As the country looks to open up several activities starting May 18, barring in containment zones, the e-commerce industry is hoping to restart deliveries of all products in metro cities where they have so far been allowed to deliver only essentials supplies as the cities were classified as red zones. However, the industry will now have to wait for states to issue guidelines and specify if e-commerce for non-essential products will be allowed in red zones.

The government’s lockdown 4.0 order to be implemented from May 18 specifies that all activities will be permitted, except those specifically prohibited, such as schools, malls, metro services, except in containment zones. The order said that only essential services will be allowed in containment zones.

In the first two phases of the lockdown, e-commerce companies were allowed to deliver only essential products, which was relaxed from May 4 in green and orange zones. Deliveries of other goods were prohibited in red zones, which includes top metros like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad among others.

“The government seems to have created a negative list of a few prohibited activities and said that other activities will be allowed outside containment zones. This could apply to ecommerce as well. However, we will now have to wait for state governments to issue guidelines,” said an industry member, requesting anonymity.

Paytm Mall said it will start taking and delivering orders of all products across metros from May 18.

Srinivas Mothey, Senior Vice President, Paytm Mall told CNBCTV18.com, "We thank the government for taking the decision for allowing the delivery of non-essentials in red zones across the country. This move will help us deliver to most of the metro cities which presently fall in the red zones. We have received a sizeable number of consumer electronics wishlist orders from metro cities where people have been waiting to buy laptops, mobile phones, as well as other daily use items for the last several weeks now. The government's decision will also help in opening up supplies of consumer electronics from warehouses which are in the red zones. We have already had discussions with our merchant and logistics partners and will start taking orders and delivering from Monday itself. We are ensuring that all state and central guidelines are followed to operate in the red zones.

E-commerce platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and others had started delivering non-essentials in green and red zones, but a good part of the demand comes from top metros. Pre-COVID, demand for e-commerce from metros was 50 percent of total demand, as per Forrester.

First Published:May 17, 2020 10:04 PM IST