- Title
- Is e-business the saving grace for retailers during Covid-19?
- Creator
- Kruger, Janine
- Subject
- Electronic commerce
- Subject
- COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020- -- Economic aspects
- Subject
- f-sa
- Type
- text
- Type
- Lectures
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/56470
- Identifier
- vital:56687
- Description
- The question can be asked whether e-business is the saving grace for retailers during Covid-19. Without pondering on the question, we will immediately say yes due to the lived experiences we all have as final consumers of retailers. However, before answering the question, it is important to consider what transpired within the retail business environment. The world has turned upside down towards the end of 2019 due to the outbreak of Covid-19 while South Africa felt the effect of Covid-19 as from March 2020. As cited by Verhoef, Noordhoff and Sloot (2022), the retail industry has been heavily affected by the pandemic. Not only has the retail industry been affected, the life of consumers also changed as consumers did not have direct access to their favourite traditional brick-and mortar-retailers. As the customers of these retailers, we have the lived experiences of not being able to patronise these retailers for an extended period of time. Due to the hard lockdown restrictions imposed within the business environment on brick-and-mortar retailers, the retailers had to find different ways to reach and provide need satisfying products to their customers. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO) (2020) and Rindita et al (2021, p.108), the pandemic provided retailers with a good opportunity to develop and adopt an e-commerce strategy that can act as an economic driver. In addition, Gramling, Orschell and Chernoff (2021) state that e-commerce is essential for future existence of businesses. This is evident when considering that the South African e-commerce sector grew by 66% in 2020 when 2 compared to 2019 while in-store shopping has declined by 30% (Kibuacha 2021). These results are expected if we take into account the trading restrictions imposed on brick-and-mortar retailers during the Covid-19 lockdown. In addition, a study by Deloitte in 2021 showed that more than 70% of South African consumers are shopping online at least once a month while citing convenience and saving time for doing so (Kibuacha 2021). However, whether businesses are implementing a new strategy or expand an existing strategy, the brick-and-mortar retailers were required to adapt their strategies with the focus on business survival.
- Format
- 29 pages
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Inaugural lectures
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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Inaugural Lectures
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Prof J anine Kruger Is e-business the saving grace for retailers during Covid-19 08 September 2022.pdf | 422 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |