Coronavirus lockdown: Ecommerce cart in fast lane, but may lose steam

Bengaluru: Ecommerce majors Flipkart and Amazon are seeing a sharp recovery in sales as pent-up demand for a range of non-essentials is restoring overall industry volumes lost during the nationwide lockdown to stall Covid-19. Brisk sales of smartphones, laptops, tablets, kitchen and home appliances—in the week since all items were permitted to be sold online—have brought sales back to about 70% of pre-Covid levels, multiple executives told ET.
This may taper off in the coming fortnight as consumers continue to purchase only need-based products and delay discretionary spends, the sources said.
“Demand is back by 70-80% but we still face supply chain constraints as sellers are based in containment zones, there is manpower shortage and implementing social distancing norms slows down processes,” said a top ecommerce executive.