E-commerce firms witness 2X rise in orders, gear up for second Covid wave

States such as Maharashtra and Delhi, which reported most cases, have taken the lead in terms of the 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 twice the demand for products, especially essentials and groceries.

Places such as Maharashtra and Delhi, which reported most cases, have taken the lead in terms of demand from customers ordering essentials and groceries online.

“The number of orders for the e-commerce companies has increased by almost 2X compared to business as usual,” said an industry executive, who did not wish to be named.

According to Seshu Kumar Tirumala, National Category Head of bigbasket, the firm is seeing growth in essential items like foodgrains, oils, atta, masalas, fruits and vegetables, meats and dairy products. Maharashtra, which has had a recent surge in cases and imposed a 15-day curfew from Wednesday except on essential services, has been 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 slots availability went from delivery in a few hours to as much as two days.

Essentials 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 firms such as Flipkart, Amazon have scaled up hiring of delivery partners to meet the demand. Many of these personnel, who are migrants, may return to their hometowns and it will be a challenge to bring them back. “Based on the surge in demand, we're hiring more and creating backup as a number of people may end up going back to their hometowns.”

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 additonal 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 Delhi and NCR where they have extensive set ups”, said  said Sachin Taparia, Founder and Chairman, LocalCircles. “While demand for home delivery of essentials has gone up, we are not seeing stock outs at on a broad basis, largely because in most locations weekend restrictions and night curfews are not limiting movement of essential goods,” he added. 

However, some executives said there are places including Chhattisgarh, which have delegated the power completely to the districts and every district magistrate is passing his or her own orders. “Chhattisgarh has not allowed e-commerce and in Madhya Pradesh, only essentials are allowed via e-commerce, but the definition of essentials today is very different from the list created long ago,” said the person. “Thankfully all other states are supporting e-commerce as they understand its need.”

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

Though the government largely supports e-commerce considering the empirical evidence that it plays an important role in the fight against Covid-19, 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. “Nobody is saying that you have to keep the physical shops switched off,  they can use home delivery a lot more effectively and this won’t impact their livelihood.”

The availability of products is not an issue yet because supply chains are moving, unlike last year's complete lockdown, said another executive with an e-commerce firm. However, people in States with a high number of cases are preferring to shop online for essentials and things like clothes.

"With movement restrictions being introduced in various parts of the country, buyers are choosing the safety of shopping from home. 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 fridge water bottles along with anti - bacterial wipes and sanitisers," said a spokesperson for Snapdeal.

Other items that are finding a lot of buyers are children's school or entertainment related items like printing paper, colours and art and craft items.

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 the safety of its teams continues to be the firm's top priority. 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. This is done in an effort to ensure that employees, associates, partners and support staff are healthy.

Face covering continues to be mandatory for all Amazon associates, delivery service partners, Amazon Flex participants and other partners and associates in all our sites and when out on delivery.

“All orders are delivered through no contact delivery where the delivery associate rings the bell, leaves the package at the doorstep and steps back 2 meters, following social distancing guidelines for their safety,” said the Amazon spokesperson.

Additionally, all delivery associates regularly sanitize their hands, clean frequently touched surfaces of their vehicles and are always mandated to wear a face-covering while making a delivery.

Similarly, Flipkart said it continues to follow the highest safety and SOPs (standard operating procedures) 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 as expected while delivering shipments," said a Flipkart spokesperson.

The confusion surrounding Maharashtra's order on e-commerce deliveries

Maharashtra's orders to allow only essential e-commerce deliveries has once again led to confusion among both the e-commerce firms and customers. The situation is similar to last year, when many clarifications were issued by the Centre on what constitutes essential goods. However, because the Maharashtra curfew orders are in force for 15 days, e-commerce firms are in a wait and watch mode.

"At a high level, we seem to have gone by a year and not learnt much. E commerce has to be allowed to deliver products that consumers’ needs. That is the only way we can encourage people to stay at home. Maharashtra government seems to have missed this important aspect,” said K Narasimhan, Advocate, Madras High Court

“Maharashtra government needs to at least allow the e commerce industry to cater to the people for all products and not essentials. That is the only way to safeguard the interests of micro and small sellers as well as consumers,” said Vinod Kumar, President, India SME Forum.