E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS CONTINUE TO BE INDIA'S LIFELINE IN LOCKDOWN 3.0

Despite the Government’s decision to open standalone retail stores, e-commerce platforms continue to be the first place where Indians are going to buy basics and essentials…

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E-COMMERCE ORDERS GRADUALLY SCALING BACK TO PRE-LOCKDOWN LEVEL

Sales of non-essential items on e-commerce platforms in the first week of May were lower than last year on account of lockdown, but orders are scaling fast with people buying apparel, smartphones, and grooming products among other items, according to industry executives.

E-commerce companies have been permitted to sell all items in orange and green zones starting from May 4, 40 days after the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25. In the first two phases of the lockdown, e-commerce companies like Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal were allowed to sell only essential items like grocery, medicines, and healthcare products, according to a PTI report.

Depending on the number of cases of coronavirus infections, areas have been divided into red, orange, and green zones. However, in the red zones that include top e-commerce hubs like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad, e-commerce companies can still ship only essential items.

While people are going online to buy items like chargers, extension cords, notebooks, and pens to facilitate work and study from home, they are also picking up grooming products like trimmers, games like chess, monopoly and carom, and books across genres, a senior industry executive said.

The person added that since delivery of non-essentials is still not allowed across the country, the volume is less compared to previous year. However, against March numbers (pre-lockdown), the growth is certainly healthy. Another challenge facing the industry is the availability of limited manpower for warehouses and delivery.

“Our order volumes grew rapidly and swiftly reached 50 per cent of prelockdown volumes within five days of expanded operations. Compared year-on-year, the order volumes for the first 9 days of May 2020 was 52 percent of volumes in the same period last year,” a Snapdeal spokesperson told