Restrictions on e-commerce deliveries in some areas of Delhi during G20 Summit shaved off 15-20 percent food orders last weekend, while some of the loss was compensated by more order volumes in other parts of the city as people stayed home, according to industry executives.
The recently concluded G20 summit in New Delhi saw restrictions imposed on movement in central locations of India’s capital city between September 8 and 10, as only essential services were allowed, and commercial activities prohibited. Executives from hyperlocal e-commerce platforms said that orders around Delhi’s most impacted areas, particularly around Connaught Place, was where the impact on order numbers came from.
It wasn’t all bad news as at least a part of this was made up in the volumes in other parts of the city as people worked from home and stayed home. Work from home typically leads to people using delivery services more, industry insiders said.
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“On a typical day, there are around 4-5 lakh food delivery orders placed in Delhi. The affected areas, which are inside the ring road, could generally contribute around 30-40 percent to the total volume. But, that kind of an impact was not visible as other parts of the city picked up during those days,” said a top executive at a food delivery firm.
However, around 25,000 food and grocery delivery riders are estimated to have lost income during the G20 Summit days. The total number of food delivery workers in the city is estimated to be in the range of 30,000-35,000 whereas there are another set of 25,000-30,000 grocery delivery executives.
Zomato and Swiggy did not respond to request for comments.
Restaurants in areas like Connaught Place (CP), Secretariat, Ashoka Road, Janpath etc. were shut for dining in and also could not dispense orders for deliveries via online platforms.
Kabir Suri, President of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) earlier told Moneycontrol that there are at least 80-100 eateries in the New Delhi controlled zone and each restaurant was projected to lose about Rs 7-8 lakh worth of sales in those three days.
Those in attendance in New Delhi over those three days included US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, United Kingdom’s PM Rishi Sunak, and Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Bin Salman.
The G20 blip comes at a time when online retailers are preparing for the upcoming festive season, after a few quarters of tepid growth. Zomato-owned quick commerce Blinkit had already suffered a setback in the June quarter when its riders went on a mass strike against lowered payouts.
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