Locked Delhi: Cos fear mass order cancellations | Economic Times

A complete lockdown in New Delhi — limiting online retail deliveries to essential goods, and curbing interstate and intrastate movement of non-essentials — could trigger a massive pileup of inventory at the state’s borders, and lead to mass cancellations by consumers, according to industry executives.The Delhi government guidelines announced on Monday may cause widespread disruption in ecommerce activities in the National Capital, they said. Delhi’s curbs follow Rajasthan’s, where ecommerce firms can only deliver essential products but there is no restriction on goods movement. Last week, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, as well as a few districts in other states with high Covid-19 caseloads, issued similar orders, curbing ecommerce in a bid to stem rapid spread of the virus.“Unless the (Delhi) government issues a clarification, we are going to have a repeat of last year’s fiasco, where trucks will be parked at borders with crores worth of inventory stuck,” said a person cited above.“A lot of trucks will also be carrying essential goods and some of these have short shelf-lives. But we can’t empty out these trucks and get them through at the border,” the person said.Essentials’ Transport Not SegregatedIn Delhi, ecommerce delivery and warehouse workers have also been forced to queue up for e-passes mandated by the government, placing them at high-risk, according to industry executives, who fear “the cumulative effects of the government’s restrictions will bring ecommerce to a standstill in Delhi.”On Monday, the state government said it would allow only “delivery of essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment through ecommerce.” The guidelines, which permit interstate and intrastate movement of only essential goods, will also impact goods in transit, executives pointed out, specifically because goods deemed to be essential and non-essential are often transported together.“This can lead to a shortage of essential goods if trucks carrying non-essentials aren’t allowed to enter Delhi,” sources said.A representative for Amazon told ET that customer behaviour since the start of the pandemic last year indicates that “urgent needs vary across households and it is challenging to define a static essentials list.”The online marketplace is “enabling deliveries of essential products in line with new guidelines set by the government,” the person stated, while requesting the Delhi government to allow delivery as well as inter- and intrastate movement of all products as it helps people maintain social distancing norms. “Ecommerce is the safest way to serve consumers’ needs while supporting livelihoods of lakhs of small and medium businesses (SMEs), including local shops,” the person said.Flipkart and Snapdeal did not respond to ET’s queries until press time on Monday.Many Delhi Sellers Industry experts estimate that as much as 30% of sellers on ecommerce marketplaces are located in Delhi. The state government's restrictions on movement of non-essential goods will not just hurt ecommerce shipments to other states but could also impact fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and other sectors, sources said.The industry has been advocating that states and the Centre allow delivery of all goods through ecommerce, arguing that essential goods and services are a very subjective matter. Even last year, the industry had lobbied hard to get the government to allow them to sell all products, as consumers shopped for work-from-home and study-from-home products in large numbers.“We will start to see mass order cancellations by consumers in these areas now, leading to huge losses for MSMEs, who will, in turn, put a lot of strain on financial institutions that give them working capital loans to buy inventory,” said an industry executive.Last week, a group of some 45 ecommerce companies and industry associations such as Ficci, Nasscom and CII approached the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to allow ecommerce “without any discrimination based on essential and non-essential” in Maharashtra.ET later reported that the Maharashtra government could lift curbs on ecommerce companies from shipping non-essential products during this week, citing senior government officials and industry executives. No such relief has been granted at the time of writing this story.