Running out of those supplies that you stocked up before the lockdown? Not very sure if you should go down to your local kiraana shop to stock up again? Well, here is some good news. Online delivery companies are getting back on their feet.

The 21-day nationwide lockdown has affected operations across various segments of the economy & online grocery delivery also had to bear the brunt. In several cities, movement of delivery personnel was restricted by local authorities. Also, these companies witnessed a sharp drop in attendance. These problems threw home deliveries from companies like Amazon, Flipkart & BigBasket off gear. Though they are still facing several challenges, some of them have been able to resume operations in their key markets.

In the last 24 hours, Amazon India has resumed delivery in select cities. This list includes Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mohali, Mysuru, Patna, and Raipur. However, the company is accepting orders only for essential products. It has also temporarily suspended pay-on-delivery options, in order to maintain social distancing.

Another e-commerce giant Flipkart is also preparing to go live soon. Though the company is not accepting new orders, its mobile app says that it will resume essential services shortly.

Bengaluru headquartered online grocery delivery major, BigBasket has also issued a statement, saying it has resumed operations in several cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Noida-Ghaziabad, Gurugram & Kolkata.

However, due to the disruption in the last few days, BigBasket is left with a huge backlog of orders. The company has said that customers, who have already paid, will be its first priority. BigBasket plans to start taking new orders very soon.

Gurugram based online grocery delivery service Grofers has also resumed operations in several cities. In Delhi, Gurugram & Bengaluru the company is accepting new orders. However in cities like Mumbai & Kolkata the company is delivering older orders first and plans to begin taking new orders in a day.

Another online grocer, MilkBasket, which has presence in Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru & Hyderabad has also resumed deliveries after a few days of disruption. In fact, last week the Co-Founder & CEO of Milkbasket Anant Goel had told CNBC-TV18 that the company was forced to dump 15,000 litres of milk and 10,000 kg of fruits and vegetables.

Though Milkbasket has resumed deliveries, it has changed the timing. Instead of delivering at its regular 7:00 AM slot, it is now delivering during the day by 4 PM.

Instant delivery platform Dunzo is also delivering in Bengaluru. The company has also resumed operations in Mumbai.

First Published:Mar 29, 2020 8:40 PM IST