Shiprocket recently revealed insights into the shipment trends in April 2020 amid the COVID-19 lockdown. While the government had permitted the shipment of essential goods, Shiprocket revealed that medicines (80%) and groceries (16%) were the most popular categories in terms of shipments during the month.

Another interesting category that came out in this report was the demand of pet care products with 0.06% demand.

With a sample size of 1931 sellers, the report states that metro cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore clocked the highest number of pickups and deliveries, followed by Hyderabad and Gurgaon. Further, it was revealed that 11% of the shipments containing non-essential items was stuck in transit at hubs during this period.

CitiesTop Pickup CitiesTop Delivery Cities
Delhi40%11%
Mumbai24%9%
Bangalore13%8%

Speaking on the report, Saahil Goel, CEO & Co-founder of Shiprocket, said, "Since the commencement of the lockdown, the logistics sector has been playing a key role in ensuring minimal disruption of supply chains for businesses offering essential goods. At Shiprocket, we are playing our part by supporting businesses that are facing the impact of the lockdown through our tech-enabled services. Now that the government has greenlit the delivery of non-essential goods in several areas, we are looking forward to businesses picking up the pace and resuming their growth trajectories, providing a fillip to the logistics space as well. "

Puru Dhawan, a pharmacy owner named Sai Sanjeevani from Delhi, said, "The business has seen a 30% hit due to the early lockdown and Coronavirus situation.

Varun, a pharmacy owner named Green Cure Wellness from Delhi, commented, "70% of my business has witnessed a major impact due to the current lockdown scenario. At the beginning of the lockdown period, our team wasn't able to schedule pickups for any kind of shipment, which was a huge hit to our sales."

With 17,229 pin codes accessible for essential good delivery during the lockdown across India, Shiprocket's data has been mapped across the 1931 sellers who were active for shipping essential goods on the platform post document and pincode verification. It is noteworthy that the number of sellers active during the lockdown was only 7% of those operating in the pre-COVID period. Delivery partners such as Delhivery, Shadowfax, and Dunzo have been the highest contributors to shipments during this challenging period.