether they have ordered
essential (FMCG) goods online or not during the pandemic lockdown due to the COVID-19
situation. So as in the figure, it shows that 89.5% of respondents say that they have bought
essential (FMCG) goods online and only 10.5% say that they haven’t ordered any essential
goods (FMCG) online during lockdown period.

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This question shows that how often respondents buy (FMCG) goods online and 39.2%
respondents say that they buy order online groceries sometimes, 32.7% says that they order
online groceries sometimes, 17.6% respondents say that they order online (FMCG) goods on
a rarely basis and only 2% respondents say that they have never bought goods (FMCG)
through online platform.

Now this question asks respondents that, before they buy online (FMCG) goods, what is the
thing which triggered them to use online platform rather than buying (FMCG) goods through
offline retailers. So, in this 66..7% respondents says that they buy online(FMCG) goods
online For Convenience 22.7% says that they buy online groceries for a better discount, 5.9%
respondents say that they don’t have any specific reason behind on buying goods online and
only 5.2% respondents say that there are some other reasons which convince them to buy
goods (FMCG) online.

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This chart shows that during the pandemic lockdown, the tendency of buying online (FMCG)
goods has increased or not. So, the maximum number of respondents which is 51.6% says
that they agree that during this lockdown they prefer to buy goods (FMCG) online, 35.3
respondents strongly agree on this, 10.5% says that they are neutral on this, which means they
are not sure on this whether the frequency of buying goods (FMCG) goods online, 2%
respondents disagree on this and only 0.7% respondents strongly disagree that it lockdown
period doesn’t increase the frequency of buying goods (FMCG) online.

This Chart shows that 52.3% respondents are very satisfied buying essential goods (FMCG)
online, 38.6% are satisfied, 7.25 respondents give the neutral response which means that they
are not either satisfied nor dissatisfied from buying the goods online (FMCG), 1.3%
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respondents are dissatisfied and only 0.7 respondents says that they are strongly dissatisfied
from buying the essential (FMCG) goods online.

In this question, I asked to the respondents about do they think that E-Commerce is going to
replace the traditional offline shopping of (FMCG) goods. So, 28.8% respondents say that
they agree, that E-commerce is going to replace the offline shopping in future, 27.5%
respondents reacted that they strongly agree on this, 23.5% respondents say that they are not
sure about this whether E-Commerce is going to replace Offline retail shopping in the future
and 17% respondents disagree on this and only3.3% of the respondents strongly disagree that
they don’t think that E-Commerce is going to replace the traditional offline (FMCG)
shopping.

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This chart shows that the E-Commerce (FMCG) goods are playing a vital role during the
lockdown or not. So 51% of respondents strongly agree on this, 37.3% say that they agree on
this statement, 10.5% of respondents are neutral on this, both 0.7% say that they disagree and
strongly disagree over these respondents.

This Chart explains that whether respondents are going to spend more on essential (FMCG)
than before, less than before, the same as before, very less than before, or can’t say. So,

70.6% respondents say that they are going to spend more than before they used to spend,
15.7% respondents says that they can’t say on this, 13.1% responds that they are going to
spend same as before and only 0.7% respondents says that they are going to spend very less
than before on the essential (FMCG) goods.

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In this Chart, it gives information about the respondents whether they are going to buy
(FMCG) goods online in post lockdown. 63.4% respondents say that they are strongly agree
on this statement, 28.8% respondents are agree on this, 10.3% respondents say that they are
neutral on this statement like they are not sure that whether they are going to buy online
(FMCG) goods online or not, 1.3% respondents disagree on this and there are no respondents
who can strongly disagree on this statement.

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CHAPTER – 5

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The finding of the report is as follows: As in the question, I have asked the respondents that they used to purchase essential (FMCG)
goods online or not, so 72.5% said that they are already using the different E-Commerce apps
to order (FMCG) goods online and they are pretty much aware of the E-Commerce services
but in the same question 27.5% respondents have said “NO”, it means that they have never
used the E-commerce website or apps to order the (FMCG) goods online. Now let's follow up
on these respondents and jump to the next question which has been asked to the respondents
“Have you ordered (FMCG) goods online during the lockdown period?” 89.5% of

respondents say that they ordered online(FMCG) goods online and only 10.5% of
respondents say that they haven’t purchased goods(FMCG) goods online.
So if we see both questions together and how our respondents reacted to it, around 72.5%
have purchased them online(FMCG) goods and during this lockdown, the number has
increased to 89.5%. The jump in 17% shows that new E-Commerce customers signed up to
order the online goods during the Pandemic Lockdown due to the COVID-19 situation.
Around 66.7% of respondents say that they buy (FMCG) goods for their Convenience and
22.2% say that for a better discount. So these are the two main factors that are influencing the
customers to use more and more usage of E-Commerce for buying (FMCG) goods online.
And 51.6 respondents Agree that their frequency of buying goods (FMCG) goods online has
increased and 35.3% of respondents strongly agree on this and 10.5% are neutral on this. So,
after getting these strong numbers on increased the buying frequency of the customer, there
could be tons of reasons behind it like, during this pandemic lockdown period people are
more scared to get out of the house, fear that they can take virus from the outside to their
home. Stepping out of the house is the biggest challenge for many people due to COVID-19.
28.8% of respondents Agree that E-commerce is going to replace the offline kirana stores and
27.5% Strongly Agree and 23.5% are not so sure about this whether it is going to replace
with traditional offline shopping and only 17% respondents disagree with this. These number
clearly indicates that more customers are looking at the E-Commerce as the future of their
online Kirana stores, where they can buy from where ever they want, no matter what the
place is.
Over 52% of the respondents are very satisfied are more satisfied with buying (FMCG) goods
online rather than going to the retail store to buy FMCG goods and 38.6% of respondents are
very satisfied with this and 7.25% are neutral on this. This data clearly indicating that most of
the customers are more satisfied with buying goods online rather than going to an offline
Kirana store.
When I asked to the respondents that E-commerce in FMCG goods are playing a vital role in
the lockdown period. 51% are strongly agreed, 37.3 agree and 10.5% are neutral on this
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statement. Over 87% agree that e-commerce has been playing a vital role in every consumer's
life during this lockdown period.
Over 70.5% of respondents say that they are going to spend more than before on buying
FMCG goods online and 15.7% are not sure about it and 13.1% are saying they are going to
spend the same as before. It’s a positive sign that more customers are taking interest in
spending more on online (FMCG0 goods rather than offline retail shops.
63.4% strongly agree and 28.8% agree that they are going to order (FMCG) goods online on
the post lockdown period. Many customers are showing interest to buy groceries online and
not during the lockdown period but after the lockdown, they are interested in buying goods
online, because they are more satisfied with the services of the E-Commerce rather than
offline retail shops.

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CHAPTER–6
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
The research objectives were to identify the following:
-

To analyze the shift in the consumer behavior towards online (FMCG) goods
To identify the customer satisfaction level in buying the FMCG goods online
To analyze the future of the E-commerce in (FMCG) industry.

CONCLUSION

The research has found that the most important aspects of those customers who have never

bought anything (FMCG) goods before have shown interest in buying FMCG goods online.
As in the above charts shows that over 16% sharp jump in the new customers who freshly
signed up to buy goods through an online platform. And over 90% of customers are satisfied
with buying (FMCG) goods online. These number clearly shows that many of the new
customers are shifting towards the online platforms to buy (FMCG) goods online. Not only
the number of new customers has been increasing but also the satisfaction level is also
increasing dramatically. These are because of several reasons like, the person is fear to buy
goods offline due to the COVID-19 virus. So they trust more in the E-commerce industry
rather than buying goods through offline kirana stores. It’s been 2 months since the lockdown
period has started and the hike of the new customers is tremendous. According to some
article demand for the FMCG goods was so high that it's difficult for the E-Commerce
companies to fulfill the demand of the customers. Through this paper, we get the idea that
more and more customers are keeping on adding themselves and becoming a member of the
online E-commerce platform. Many of them believe that the E-commerce industry is going to
replace the traditional way of shopping like offline retailers. This clearly indicates that many
customers are going to rely on the online platforms to buy (FMCG) goods rather than buying
offline.
COVID-19 helps E-commerce to generate more customers because everything was lockdown
and people were scared to step out from their house, so they preferred to buy goods online
and many of the new customers also joined.
As per the survey not only new customers have joined to buy the Essential (FMCG) goods
but the satisfaction level also has increased and most of the customers are going to spend
more on ordering more FMCG goods online rather than going for offline Kirana. The
respondents say that the e-commerce industry played a vital role during the lockdown period
and most of the customers said that they are kept on buying essential (FMCG) goods online
even after the lockdown. Many customers are going to rely on the E-commerce platform to
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