Amar Chitra Katha: Digitizing the Children's comic book business during COVID-19

Abstract

It was the mid of March 2020 when India witnessed a sudden increase in number of Covid-19 cases and the prime minister announced the complete lockdown in India. All the offices, shops, academic institutions closed immediately. The Amar Chitra Katha team also faced the blunt of the sudden lockdowns with the offices closing on 16th March. Preeti was extremely worried about the financial impact of these lockdowns on the businesses like comics which was heavily dependent on offline retail channel. Nearly 70% of the business for ACK came from the retail channel and 80% of that business came from the Tier-1 & Tier 2 cities. Pandemic had disrupted this major distribution channel. On the other hand, ACK had to shut down their website as they could not fulfil the orders. It was getting logistically difficult to pack & deliver the orders. Some warehouses were in sealed areas; hence inventory was stuck. Some customers were getting irritated because of the delays. ACK wanted to avoid any such negative publicity hence they decided to shut down the website-based retail operations.