The Government of India recently announced the fourth phase of nationwide lockdown but with some relief to businesses. E-commerce companies who were only delivering essential products until now, are finally allowed to deliver all products in the red zones.
As per the new guidelines issued on May 17 for the third extension of the lockdown, the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed delivery of non-essential products in the red zones providing a huge relief to E-commerce companies.
Although the MHA order clearly did not mention whether the delivery of non-essential goods in red zones was permitted, upon visiting these websites one can now easily order products that were earlier not deliverable.
While Amazon looks fully operational for the delivery of non-essential items in the red zones, Snapdeal has a limited number of products deliverable in that zone. Flipkart is yet to update on this and currently not delivering non-essentials in red zones.
Earlier in the third phase of lockdown, the government had allowed the delivery of non-essential items in Green and Orange zones but in red zones only essential products were allowed to be delivered.
According to industry experts, large e-commerce companies were forced to focus on delivering non-essentials only in smaller cities, despite delivery norms being eased during Lockdown 3.0, as major cities continued to be in the red zones. Metros and Tier 1 cities contribute close to 70% of total e-commerce orders. These firms were only delivering items like medicines and groceries in the red zones which only comprises a small percentage of their sales.
Welcoming the government’s move, Snapdeal in a statement said that the move will pave the way for a broader resumption of economic activities across most parts of India.
The recent order further stated that in containment zones, only essential activities will be allowed. There would be strict perimeter control to ensure no movement of people in or out of these zones, except for medical emergencies and for maintaining the supply of essential goods and services.
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