Multi-purpose apps facilitating e-commerce growth
In March 2020, most of the world went into lockdown, forcing retail businesses to shut down temporarily. When traditional shopping turned into a challenging experience, people became more dependent on online shopping.
For around the past two years, consumers have grown accustomed to buying goods and services from the comfort of their homes? a change spurred largely by lockdowns and movement restrictions. According to the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), the sale of goods through electronic platforms grew 70 per cent year-on-year in 2020 due to a surge in online shopping amid the pandemic. This shift in shopping behaviour is likely to be permanent and not transitory.
The ongoing pandemic situation has accelerated an expansion of electronic commerce (e-commerce) towards new businesses, consumers, and variations of products. It has provided consumers with access to various products from the convenience of their homes and has enabled businesses to continue operations despite movement restrictions and other confinement measures. E-commerce transactions have now shifted from high-end products and services to everyday necessities such as medicines and grocery items. The dramatic rise in e-commerce is further increasing the demand for such platforms driven by the pandemic.
In today's digital world, numerous apps that facilitate e-commerce businesses have become important worldwide, including in Bangladesh. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, SHAREit, etc., have been helping people keep pace with the snowballing digitization in a tech-dependent world. For example, The Company's deep expertise in growing e-commerce brands has supported e-commerce apps to drive a high share of paying users and eventually boost revenue.
The company specializes in performance marketing and branding solutions and has been helping brands in various industries drive user growth. The app uses unique and customized advertising units and formats as per the brand's requirements and curates campaigns to help them reach an incremental and almost untapped audience.
Over the years, the company has worked with e-commerce players like Daraz to understand and reach underserved consumers better. The app has a highly penetrative reach with a high shopping category app user base and a unique combined utility and entertainment proposition for users. Subsequently, the platform helps brands with a tactical mix of marketing solutions to simultaneously drive explosive awareness and generate installs.
Moreover, in the 13th edition of the AppsFlyer's Performance Index for H1, 2021, SHAREit ranked third in Southeast Asia on the Retention and IAP (in-app purchases) Index for finance and e-commerce categories. As consumers spend more time online, in-app purchases are rising worldwide. Adding to that, mobile banking and contactless payments have emerged as key trends. The company is catalyzing this growth, driving in-app purchases, and assisting businesses to grow and expand.
The global e-commerce market has truly undergone revolutionary change. The current situation continues to reshape our world as more consumers have begun shopping online in greater numbers and frequency. Under these circumstances, apps such as SHAREit are helping to further add to the growing trend of e-commerce channels.
