Corona Lockdown: Demand for Grocery Delivery Apps Surges

How are Retailers Coping With The Mounting Demand?

With coronavirus spreading like wildfire, the situation is only expected to get worse. People are majorly hoarding three things, namely food, face masks, and sanitizers. While face masks and sanitizers are quickly becoming out-of-stock items, the daily essentials are also in short supply on most grocery delivery platforms.

However, the Founder of BigBasket, Mr. Hari Menon dismisses the anxiety among people by saying that all the daily essentials will be back in stock soon. He has also advised people to not hoard on to the supplies. They must only purchase things of absolute necessity to avoid the disruption in the supply chain.

In the meantime, Grofers has decided to cancel all orders that surpass the inventory limit. Apart from that, the company has also issued an “edit order” option that enables the users to add or remove orders, within a time span of 8 hours, as per their requirements.

Easing the anxiety levels, Grofers has also said that apart from a few items that have strict caps on production and those sourced from China, most items will continue to be available, although there may be certain delays in the deliveries.

In a recent report, Amazon mentioned temporarily prioritizing household staples, grocery things, and other high-demand items for its grocery delivery services. Although the quantities will be limited for most high-selling items. To cope with the accelerated demand in the U.S., Amazon has said that it will hire an additional 100,000 employees along with raising the wages and overtime pay for its workers.

But the real question is, how long will they sustain? As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise, the first thought that strikes is to hoard the supplies much before the situation gets worse. So how will these grocery delivery systems keep up with the demand when the entire nation is under a lockdown?

Learn More — How to Develop Grocery Delivery Mobile App

Is It Safe to Buy Groceries Online?

The on-going discussion brings us to our next and perhaps the most important concern, “Is it safe to purchase groceries online amidst the coronavirus pandemic?”

Well, one of the primary reasons why the online sales of groceries have shot up is because of people’s hesitancy to step outside with the threat of the deadly virus looming over.

All the leading online delivery platforms have constantly ensured complete sanitization. Whether it is BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon Fresh, Zomato, Swiggy, Flipkart, or any other leading ecommerce giant, they are all taking precautionary measures to safeguard the security of both delivery partners and the customers.

These delivery platforms have ensured that each and every delivery personnel is aware of the pandemic and takes suitable precautions. These companies have begun disinfecting and sanitizing their warehouses, delivery crates, workstations, etc. on a daily basis. Apart from this, they are promoting cashless payments to keep the delivery executives and customers away from potential exposure.

Moving on, these companies are regularly monitoring the health of their employees. They are requesting the delivery partners to maintain a safe distance from the customers.

Meanwhile, companies like Zomato and Swiggy have also introduced the concept of contactless deliveries to maintain the least contact between the parties. Myntra and Flipkart have also come up with a string of similar hygiene practices to manage their deliveries.

Rise of Online Grocery Delivery Platforms

Cries have a way of accelerating the preordained. All the grocery items and other household goods have witnessed a sales lift from the COVID-19 crisis, which will eventually fade once the emergency has subsided. However, some behavioral changes, like the shift to online shopping is anticipated to be more permanent.

As an increasing number of people get used to online grocery delivery services, the coming years could witness an increase in demand for grocery app development services. And this could call out a new era for the online consumer-staples industry.

Originally published at https://www.emizentech.com on March 31, 2020.