Delivery platforms deploy cooling cover as orders heat up

Intense heat waves in parts of the country and work-fromhome policies adopted by many companies after the Prime Minister’s call to reduce fuel consumption are driving a surge in orders on ecommerce, quick-commerce and food delivery platforms.

People confined to indoors are increasingly turning to online platforms for purchases spanning daily essentials to cooling products and consumer electronics. While this also means a heavier workload for delivery executives, the platforms said they are taking measures to help them cope with the weather.

Amazon posted double-digit growth in orders during its justended 10-day summer sale compared with last year. Swiggy has noted an over 30% jump in food orders over the past month while Flipkart is seeing a surge in orders on its quick-commerce platform, their executives said. The trend is similar across the online retail sector, according to industry experts.

Summer is a peak period for online orders when volumes grow 20-30% year-on-year, driven by categories such as beverages, groceries and essentials, said Aditya Mishra, chief executive at CIEL HR Services. This also boosts demand for roles such as pickers, packers, loaders and delivery executives by 50-60%, he said.

The companies, on their part, said they are providing cooling jackets, refreshments, air-conditioned resting centres including mobile facilities and job rotation options to their ground delivery force to shield them from intense heat.

“Higher WFH adoption may support daytime food-delivery and quick-commerce demand as more people stay indoors, but companies are also trying to manage delivery demand more efficiently during peak afternoon heat hours,” said Balasubramanian A, senior vicepresident at Teamlease Services.

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A Flipkart spokesperson said the company’s quick-delivery platform, Minutes, has seen a surge in demand across India. “Demand for summer essentials has spiked in categories such as hand fans (over 23 times), umbrellas (around 10-fold) and refreshments like watermelon (7), lassi (around 5), buttermilk (around 3), and juices (3),” said the spokesperson.

The Walmart-owned online retailer is making infrastructure improvements, specifically to enhance temperature regulation, at the rest areas of delivery centres, the spokesperson said.

At rival Amazon, a spokesperson said, demand is strong for consumer electronics, large appliances, fashion and beauty products, and grocery across cities including tier-2 and -3 centres.

“With rising temperatures keeping customers indoors, whether working from home, streaming cricket or spending time with family during ongoing holidays—demand for home upgrades and indoor essentials accelerated,” said the spokesperson.

Demand for premium smartphones priced above Rs 30,000 more than doubled by value during the summer sale period, the company said. Orders for AI-enabled premium appliances, as well as fashion, beauty and personal care products rose between 30% and two-and-a-half times from a year earlier, it said.

The US-based online retailer is also adding rest centres across the country for delivery personnel under a project called ‘Project Ashray’. The number of these centres is projected to increase to 250 by the end of this year
from 150 now. It has also introduced air-conditioned vans stationed along high-density delivery routes for its delivery personnel to take rest during work hours.

Food-delivery platform Swiggy has seen a 31.4% rise in orders so far in May compared with last month. “In Delhi, it increased by 43.3%, Mumbai 30.1% and Bengaluru 37.6% during this period,” its spokesperson said.

Swiggy recently launched passive cooling jackets for delivery workers. These jackets help reduces body temperatures by 6-7°C for 3-4 hours after soakingin water, the company said.

“As temperatures rise across the country, we have rolled out initiatives aimed at enabling them to beat the heat,” said Saurav Goyal, senior vice-president and head of driver & delivery org at Swiggy. These included setting
up resting areas equipped with desert coolers and hydration, he said.

Zomato and Blinkit parent Eternal, through its strategic collaborations with TVS and Shell, is providing its delivery partners access to dedicated rest points at select service stations and fuel pumps.