While recent decisions to end most coronavirus restrictions in Estonia have impacted online shops of major food retailers, volumes have stabilized at a higher level than previously, traders say.
Companies invested heavily in e-platforms and home delivery when the coronavirus pandemic started and restrictions were strictest two years ago. E-commerce exploded and even though grocery stores and supermarkets never closed, it was easier to have shopping delivered to the doorstep in the crisis.
Now that the obligation to wear a mask has been abolished as the last social restriction to be lifted, customers are returning to shops in person, Kristjan Anderson, head of business estimation for the Selver chain of supermarkets, has said.
“To compare recent weeks to the start of the year, the decline has been 10-15%,” Anderson said.
He added that e-commerce volumes grew in magnitudes when Covid first hit and current volumes remained way ahead of the pre-pandemic situation.
Anna Maria Naanuri, head of communications for Maxima’s home delivery service Barbora, said that they had not noticed a slump in online orders lately.
E-commerce has become a convenience service so far, she said, adding that changes in the number of online orders rather depended on the weather.
“Our peak time is the fall-winter season when the customer is inconvenienced by going shopping. Poor weather sends customers looking for a more convenient alternative, so I would not associate fluctuation with restrictions,” Naanuri said.
Head of e-commerce for Prisma Peremarket supermarkets Sven-Erik Veimer said that the number of e-orders had not fallen considerably, while people’s shopping preferences had changed. He explained that while online orders of training equipment, clothes and household goods had fallen, groceries volumes remained unchanged. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
