Press the button to stay away from the sun

If you can’t go out in the sun to shop, press buttons. A surge in demand for essentials such as groceries and items for daily home use is being reported as more and more consumers are preferring to stay indoors to seek shelter from the searing heat and get things delivered to their doorstep. The rise in demand for deliveries is also raising the demand for manpower to deliver, The Economic Times has reported.

The spike in demand has been dramatic with industry experts estimating the number of deliveries in April exceeding 20 lakh from 12-15 lakh in April last year, which translates to a growth rate between 33% to 66%. These deliveries include those by e-commerce companies and quick commerce platforms.

TeamLease Services, a firm that provides staffing services, estimated that this surge in demand have resulted in hiring of at least 40,000 personnel –10,000 personnel at the operation level at distribution centres of the different platforms and 30,000 more bikers to deliver the orders.

The NCR area which has been suffering a heatwave has recorded a big rise in quick-commerce orders in the first fortnight of May. “The Delhi NCR has grown at almost 2X of overall growth from metro cities,” Ujjwal Chaudhry, partner at consultancy firm RedSeer, told the newspaper.

Predictably, more and more consumers are ordering ice-creams and beverages online apart from groceries to combat the heat. “More than restaurant delivery, grocery delivery is seeing increased demand for bikers,” said Kartik Narayan, chief executive, staffing at Teamlease Services.

Among the companies that have benefitted from the orders, and indirectly from the heat, is Amazon Fresh which is a grocery delivery platform of the MNC. It has reported a spike in demand for ice-cream and dairy products. “We witnessed remarkable growth in both the ice-creams and dairy beverages categories, reflecting a 43% year-on-year increase in units sold for each. Moreover, our customer base expanded with a 20% rise in ice-cream shoppers and a 33% surge in those purchasing dairy and dairy alternative beverages,” remarked Srikant SreeRam, Amazon Fresh director.

“We are seeing 55-60% higher sales on ecommerce and quick-commerce channels in April-May, compared to the same months last year. Overall ice-cream sales across channels including grocery stores, modern trade, ecommerce, pushcarts and ice-cream parlours have increased 40% over last year,” said MD of Amul Jayen Mehta.

Mother Dairy, too, has joined the party. “With peak summers prevailing across most re- of the country, we are witnessing a significant surge in demand in portfolios like ice-creams, curd and beverages across key markets. Ice-creams alone have witnessed a rise of up- wards of 20% compared to the same period last year,” Manish Bandlish, managing director at Mother Dairy, told the newspaper.

However, delivering stuff out in the sun is also a challenge for the delivery personnel. The demand for delivery and warehouse staff has gone up by 20% over the last summer: Companies are revising incentive policies and bettering working conditions for gig workers to encourage them to work in the heat.