Cold chain and domination over Tier 2, 3 & 4 cities emerging trends in Indian e-commerce 

August 8, 2020: The Indian e-commerce stakeholders are of the opinion that investments are directed towards the technology that could automate e-commerce operations while cold chain and e-comm dominance in Tier 2,3 & 4 cities are the emerging trends in the post-Covid-19 era.

The experts representing different e-commerce stakeholders believe that the offline shops will be soon back into the business as and when Covid-19 fears disappear while e-commerce will have a huge market surge in 2023 inspired by the chaos that is happening now while admitting that the logistics system is still not very robust in terms of handling the changes and disruptions.

They were speaking in a webinar organised by Indian Transport & Logistics News and presented by Rapid Delivery on August 6, 2020, on the topic ‘The Covid-19: Adapting to the new normal for e-commerce logistics’.

Dibeyendu Ganguly, chief executive officer & founder, Eximscouts, said, “We were purely into cross border e-commerce, but in Covid-19 times we have explored almost everything, expanded and shifted to the domestic market as well. There was a tremendous dip in cross border e-commerce volumes. We have also witnessed a huge amount of cancellations of orders during Covid-19 lockdowns due to delays in shipments. There is complete chaos among seller community about what to do and what not to do due to fluctuating customer demands. For example, there was a sudden surge in June while in July most of them disappeared.”

“We have some strange requests coming in wanting to come into e-commerce. People who are into cold storage want to sell pan India. There is an excitement about getting online and selling internationally but the system is not very robust in terms of paper works for example it has to go through a channel of customs. Last-mile delivery is the biggest challenge. Within six to eight months all sellers will go online in one or the other way, through their own web stores or marketplaces,” he said.

Be transparent to your customer
Aaqyl Chagla, chief executive officer, Rapid Delivery, said, “Safety of our personal is something we are very keen on. Luckily, we never had any of our staff got Covid-19. That really helped. Even if one staff gets Covid-19, you have to end up quarantine the entire staff. You have to search for a new batch which will put so much of strain on the company. E-commerce is a daily thing wherein there are shipments every day. We even had plans ready with alternate teams ready.”

“Being in the last-mile and the one directly interacting with the customers, social distancing, contactless OTP based delivery system is the new norm for us. Lot more developments in terms of technology and operational processes to smoothen and improve customer experience. Also being transparent about our capability and when we could deliver helped us to avoid cancellations,” he added.

In the last three to four months, we saw a massive sale of rakhis during the Rakshabandan and ethnic wear during Eid. Luckily India is a place of a lot of festivals and people take festivals very seriously. So these commodities contribute a lot to the e-commerce volumes for us.

Pharma e-comm cold chain is coming
Varum Mimani, head fulfilment operation, 1mg, said, “On-demand side, we saw a 12-month volume request in just one month. On the supply side, both the first-mile and last-mile had so much confusion and couldn’t match the supplies up to the demand. It was too much demand and lack of goods.”

“We are getting into a strategic partnership with few pharmaceutical companies for vaccination and high-value medication around migraines and oncology which also require cold chain. A lot of orders are coming from Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4 cities. Covid-19 crippled the supply chains and made access to healthcare difficult. Suppliers are not able to send stuff to these places. We are seeing a lot of demand from these places. Air shipments used to take 3-4 days earlier, but now it takes 5-6 days. Surprisingly users are willing to wait and willing to come back again,” he commented.

Offline will be back soon; e-comm results will be out by 2023
HS Purushotham, e-national supply chain head, More, said, “More had its highest ever sales happened in March. The relationship between the modern stores and vendors also started to change as in March we started asking our vendors how much inventory they have since they started to diversify their supply in different ways. People started to purchase grocery from nearby Kirana stores instead of supermarkets.”

“If earlier it was all about ensuring a steady supply of goods to attract people and bring them back to the store, now the safety of people has become a priority and stores has to provide a sense of safety to its customers. Offline retail comes back once the Covid-19 disappears and in 2023 we will see a surge with good volumes,” he said.