While demonetisation may have led to a decline in sales of e-commerce firms due to the slowdown in cash-on-delivery orders, it has seen a rise in sales of companies which are into online food delivery business. For instance, foodpanda.in CEO Saurabh Kochhar said his firm has seen the number of orders going up by 40-50% since November 8.
The reason could be that while in non-food online firms the cash-on-delivery order comprises the major chunk at around 60-70%, in food delivery firms the cash-on-delivery and digital payment orders are almost equally split. The other reason could be that food orders are normally of a smaller ticket size with average orders ranging between Rs 400-500.
Kochhar said before demonetisation, on a regular day his platform would receive close to 70,000 orders. While this has now shot up by 40-50%, around 92% of payments are being made online. “As our order value ranges between Rs 400-500, consumers do not mind paying online,” Kochhar said.
Similarly, online grocery firms such as BigBasket, Grofers and ZopNow have seen a rise in sale. While the Delhi-based Grofers claims to have seen a 10% increase in its orders, Bengaluru’s ZopNow said it has seen a 25% growth in sale. Both the companies expect the number of orders placed to increase by another 5-10% during the weekend. Besides, cashless transactions has also gone up. While BigBasket has seen a 25% jump in online transactions, in case of ZopNow 65% of its transactions are taking place online.
“Earlier payment for around 50% of the orders came in cash, but now almost 80% payments are being made through digital channel, on an average order value of Rs 1,100,” said Praveen Singh, director, marketing, ZopNow.com.
ZopNow claims that Mumbai and Bengaluru are the two markets generating the maximum orders. Moreover, these internet firms are running various offers for consumers. For example, ZopNow which has a tie-up with MobiKwik on orders of Rs 1500, is providing a cash back of Rs 200 to its consumers.
While Grofers, under a new mechanism of payment sends a payment link on a customer’s email id or in the form of a message on mobile.
One can then click on the link, which direct one to a payment gateway to make the payment. “We definitely expect sales to increase during the weekends,” said Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Grofers.
Source: financialexpress
