On day 1 of lockdown 4.0, here’s what people in Red zones ordered the most (Image: Bloomberg)

E-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, and others can now deliver all kinds of products in Red, Orange, and Green zones. According to the latest guidelines provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) e-commerce platforms will be barred from delivering non-essential goods to containment zones. Snapdeal in a statement to the media revealed that the platform has received 65 per cent orders from red zones on day one of lockdown 4.0.

The e-commerce platform noted that deliveries in red zones will begin today, May 19. However, Snapdeal said that it is awaiting state-specific guidelines.

On day 1 of lockdown 4.0 the order volumes for the platform grew 2.4X for the platform. The report stated that early morning surge saw buyers “check out their pre-loaded carts – buying goods that they had been waiting for the last 4-6 weeks.” Products including budget phones, kids garments, pressure cookers, trimmers, T-Shirts were the top sellers.

“On Day 1 of the expanded operations, the orders at Snapdeal platform grew rapidly and had crossed 2.4 times the average of the previous 15 days by 3pm on Monday, May 18,” the e-commerce platform noted. It further said that the surge in orders started around 10 pm on Sunday and has been growing every hour. “Many users simply checked out their pre-loaded carts, which they have accumulating over the last 4-6 weeks. On average, users bought 2-3 products in one go. This was to avoid a stock out situation, where high-demand products get sold out quickly,” Snapdeal said.

Here’s everything you need to know about online deliveries during lockdown 4.0

The platform further added that “orders placed by users in the cities currently categorised as red zones were more than 65 per cent of the total orders placed so far in the last 24 hours. The conversion of visitors to buyers was more than double the national average – a strong indicator of the eager wait for e-commerce channels to open.”

People living in cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Patna, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Jaipur, Kota, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Indore and Kolkata accounted for a large part of the orders placed from cities classified as red zones.

Here’s what buyers ordered the most

–Budget phones including smartphones in the range of Rs 4000-8000. Also feature phones priced in between Rs 500-1500.

–Home goods like pressure cookers, food processors, water bottles containers for food, bedsheets, towels, mops, buckets were ordered in large numbers.

–Trimmers and personal grooming supplies.

–T-Shirts, shorts, sunglasses, footwear, tummy trimmers, weights.

–Children’s clothing.

–Monitors, keyboards, extension cords, external hard disks.

–Protection essentials including masks, face shields, sanitizers and herbal immunity boosters.

Deliveries in red zones begin today and will be made operational in accordance with MHA & state-specific guidelines, Snapdeal noted.

“At Snapdeal, we are also closely working with all our sellers and logistic partners to plan a safe and efficient resumption of expanded deliveries in red zones,” Snapdeal spokesperson said,