Flipkart, Amazon gear up for revival of demand for online shopping

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Monday said it really is awaiting advisories from different states for resuming full services, including in red zones, a day after Home Ministry's guidelines on lockdown 4.0 were released.

According to Union Home Ministry's order on Sunday, "all the activities will be permitted, except those that are specifically prohibited" under the fourth phase of the lockdown that ends on May 31.

However, in containment zones, only essential activities will be allowed.

States and union territories, predicated on their assessment of the problem, may prohibit certain alternative activities in a variety of zones or impose such restrictions as deemed necessary, the order had added.

In the first two phases of the lockdown (that started from March 25), e-commerce companies were allowed to sell only essential items like grocery, healthcare and pharmaceutical products.

In the 3rd phase (May 4-17), these platforms were permitted to sell all items in orange and green zones, but only essential items were permitted to be shipped in red zones, including top e-commerce hubs like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.

An Amazon India spokesperson said the most recent development gives a fillip to the six lakh retailers and MSMEs on its marketplace and help revive economical activity broadly.

E-commerce platforms have already been adversely impacted during the lockdown, as groceries, which made up the majority of their delivery activity, makes up about a small part of online sales.

Sales of non-essential items on e-commerce platforms in the first week of May, after sales of such items were allowed in green and orange zones, were less than last year due to the lockdown. However, industry executives said orders were scaling as people bought apparel, smartphones and grooming products among other items, in these zones.

The industry continues to handle the challenge of availability of limited manpower for warehouses and delivery.

Paytm Mall said it saw a 50 % surge in sales for grooming products like shavers, trimmers, epilators, hair straighteners and styling products and hair dryers, from tier II and III cities in-may over March.

Most trimmers were sold in cities like Lucknow, Raipur, Guwahati, Belgaum, Nagpur, Surat, and other smaller cities.

The company said it has additionally seen a steady upsurge in the quantity of female shoppers from smaller towns on its platform.

Industry body IAMAI said digital services till date have helped ease the burden of lockdown with services facilitating home based, e-commerce, edutech, digital payments and digital entertainment.

"Even as lockdown 4.0 is extended, the country is looking at a fresh normal where social interactions are bound to be severely distorted, either under injunction or public awareness or concerns. Digital platforms are the only plausible medium for both businesses and customers in the coming days and needs to be strengthened," the web and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said.

It added that the "bold and emerging Indian tech start-up sector is a lot more than capable to create a self-reliant digital services sector that may cater to the needs of the united states in the brand new normal".