{"id":37819,"date":"2024-04-29T02:28:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T02:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/29\/sales-glut-sweat-and-tears-for-ecommerce-heat-wrings-out-the-worst-of-worries\/"},"modified":"2024-04-29T02:28:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T02:28:19","slug":"sales-glut-sweat-and-tears-for-ecommerce-heat-wrings-out-the-worst-of-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/29\/sales-glut-sweat-and-tears-for-ecommerce-heat-wrings-out-the-worst-of-worries\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales glut, sweat and tears: For ecommerce, heat wrings out the worst of worries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sales<\/div>


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Unrelenting heat is playing havoc with ecommerce operations<\/a> in Mumbai, Bengaluru and the National Capital Region, as digital platforms struggle with a dwindling supply of delivery workers<\/a> in their main markets. Typically, gig workers<\/a>\u2019 numbers dip by nearly a fifth during May-July, coinciding with the summer. However, this year, the early onset of extreme heat<\/a> across peninsular India has exacerbated the situation, according to industry executives.
Busy quarter
<\/strong>
Online commerce companies \u2014 from Flipkart and Amazon to Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit and Zepto \u2014 are grappling with delayed delivery timelines<\/a> owing to a sharp decline in the availability of delivery workers, they said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere is an overall gap in demand and supply of gig workers for delivery platforms\u2026extreme weather situations only worsen the matter. This year, places such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata and a number of tier-II locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat are also witnessing these weather conditions,\u201d said one person cited above.<\/p>\n

On April 1, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) flagged extreme heat conditions in India during April-June<\/a>, with central and western peninsular regions expected to bear the brunt.<\/p>\n

The problem of heat-related delivery constraints \u201cgenerally starts in north India around the first week of May, for some two months, after which there are rains, which presents a different problem altogether,\u201d said a Gurgaon-based executive at a quick commerce firm.<\/p>\n

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\"SwelteringETtech<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The scorching temperatures and the attendant disruption in operations come as food delivery and quick commerce companies are gearing up for a busy quarter. With school vacations and the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, April-June typically brings in additional demand.Yulu cofounder and chief executive Amit Gupta said the shortage of delivery personnel was \u201cabsolute,\u201d but with changing seasons, \u201cconditions like heatwaves or farming cycles exacerbate the issue for certain periods of time, whether hours or days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yulu provides platforms such as Zomato, Blinkit and Swiggy with electric two-wheeler delivery vehicles.

Timelines and climate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experts say extreme weather conditions will continue to drive unpredictability and increase absenteeism among gig workers.<\/p>\n

Rituparna Chakraborty, cofounder of blue-collar job portal Teamlease, noted that a \u201clot of markets in north India are still operational at over 40 degrees Celsius.\u201d Teamlease works with platforms including Zomato and Swiggy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne worry is also about the commitments around delivery timelines made by some of these firms,\u201d she said. \u201cAt some point, a realistic settlement has to be reached with respect to the supply constraints and the cost of supply. The complexity increases when taking into account the cost of living near high-demand areas for gig workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pravin Agarwala, cofounder and chief executive of Betterplace, a software-as-a-service firm that helps firms onboard and track gig workers, mentioned Bellandur in Bengaluru and Golf Course Road in Gurgaon as having a very sharp gap between delivery demand and gig worker supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a 20% gap in demand and supply constantly, and as demand increases, firms will be subjected more and more to the challenges around circular migration, weather and living expenses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The heatwave is taking a toll on delivery personnel\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined two weeks ago, and in just two days, I suffered a sunstroke,\u201d said Abu Usama, a Blinkit delivery partner who operates in Mumbai. \u201cI couldn\u2019t work and had no income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several others like Usama, who spoke to ET across New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, narrated a similar plight.<\/p>\n

In the National Capital, 29-year-old Om Maurya, working for Swiggy Instamart, said, \u201cWe don’t receive any additional compensation for working in this heat. Our pay is solely based on deliveries\u2026we have requested a watercooler for the dark store, for which we\u2019ve even offered to cover the costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bengaluru, workers said the unusually high temperatures were forcing them to shift their work timings in ways they hadn\u2019t before. \u201cThe afternoons were much more bearable till last year. I don’t remember ever having to stop work due to the heat,\u201d said Mohammed Salman, a delivery worker for Blinkit. \u201cBut for the past two months, I have had to stop work for three hours in the afternoon, which affects my pay as I have to go to my second job in the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s maximum temperature was a record for Bengaluru.

Helping hand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Online commerce firms claim they are helping their delivery executives deal with these unprecedented conditions.<\/p>\n

A company representative said Swiggy has set up over 300 zones in high-demand areas where delivery executives can rest in the shade and have access to drinks. Swiggy\u2019s Instamart has 500 dark stores.<\/p>\n

A Zomato spokesperson said the Gurgaon-based company has set up 450 resting points in over 250 cities and plans to increase the number to more than 4,000 by June. \u201cWith our pioneering weather forecast systems, we also send out preemptive signals of upcoming heatwaves to all delivery partners, helping them to protect themselves from severe weather conditions,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

A Blinkit spokesperson said the company has stocked up its stores with glucose and buttermilk for its delivery partners. \u201cWe are installing coolers in the waiting areas of all stores to provide immediate relief from the heat,\u201d the person added. Blinkit has 450 dark stores.<\/p>\n

Flipkart, Amazon, BigBasket and Zepto did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

With summer yet to peak, above-normal temperatures forecast and rain relief unlikely very soon, fulfilling demand remains a hard road for ecommerce companies and more so, for their delivery partners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Unrelenting heat is playing havoc with ecommerce operations in Mumbai, Bengaluru and the National Capital Region, as digital platforms struggle with a dwindling supply of delivery workers in their main markets. Typically, gig workers\u2019 numbers dip by nearly a fifth during May-July, coinciding with the summer. However, this year, the early onset of extreme heat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/88591548.cms","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[40482,40481,6254,40480,39751,4594,40483,1029,40479,2022,10318,5084,11040,5750,40484],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37821,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37819\/revisions\/37821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}