New Delhi | 24th July 2020: The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the logistics sector, and India is now in phase 1 of unlocking where logistics operations have resumed. In its Unlock 1.0- post-lockdown Analysis of Logistics report, Shiprocket, India’s leading tech-enabled logistics aggregator for D2C sellers states an increase in active shippers by 65%.
This report analyzes shipment trends in post-lockdown India in the Direct to Consumer (D2C) sector for a period starting 18th May 2020 till 30th June 2020. With a sample size of over 26,000 sellers, Shiprocket’s report states that 15% of sellers activated post-lockdown were essential sellers. Even though the lockdown was lifted from the non-essential category, the shipment volume for essential products was nearly 3X higher with over 40% of overall volume coming from essential categories when compared to the lockdown period.
An interesting insight has been highlighted about the seller’s future mode of business. When surveyed, 60% of sellers admitted that a blend of both offline and online as demand channels will continue to be the preferred demand channels, while less than 2% of sellers were not sure how the new normal will look like for them.
Further, it was revealed that Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore clocked the highest number of pickups and deliveries which underlines the pent-up demand that was there in these cities during the lockdown. Also sellers in these cities were able to overcome challenges more quickly in becoming operational. While Delhi leads the pickup activities with 26.44% shipments, Mumbai was the top city in terms of delivery with 7.58% shipments. The average delivery time intracity, intrastate, and the interstate was 1.30 days, 2.20 days, and 3.8 days respectively.
The report also mentioned the impact on the business of 90% respondents due to Covid 19.
In the product categories, medicines and groceries were the most shipped items during the lockdown. Post lockdown, health and beauty retail (32%), fashion apparel (28%), and electronics, automobile and accessories (18%) were the top three categories in terms of shipments in the Unlock 1 phase.
Sharing his insights, Mr. Saahil Goel, Co-founder, and CEO of Shiprocket, said, “The 3-month lockdown created a major disruption in the supply chain and the demand to supply ratio was not balanced with the demand increasing exponentially. Our report was based on the patterns and trends observed. Unlock 1.0 has paved the way for a new phase of logistics operations in India. The government has eased restrictions on several aspects of logistics and e-commerce and we look forward to continuing our services in the unlock phase 1 without hindrances in the supply chain and shipping. It’s interesting to see an increased demand for hyperlocal services amidst this pandemic. We hope the situation improves and the world returns to normalcy soon.”
“It was becoming increasingly challenging for our team to continue store operations during the lockdown. Since Unlock 1.0, my online clothing business has witnessed a significant increase in orders by over 40%,” added Leo, owner, Vennila Clothing Company, a seller from a city in Tamil Nadu called, Tiruppur.
The most popular products were anti-bacterial and anti-pollution face mask, baby shampoo, men’s t-shirts and knitted face masks among others.
