Digital shopping is gaining momentum after the quake mainly because of safety concerns

KATHMANDU: Online shopping emerges as a safer option for consumers after the April 25 massive earthquake.

Since most of the shopping malls and clustered shops have been damaged by the quake, customers are more likely to shop online which prevents them from paying a visit to those to quake affected shopping complexes.

The online shopping portals, which are yet not so popular, have been experiencing growth in sales after the massive quake.

“Though I was not much of an online shopper, post-earthquake I am inclined to do most of my buys online,” said Adesh Gautam, a resident of Gaushala. According to him, due to the continuous aftershocks he found it safer to pick the necessary items online, which would then be delivered to him without having him go out. Likewise, many necessary items that were out of stock in the market were available here.

“I think the regular shops too have to go online so that both the buyers and sellers would not have to worry about safety while shopping,” he added.

Citing that there is a dramatic increase in the sales after the tremor, Sitaram Rimal, CEO of MeroShopping said, “There is almost 100 per cent increase in the sales and we are trying to emphasize on the mostly sought after items in the present context like tents, air sofa, tarpaulin et cetera.” According to him, they offered services right from the next day of the massive quake. The reasons people opted for digital shopping post-earthquake is because of the safety concern and convenience. “We are trying to make everything available by constantly dealing with our suppliers. Also we are giving special offers on the emergency items like earthquake alarm,” he mentioned.

“The first few days following the quake, there were neither any order placement from local customers nor from the foreign ones. Eventually, it went up as the situation got better,” said Prakiran Shrestha, Co-founder of Sasto Deal adding, “Of late, people are reluctant to go out on their own for shopping and is obvious for them to look for online stores that deliver their purchase to their doorstep.” However, he shared, “The earthquake has also affected the online shopping business like any other businesses,” adding that customers have not been able to come out of the trauma and business promotion has been also halted. “We can’t afford to replace of all those supermarkets but we are trying our best to cater more people by adding products and services,” he stated.

However, Rajesh Ghimire, Founder of HamroStore claimed to have no significant growth in sales as the earthquake crashed the internet. “In most areas, internet is still not working due to the damage in optical fibre and towers because of which customers cannot purchase online,” he said. According to him, there are still problem in delivering goods as most areas are badly affected by the quake. He is hopeful about improvement in the situation once the internet service resumes.