Hyderabad: Online shopping booms in times of pandemic

Hyderabad: The corona pandemic has brought in new challenges to the business and trade circles all over and pushed them to adopt new measures to keep the business and sales afloat. Traders in GHMC limits are no exception to this.

Supermarkets and grocery stores, vegetable and fruit shops, meat shops added a new dimension in last few months. With people rarely stepping out of their houses, store and shop owners took to online selling apart from doing regular sales to customers visiting their shops.

Noted brands like Big Basket, Grofers, Licious etc do online sales through mobile apps and websites. But population of the State capital is so big and huge that stores into this business have also decided to add online deliveries in their profile.

Vijay Agarwal whose family operates Ghanshyam Super Market that has eight stores in various parts of twin-cities, stated that online deliveries so far were done through third-party apps and also through WhatsApp messages. Some people opted this mode to buy monthly needs, while others dropped down in person to buy their requirements, he said.

It may be mentioned here that food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato had tied up with these stores to deliver groceries, vegetables and fruits, meat (mutton, chicken, seafood) to customers.

Big names in this sector like Spencers, Spar, Reliance Fresh etc also started online deliveries through their own dedicated mobile apps and websites that picked up momentum in last few months.

D Ram Reddy, Managing Director of Sneha Farms that has retail chicken outlets, stated that meat shops added online deliveries for the sake and convenience of customers. However, when it comes to buying non-vegetarian items, people mostly prefer to visit the meat shop in person and buy the required quantity, he said.

Traders expect that both online and offline sales would continue until normalcy is restored. But once corona vaccine comes, people would show interest to visit in person and buy their monthly groceries.