Snapdeal saw a wave of orders as lockdown eased – but it was only half the average daily size before March 25

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Snapdeal saw a wave of orders as lockdown eased – but it was only half the average daily size before March 25
Snapdeal office in Gurugram
  • 75% of the orders came from green and orange zones.
  • The company saw home products and apparels being the top choice of consumers followed by grooming products.
  • However, the company is still not delivering or accepting orders for non-essential items in red zones, which is a challenging task.
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India’s third-largest e-commerce platform Snapdeal opened up for non-essential deliveries with the relaxation of guidelines after May 3. Snapdeal saw a wave of orders as lockdown eased but the e-commerce platform will have to wait for it to be business as usual again.

75% of the orders for non-essentials came from green and orange zones. “On day one of Lockdown 3.0, we delivered the packets across India from Dehradun to Thiruvananthapuram and from Jamnagar to Jorhat. The day was also met with tremendous enthusiasm and readiness by our sellers who today shipped steel utensils from Salem, footwear from Amritsar and apparel from Gurugram. On Day 1 of the expanded operations, orders have touched 50% of pre-Covid BAU and we expect steady growth as more sellers come online and more areas become serviceable," said a Snapdeal spokesperson.

The company saw home products and apparels being the top choice of consumers with people ordering grooming products, kitchen utensils and appliances, footwear and more. The platform also saw a trend where consumers were buying 3 & 5-packs of t-Shirts or buying undergarments in multi-packs.

However, the company is still not delivering or accepting orders for non-essential items in red zones, which is a challenging task. Snapdeal said that its tech team is working extensively to process the marking of green, orange and red zone products on the platform basis the pin codes.

“For instance, while users across the country will be able to see the entire assortment, users in red zones will not be able to order a non-essential product, while a user in an orange or a green zone will be able to. To illustrate, today a buyer in Gurugram can order a T-Shirt, but a buyer in Delhi cannot. As soon as the user adds or updates her pin code, the availability of products and / or the timelines for delivery get updated accordingly,” said a Snapdeal spokesperson.

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Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated the jump in orders as 24 times. Snapdeal clarified that the surge would be 24x if the additions to 'wishlist' were to be included.

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