Snapdeal resumes operations in 96 cities; company ties up with local grocers, wholesalers for quick deliveries

Snapdeal, India’s leading value-focused e-commerce marketplace, has resumed operations in 96 cities covering more than 15,000 pin codes. Other than metro cities, the list also covers smaller cities include Agra, Bhopal, Dehradun, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kota, Nashik, Patna, Raipur and Surat, the company said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_2702794” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The current operations cover essential goods in high demand and include grocery items like rice, tea, coffee and atta.  Also, supplies of household cleaning supplies are being prioritised. To boost supplies, Snapdeal has tied up with local grocers and wholesalers to make fast intra-city deliveries. It is also tying up with local KisanMandis in metro cities so that staples like pulses, salt, sugar, cooking oil and other packaged food items like biscuits, juices can be made available locally in a cost-effective manner. While the inter-city movement of goods has now resumed, Snapdeal has also focused a lot of effort in the last week to build supplies for deliveries within the city. This has helped it continue supplies even as stocks in transit were stuck on the road and in warehouses across the country. Snapdeal has made available disposable masks in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad and is seeking to expand the availability to select other cities. The demand for masks far exceeds the supply and sellers are replenishing stocks as fast as they can so that more buyers can be serviced. The availability of sanitisers is expected to improve later this week. While Snapdeal continues to accept orders for both essential and non-essential goods, the delivery for the latter is planned post the lockdown period. A large number of orders have been placed for Glucose monitors, sugar testing strips, BP monitors etc that users across smaller cities use regularly to manage ongoing medical conditions. Snapdeal plans to deliver these on priority as soon as these stocks reach the destinations cities. “Accounting for the supply chain disruptions, we have focused on strengthening local operations. Currently, we are prioritising deliveries of essentials and other deliveries will commence once the lockdown restrictions are lifted”, a Snapdeal spokesperson said. As a measure of immediate contribution, all Snapdeal employees have decided to donate a day’s salary to the PM-CARES fund that seeks to provide emergency assistance to those in distress due to the on-going lockdown.