Industry body IAMAI has appealed to the government to provide level playing field to e-commerce companies in the red zones. Under the revised guidelines issued on 1 May 2020 via Notification No. 40-3/2020-DM-i(A) “standalone shops” selling all items have been allowed to be opened in the red zones, while e-commerce companies are still limited to supplying only “essential items”. This according to the association, has put the single brand, multi-brand and direct to consumer e-commerce companies at a disadvantaged position.
Therefore, the association has requested that priority products like kitchenware essentials; small electrical appliances; summer products e.g. coolers, spares of all machines; clothing of certain types; work from home essentials like laptops, routers, chargers, mobiles; wooden furniture like table, chair; educational materials e.g. books, products for children like children puzzles & toys; personal care items for personal hygiene; home essentials like mattresses be allowed for delivery by e-commerce services in the Red and Containment zones as well.
The association further offered that for Contamination Zones, the Government may permit such priority products to be delivered at the periphery of containment zones or housing clusters within large containment zones.
The opening of standalone shops has created two additional operational issues which are not good from a public health perspective.
Firstly, it is already being observed that such openings are creating massive crowding for certain kinds of commodities, that raises the risk of contagion. This is bound to happen given that after over 40 days of confinement, households have a pent-up demand for several items that go beyond the essential list allowed till date by the government. Going forward, the risk of contagion is expected to rise as further establishments are allowed to operate ‘physically’ without e-Commerce catering to part of the pent-up demand.
Secondly, standalone shops are a rarity in some places where commercial marketplaces and community centres are predominant forms of retail. Residents in such areas are still hard-pressed to access certain commodities because standalone shops catering such commodities do not exist in their immediate vicinity, thereby forcing them to venture further from home in search of such shops.
IAMAI stated that these moves will ease lives for the millions of households living under lockdown in the Red and Containment zones and help enforce Social distancing better in these critical areas.