The chair of the board of the Tehran Online Stores Employers’ Trade Association reported a marked increase in activity among online sales companies that supply people’s everyday needs.
According to ISNA, experts say that staying at home is the main way to control and break the chain of coronavirus transmission. Under such circumstances, one way to reduce travel around the city is to draw on the capacity of virtual businesses and online stores. However, the chair of the board of the Online Stores Employers’ Trade Association believes there has been sufficient awareness of, and motivation to use, online stores since the coronavirus outbreak, but there is not enough capacity in fast-moving consumer goods and raw food products. A board member of the Virtual Businesses Union had previously said that sales of fast-moving consumer goods in the virtual business sector increased in Esfand following the coronavirus outbreak; it therefore appears that capacity still exists that we can use to minimise our visits to public places.
Online store service slots booked through the end of NowruzSpeaking to ISNA on the subject, Hamidreza Etedalmehr stated: Following the coronavirus outbreak, online sales companies that supply people’s everyday needs have faced such an increase in orders that their logistics systems have almost ceased to function, and all their service slots are booked through the end of Nowruz.
He said that ‘supplying everyday needs’ refers to purchases such as clothing and Nowruz gifts, for which people would have had to leave home and which they could not postpone because they were a priority.
The chair of the board of the Tehran Online Stores Employers’ Trade Association noted that virtual stores were adequately equipped and said the logistical problems arose because electronic sales saw their heaviest use in Esfand.
Etedalmehr predicted that people’s embrace of online stores would continue as a cultural practice even after the coronavirus outbreak had subsided.
He continued: There are not enough well-known, capable websites for fast-moving consumer goods and raw food products that can meet the needs of a city, and this is why electronic sales were concentrated mainly on supplying everyday needs.
He described promoting the use of online stores’ capacity to encourage people to stay at home under the current circumstances as a government responsibility, and said: There was, however, already a considerable degree of awareness of, and willingness to use, online stores. In seminars, webinars and applications related to virtual education, virtual meetings and employee teleworking, capacity increased as far as the infrastructure allowed. Very good work was done in this area, some of it even as part of companies’ social responsibility.
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