Amazon, Flipkart and E-commerce bringing a change in people's lives ..

 Ever since the country went for a lock down in mid march, I have not visited any major store for shopping. It has been provision stores, vegetable stores and milk booths, no where else, that too rarely. And who is able to manage most of my shopping for me ? It has been Amazon for the past seven months, and of late Flipkart has also been added.

It is because of the social distancing and less willingness to experiment and try with new operators. We have been looking at safe methods of shopping and Amazon and Big Basket fitted the bill perfectly. As our dependence on both of these sites increased , I was worried whether their performance would fail. I was proved wrong again. Not only have they met my expectations of great customer service, they have in most cases exceeded it.

One area where I found both Amazon and Big Basket giving their best performance has been in the area of ON-TIME DELIVERY.  If they promise a time and date, delivery will inevitably happen on that day and time.

This timely delivery helped the customers in many ways - 

• This enabled customers to plan for other activities in their work life. 
• The timeliness in delivery actually eased the customer's life (variability in the delivery process was low)
  
• reduced tensions because of  late or no arrival. 
• for vegetables and home provisions one could do deep planning for the next two weeks on what to purchase, when and in what quantities
• accordingly money kept as stock at home for emergencies, got reduced or was released for other functions, as emergencies or shocks were less. In other words, as variability of the ordering and delivery process reduced, it led to better inventory storage policy, inventory accuracy and less wastage.

Amazon has been offering products at great discount to market prices resulting in direct benefits to the customer, this was another reason for customer satisfaction. 

Amazon and Flipkart continue to surprise us with their wide variety of offerings.

As customers shops we have not visited during the past six months may never find us in their premises, because Amazon has disrupted the system very much. It has disrupted the shopping behaviour of customers in ways that have changed our lives for ever. 

The cost benefits of low petrol consumption, no driving vehicle, no waiting, no traffic, no vehicle damage in case of an accident, in the process reducing chances of Covid infecton, avoiding waste of time and additionally cost benefits from Amazon has made shopping more comfortable and attractive for us through Amazon and Flipkart.

E-commerce is here to stay as is online teaching and on-line meetings .. ..

George..