India’s panic buying for staples and groceries is taking place online. In a situation where authorities in the major metropolitan cities have been urging people to stay home, shutting down malls, and restaurants to avoid a mass spread of the coronavirus, online grocery retailers — BigBasket and Grofers have witnessed an almost 80-100% spike in their orders.
Customers have started stocking up food and household items including flour, rice, and pulses along with disinfectants, sanitizers, diapers, and personal care items, said the companies’ top executives to TOI.
Most people are stocking up supplies as they hope to be prepared for a potential quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak which has now been declared as a pandemic by the WHO.
While BigBasket is witnessing a doubled growth with the size of the baskets larger by 15-20%, Grofers sale also spiked 80% over the weekend. This sudden surge in demand has led to delayed order deliveries on these platforms from typically a day to 3-4 days.
On average, BigBasket delivers 1.6 lakh as next day shipments and 1.4 lakh through its micro-delivery business BB Daily. Grofers serves about 90,000 orders per day.
However, in this panic situation, the online grocery delivery majors have faced a sudden jump in the demand, thus, leading to a shortage of inventory and delayed deliveries. Grofers further reported that a bill in Chandigarh valued at Rs 52,000 last week, broke all previous records of Rs 24,000.
In such a scenario when people across the world are being criticized to hoard essential products, both BigBasket and Grofers are trying their best to stop such practices in the country.
They have imposed certain restrictions on grocery items, hand sanitizers, and masks, as they are being deemed as essential goods by the government.
Last week, Grofers CEO Albinder Dhindsa also talked about how Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad are witnessing a five-fold surge in sanitizers and essential items demand in the last three days- highest jump in sales in any category in over six months.
