15 Mar 2020
Online grocery retailers such as Bigbasket and Grofers saw a huge spike in orders over the weekend due to coronavirus. Consumers are stocking up staples like flour, rice, pulses along with sanitisers, diapers and personal care items. This rush to stock up comes as authorities in major metros have asked people to stay at home and have ordered the shutdown of schools, colleges, restaurants, malls and theatres.
Bigbasket CEO Hari Menon told Times of India that he has been camping at the warehouse for the last two days to tackle the surge in orders. "We are seeing 2X (times) kind of growth and baskets are larger by 15-20 per cent," he said. He added that the platform is also witnessing a lot more new users and is now ramping up capacity and increasing storage space, delivery van and personnel. Founder Albinder Dhindsa said that Bigbasket had registered a spike of 5-7 per cent over the week but demand has increased by 80 per cent over the weekend.
Bigbasket does 1.6 lakh deliveries for next-day shipments and 1.4 lakh for its micro delivery business BBDaily. Grofers only does next-day delivery with counts of up to 90,000 orders a day.
The report stated that the sharp increase in demand has also delayed fulfilment of orders. From typical deliveries within 1 day, it is now being delayed to 3-4 days.
Grofers has started implementing limits on hand sanitisers and masks that are now considered essential goods by the government. The report mentioned that the SoftBank- and Tiger Global-backed has also put dynamic restrictions on grocery items.
Grofers also saw a customer in Chandigarh rake up a bill of Rs 52,000. The former record was Rs 24,000.
Other offline retailers like Future Group, Big Bazaar and Easyday has seen a spoke of 20-25 per cent, as mentioned in the daily.
