COVID-19 Causes Price Hikes for Some Grocery Deliveries

Grocery delivery has made some strides in India during the COVID-19 pandemic as food delivery companies Zomato and Swiggy significantly extended their services to get groceries and other essential items to a larger number of consumers during the lockdown. But the pandemic has also increased e-commerce prices for several food items, as seen in numbers by analysts Euromonitor International. The ingredients to make a standard chicken dish, for example, went up by 30 to 50 percent compared with Jan 1 prices. In the case of rice, price levels were back down to normal after experiencing significant increases in April.

Other items that saw prolonged price increases on e-commerce platforms during the COVID-19 outbreak included soap bars, noodles and bottled water.

Bigbasket, a company that concentrates exclusively on grocery delivery, said its sales increased by 35 percent, while competitor Grofers also saw sales values go up. According to the Economic Times, e-commerce in India is expected to grow its sales by an additional $2 billion because of the coronavirus, arriving at a growth forecast of $35.5 million – or a plus of six percent - in 2020. Grocery sales could be the biggest driver behind the extra pandemic growth, as they are expected to grow by up to $1.3 billion.