Online marketplaces are seeing a silver lining in the gloomy coronavirus situation. From grocery and other daily essentials to personal hygiene, these platforms are witnessing a surge in demand in their businesses as multiple cities have temporarily shut malls to contain the pandemic.
E-commerce giants such as Grofers, Bigbasket, Amazon and Snapdeal are seeing a spike in orders as consumers across metros are stocking up staples like rice, atta and pulses besides disinfectants, hand sanitisers and personal care items.
The e-tailers are also shoring up supplies to ensure product availability after popular items, especially in the household staples category, ran out of stocks during the weekend. In the process, deliveries have been delayed.
“We are seeing an increase in people shopping online. In particular, we are running out of stock on some popular brands and items, especially in household staples categories, but we are working round the clock with our seller partners to bring on additional capacity to deliver all the orders,” Amazon India said in a blog.
Summing up actions the company is undertaking, Amazon said it is working to ensure that prices are not artificially raised on the products. The e-tailer said it has also blocked or removed tens of thousands of items, in line with this policy.
A snapdeal spokesperson too said overall order volumes remain strong, with home hygiene products such as floor cleaners, microfiber dusters and towel sets growing faster than usual. Online grocery retailers such as Grofers and BigBasket have seen nearly 100 per cent spike in demand during the weekend as people are mostly working from home and restricting stepping outside to minimise mass gatherings.
“We are witnessing nearly 2X growth in traffic and revenue and baskets are larger by 15-20 per cent,” said Hari Menon, CEO, Bigbasket. On delivery delays, Menon said, “We will face some constraints for a few more days as it takes time to build capacity in terms of shortage and delivery fleet. But, we are working to streamline activities.”
On an average, Bigbasket does over 1.5 lakh deliveries for all its shipments, including its micro-delivery business BBDaily.
Grofers, which does about 90,000 orders a day, also a similar tale to tell. “Cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Pune have seen a higher surge with nearly 80 per cent growth followed by Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad at a 60 per cent spike in business for a 75 per cent growth in national business,” said Albinder Dhindsa, Grofers CEO.
Product-wise, the company said high demand has been observed in disposable categories such as toilet paper, apart from immunity booster items such as honey, staples and personal hygiene.
Demand skyrockets
Online grocery retailers such as Grofers and BigBasket have seen nearly 100 per cent spike in demand during the weekend as people are mostly working from home in a bid to minimise mass gatherings