Hyderabad: Stocks flying off shelves in city

Hyderabad: Online shopping surged after shutdown of supermarkets due to lockdown to contain coronavirus. But, with the latest rumours about the possible re-lockdown in the city, panic buying not only hit the supermarkets but also hit the online stores. As a result, sold out boards are shown excessively in online sites.

"Online shopping is the only option for the people who want to avoid crowded places as a precautionary measure. The average value of an order from every individual in our platform is 20% higher than the regular days. Customers are buying everything in bulk quantities, mostly the hot selling items like flour, rice and pulses," said B Sai Kiran, Executive, Big Basket. "Not only the old customers, we also observed an increase in the number of new customers during the lockdown and receiving extra 30% orders than usual in these re-lockdown rumour days," he added.

"Maintaining enough stock is not an easy task in this pandemic. We have run out of pulses and our suppliers have increased prices and to provide the product for the customers in a best possible price than any other online stores, we had to reach other states suppliers or should buy at the rate what suppliers are selling and increase price for my customers," said V Sunil Kumar, Founder, Just Hap.

If netizens keep clicking to buy groceries online in the same way, experts believe that online stores could get huge long-term gains. "Number of online shoppers will stay elevated even after the crisis as customers are slowly being exposed to the ease and fun of online shopping," said N Praveen, Manager, Amazon Warehouse.

To meet the demand due to panic buying, we are struggling to stock up the essentials as enough as possible, he added.