Ecommerce to restart services from today

Ecom industry about to witness start of activities

Monday, 18th May 2020

Full service E-commerce is likely to resume from today onwards in all the major parts of the country in accordance with the greater relaxation norms in this 4th phase of nationwide lockdown. However, industry watchers are still looking forward to the decision of the respective state governments in this regard.

Latest order from Union Home Ministry states that states are allowed to go forward with all other types of activities except for the ones that are specifically disallowed under the rules laid down during this 4th phase of lockdown which is supposed to end on the 31st of May 2020.

But in the containment zones there’ll be restrictions. Only essential activities can take place in the containment zones. After thorough assessment of the prevailing situation, the governments of the states as well as Union Territories may stop a couple of other activities in the various areas or may impose restriction if found needed.

Emails were sent to two major ecommerce giants Amazon India and Flipkart but no response came in yet.

Srinivas Mothey, Senior VP of Paytm Mall said that this initiative will allow delivery of company goods to the metropolitan cities of the country that were in the red zone so long.

In this context, it is worth quoting Mothey: "We thank the government for taking the decision for allowing the delivery of non-essentials in red zones across the country. This move will help us deliver to most of the metro cities which presently fall in the red zones”
 

He also added that their company has obtained a long train of wishlist orders of electronic goods from the various metropolitan cities.

"...people have been waiting to buy laptops, mobile phones, as well as other daily use items for the last several weeks now. The government's decision will also help in opening up supplies of consumer electronics from warehouses which are in the red zones," he said.

He also said that their company has already spoken to their logistic partners and their merchants and are planning to take orders from Monday itself and even delivering goods from the same day.

He further said: "We are ensuring that all state and central guidelines are followed to operate in the red zones. In the coming week, we hope for more relaxations in the interstate movement of non-essential goods so that e-commerce activity scales up,"

One of the renowned industry executives (name undisclosed) stated that companies are looking for more clarity on the change of norms regarding the resuming of ecommerce services and expecting the same from the state governments after which they would go ahead with the resumption.

A spokesperson from Snapdeal said that the guidelines from MHA may lead to a broader scope for resumption of the economic activities throughout the country.

He further said: "E-commerce has played a crucial role in the last two months by delivering a range of much-needed goods to consumers - within the safety of their homes. Our sellers and delivery partners have worked extensively to meet these requirements while exercising strict safety measures and we applaud their commitment in rising to the occasion,"

He also added that the company is now "ready and equipped" to offer its service to customers nationwide – in all 3 zones; i.e. green, orange and red zones - and said that this development may help lakhs of small as well as medium e-sellers to reconstruct their businesses anew.

In the initial 2 phases of the nationwide lockdown (that started on March 25), e-commerce companies weren’t allowed to sell anything other than the essential goods. Only essential items from the categories like healthcare, pharmaceuticals and grocery were allowed to be sold so long.

The 2nd phase of nationwide lockdown was followed by the 3rd phase that started on 4th May and during this 3rd phase these ecommerce companies were allowed to sell both essential as well as non-essential goods in the green as well as orange zones of the country but in the red zones comprising of most renowned ecommerce hubs such as Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad, they were allowed sell only the essential goods.

Stats reveal that the non-essential goods sale on the various ecommerce platforms in May’s first week had dropped in comparison to what it was last year but gradually non-essential goods related orders started scaling speedily as more and more people started making purchases of grooming products, smartphones, apparel among the various other products.

But the ecommerce industry is currently facing challenges like dearth of manpower for delivery and for the warehouses.

Apart from ecommerce, Cab-hailing services such as Uber, Ola etc too may resume their services across various locations.

The MHA guidelines stated that inter-state and intra-state plying of the passenger vehicles may start depending on the governmental consents coming from the various states as well as Union Territories of the country.

However, these activities will be subject to some sort of restrictions. In the containment zones, rules will be stricter and activities will not be allowed. Also for the movement or traveling of people the set SOPs need to be abided by.

Uber and Ola diid not yet answer the queries made through email.

Sorce: NDTV