E-com firms spruce up supply chain as online orders rise

E-commerce players are sprucing up their supply chain to ensure availability of products as the demand for online products have increased due to Covid-19 fears.

The pandemic fears is making more and more people go online for their purchases and availability has become a key issue for e-commerce companies, especially those who sell everyday products, to tackle.

"As Covid-19 has spread, we have recently seen an increase in people shopping online. In the shortterm, this is having an impact on how we serve our customers. In particular, you will notice that we are currently out of stock on some popular brands and items, especially in household staples categories. You will also notice that some of our delivery promises are longer than usual. We are working around the clock with our selling partners to ensure availability on all of our products, and bring on additional capacity to deliver all of your orders," Amazon said in a blog.

Flipkart too has upped its preparedness in the wake of the outbreak. "Our trial to check our system preparedness has given us the confidence that our teams will be able to meet their commitments to our customers and sellers. Our supply chain and last mile delivery operations will continue to take necessary precautions while meeting our commitment to customers," Flipkart said.

In times of shortage, sellers also tend to increase the prices of essential goods. Artificial price escalation by the sellers is another issue that most of the e-commerce players are looking into.

"All essential supply chains are functioning normally, both at Grofers and its suppliers. The company is committed towards sticking to honest pricingat a time when market prices are sky rocketing,' said Grofers.

“We are also working to ensure that no one artificially raises prices on basic need products during this pandemic and have blocked or removed tens of thousands of items, in line with our long-standing policy. We actively monitor our store and remove offers that violate our policy,” said Amazon.