China's e-commerce online applications and product deliveries were found to be the key driver of keeping the country's economy afloat. Companies such as Alibaba instantly deployed necessities and other goods to households in Wuhan and Beijing aiding residents to refrain from entering public supermarkets to stock on their daily needs.
According to Harvard Business Review, digital technology has been the main driver of China's population in recent months. After lockdowns were imposed in provinces such as Wuhan, e-commerce platforms have delivered grocery items, medical supplies, and other equipment to households. The service was found necessary after the lockdowns were announced due to stock shortage in grocery stores and other markets.
The review revealed that China coped with the public health crisis mainly due to two factors: digitally-enabled delivery systems and customer familiarity with online shopping in the country. It was explained that residents in China's major cities have resorted to online shopping to purchase their necessities. The service allowed them to acquire items and have them delivered to their doorstep within 20 minutes.
It was also highlighted that one of the companies that offered this service was tech giant Alibaba's Cainiao. The platform supports supply chains of several merchants that offer the purchase of their products via artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital inventory system. The method would like online and offline shopping platforms where merchants' physical stores could extend the distribution of their products.
As a result, the report revealed that soon after the lockdown in Wuhan was implemented, food and medical supplies were easily deployed to the province via online purchases.
On the other hand, it was also explained that for the past five years, Chinese residents have been using the services of e-commerce companies such as JD.com, Alibaba Group, and Meituan Dianping (MTDP) and popularized the country's online purchasing behavior. The method also rendered the traditional way of buying goods obsolete in times of crisis where social distancing was mandated.
In 2019, China's e-commerce industry has generated retail sales of up to 36.6 percent. About 71 percent of the Chinese population have also been transacting online with the use of their smartphones, 80 percent of such transactions were dedicated to e-commerce.
The report then claimed that digital maturity in China helped save the country establish a social solution to food and supply shortage in the country. It was then noted that the US and Europe may not successfully adopt this method in times of crisis since their economies are not digitally mature.
It was then revealed that in 2019 alone, US consumers only generated 16 percent of retail sales in using online platforms such as Amazon and other US e-commerce hubs. The yield was said to be achieved by China four years before 2019.
