COVID-19 lockdown: Surge in online purchases slows down deliveries

Delivery time has increased from a few hours to four days in Bengaluru

Bengaluru and many tier-2 and tier-3 cities of Karnataka have been witnessing an unprecedented surge in online orders for groceries and food items over the last five days. Many households in Bengaluru are planning to depend on home deliveries (34% via e-com sites and 16% from local stores) as their primary channel of purchase in the next three months, indicating a quantum jump from 21% in February and 33% in March this year, as per data shared by LocalCircles, a community platform that tracks data across spaces. Harish Bijoor, founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., said, “The word lockdown provokes a sentiment to stock up. And that is exactly what is happening today.”