E-TAILERS SEE 2 TIMES RISE IN ORDERS AMID COVID SURGE

With the rise in Covid cases as well as night curfew in several cities, e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal are witnessing at least double demand for products, especially essentials and groceries. Places such as Maharashtra and Delhi have seen the highest demand from customers ordering essentials and groceries online.

With the rise in Covid cases as well as night curfew in several cities, e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal are witnessing at least double demand for products, especially essentials and groceries.

Places such as Maharashtra and Delhi, which reported the most number of cases, have seen the highest demand from customers ordering essentials and groceries online.

“The number of orders for e-commerce companies has increased by almost 2x compared to normal business,” said an industry executive.

According to Seshu Kumar Tirumala, national category head of Bigbasket, the firm is seeing growth in essential categories like foodgrains, oils, atta, masalas, fruits and vegetables, meats and dairy products.

Maharashtra saw a recent surge in cases and imposed a 15-day curfew from Wednesday, except on essential services. It is leading the pack in orders, he added.

Amazon had a banner on its main page saying it was taking orders only for essential items and deliveries may take longer than usual. Similarly for Bigbasket, delivery slot availability went from a few hours to as much as two days.

Essential items such as rice, wheat, pulses, baby food, milk and dairy products, and fruits and vegetables were also seeing high demand, industry executives said.

The other important items include hygiene products such as soaps, sanitary pads, sanitisers, and masks.

E-commerce companies such as Flipkart and Amazon have scaled up hiring of delivery partners to meet the demand. Many of these personnel are migrants and several of them may go back to their hometowns. It will be a challenge to encourage them to return. “Based on the surge in demand, we are hiring more and creating backup as a number of people may end up going back to their hometowns.”

However, some executives said there are places, including Chhattisgarh, which have delegated the power completely to the districts and every district magistrate is passing its own order.

“Chhattisgarh has not allowed e-commerce and in Madhya Pradesh, only essentials are allowed via e-commerce. However, the definition of essentials today is very different from the list that was created last year,” said the person. “Thankfully, all other states are supporting e-commerce as they understand its need,” he added.

Chhattisgarh has enforced complete lockdown in some districts as cases continue to rise in the state.

Though the government is largely supportive of e-commerce as it promotes social distancing and contactless delivery, there is pressure from offline trade bodies and political lobbying.

“They may or may not allow e-commerce at all or only allow it for essentials,” said a person. He added, “Nobody is saying that you have to keep the physical shops closed. They can use home delivery a lot more effectively and this won’t impact their livelihood.”

An analysis of raw data on community platform Localcircles shows that about 21 per cent urban households are likely to buy their essentials online in the month of April as compared to 16 per cent in March and 11 per cent in February.

"This additional demand is already putting stress on the delivery times of major e-grocery providers whose promised delivery time has more than doubled even in locations like Delhincr where they have extensive set ups,” said Sachin Taparia, founder and chairman, Localcircles. “While demand for home delivery of essentials has gone up, we are not seeing stock-outs on a broad basis, largely because in most locations weekend restrictions and night curfews are not limiting movement of essential goods,” he added.

A spokesperson for Snapdeal, meanwhile, said, “While traffic and orders have increased pan-india, this is more pronounced in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi-ncr and West Bengal. We are seeing heightened orders for summer season items like apparel, including kids’ summer clothes and shoes, household goods like refrigerator water bottles along with anti-bacterial wipes and sanitisers.”

Children’s school or entertainment-related items like printing paper, colours, art and craft items are also in demand.

Ensuring delivery executives’ safety

E-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart both said they’re paying special attention to the well-being of their employees, delivery executives, sellers and others in the supply chain. Amazon said it is taking measures, including increased frequency and intensity of cleaning at all sites. The firm is continuing to have temperature checks at entry and exit points at all fulfilment centres, sort centres and delivery stations in India.

Similarly, Flipkart said it continues to follow the safety and standard operating procedures (SOPS) that it developed and institutionalised over the last several months. “We are also taking definitive steps to meet the growing demand for e-commerce services across the country by hiring more people and ensuring they are tested for Covid-19 while delivering shipments,” said a Flipkart spokesperson.