Delivering in the Wake of Pandemic
Since the lockdowns were imposed in March, 2020, most of the e-commerce businesses had to halt their operations, except the sellers of essential products. Demand for grocery, hygiene products and medicine skyrocketed while non-essential products saw a plunge in demand. Third-Party logistics (3PL) providers in Bangladesh who are not essential sellers such as Paperfly have experienced an almost 90 percent decrease in orders. On the other hand, Chaldal, the leading online grocery platform, faced itself in a unique position of having to restrict orders as a consequence of not having additional qualified and competent delivery workforce available at hand.
The smartphone app-based delivery services put in efforts to capitalize on this opportunity and started delivering the essential products. Pathao has relaunched its ‘Tong’ service and launched Pathao Shop to provide non-essentials before the Eid-ul-Fitr. Foodpanda launched Pandamart to deliver groceries and medicines, followed by Shohoz starting similar services. Anticipating the necessity, the organized retail industry such as Shwapno, Agora, Meena too started partnering up with these platforms.
The delivery disruptions were acknowledged by the government as well and a mobile post office service was introduced by Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) to deliver a wide range of products including COVID-19 related medical equipment in the pandemic-stricken country.
In short, the supply chain disruptions caused by panic buying was something that the logistics providers were simply not equipped for. Migrant workers shifting away from Dhaka to their home districts further intensified the labor shortage. Besides, the businesses involved in delivery had to ensure that they were maintaining the safety and hygiene standards . However, with the economy reopening, the pressure on the delivery services should start lowering shortly.