What are essentials? That’s the million-dollar question for e-commerce firms

E-commerce firms are negotiating a maze of conflicting regulations as state governments announce a series of measures to stem the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases.

In Maharashtra, only ‘essential goods’ can be delivered in the state until May 1 while Haryana has permitted e-commerce supplies of essential items during the night curfew hours. Top executives at e-commerce firms said these notifications lack clarity on what constitutes ‘essential goods and services’, leaving them open to interpretation by field-level enforcement authorities, including the police.

Late on Wednesday night, the Mumbai Police clarified that food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato can operate after 8:00 pm when the night curfew is in force.

Senior e-commerce executives are engaging with top government officials in Maharashtra and Haryana trying to explain the implications of their orders, hoping for a reversal.

“We don’t want this classification of items as essentials and non-essentials. It creates so much confusion at both back-end and for the field-level personnel,” said one of the people cited above.

For instance, in Maharashtra’s Nasik, the district administration has not allowed e-commerce activity on weekends, in contrast to state guidelines. In Chhattisgarh’s Durg, e-commerce is not allowed, while in Dantewada, supply of essentials is allowed only between 9 am and 3 pm, executives pointed out.

Representatives from top firms, including Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Urban Company, Paytm, as well as conglomerates like Reliance and Tata Group were joined by executives from e-commerce majors like BigBasket, Grofers, Swiggy, 1mg, Zomato, Pharmeasy and Udaan at a meeting with officials from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Wednesday.

They requested the central government to intervene and prevent states from curbing the ecommerce platforms, according to multiple people present. Industry associations FICCI, CII and Nasscom are also expected to send a note presenting the industry’s view to the DPIIT by Thursday morning, sources said.

A senior government official told ET that the Centre will take up the issue of supply of non-essentials by e-commerce if industry highlights the issue. “We have done it in the past and we could speak to the state government if supplies become an issue,” the official said.

The official added that the industry was yet to flag any such issue so far to the Centre.

A representative for Amazon said that “there is learning from the last one year that urgent customer needs vary across households and it is challenging to define a static essentials list”, while confirming that the platform is accepting orders only for essentials in Maharashtra. “We request the government to allow delivery of all products as soon as possible,” the person said.

Rival Snapdeal is still accepting orders of non-essentials in Maharashtra but said that it will fulfil those deliveries only after delivery of such items is permitted. ET found that Flipkart, Myntra and Reliance’s JioMart are not accepting orders for non-essentials in the state, which is the worst hit by the ongoing pandemic.

Flipkart did not reply to queries on the developments.

The curbs on sale of non-essential goods via e-commerce comes at a time when consumers are increasingly choosing to buy products from the safety of their homes. These trends are most visible in orders for groceries and food online, in states including Maharashtra and other regions that have been battered by the second wave of the pandemic.

Online grocer Grofers said that it had seen a 60% surge in demand and a 11% increase in order value in markets that have been adversely affected by the second wave.