As the third wave of the pandemic gripped the provincial metropolis, online shopping, especially of grocery and other essential food items of daily use, saw a surge. It is, after all, convenient as well as safe to order desired items through a mobile phone application and have these delivered at your doorstep — it helps you avoid exposure to crowded marketplaces.

Earlier, most people in the city didn’t think much of online shopping. Also, they doubted the quality of goods thus bought. It took a pandemic to change the attitudes. Today, online shopping has become the norm, and all kinds of malls and stores are offering home delivery through their mobile applications and/or websites.

Prior to the pandemic, Lahore had only a few online shopping platforms. They dealt mostly in electronic goods, cosmetics, toys and other non-food items. But now we see that every brand of every item being produced under the sun is up for grabs online.

It is also pertinent to mention here that many essential service providers such as barbers, plumbers, electricians and cleaners have also started offering call-in services. Besides, a number of mobile phone apps have come up that provide leads to such services.

Saroosh, a resident of Township, says that she never cared for online shopping till recently. “In these times [of the pandemic], I am too scared to visit the stores in person, so I shop online,” she says, adding that she has downloaded a number of apps on her smartphone which helps her compare prices.

Talking about the business of online shopping, she says, “It’s become very competitive now. No online grocery supplier can get you poor-quality stuff and survive in the race.”

Khurram Syed, a banker dealing with small and medium enterprises, says that the government has introduced a policy that defines e-commerce as buying and selling of goods or services including digital products through electronic transactions conducted via the internet or other computer-mediated (online communication) networks.

“Amid the pandemic, online shopping is the only sector that has shown growth,” he adds.

Ali Zain, a senior official at a departmental stores chain who now looks after their online business, says that during the first wave of Covid-19, the online shopping sector, especially the part dealing in groceries, saw a 500 percent surge in sales. “This is a very interesting trend,” he comments, “especially in the context of how our people generally did not access online shopping portals for grocery items. Today, according to a rough estimate, 80 percent of our customers are placing orders online.”

A superstore has “introduced an open-box policy whereby the customers can check their orders before paying the rider for delivery. Many others in the field are following this trend, because some customers want to see their goods physically before making the payment.”

According to Zain, the boom has brought about some very healthy changes in the online shopping sector, such as increase in competition and reduction in delivery times.

Mudassar Riaz Malik, the Lahore deputy commissioner, tells TNS that online shopping sector has opened up tremendous job opportunities for the people. “The competition among the online suppliers is going to benefit their customers.”

There’s a flip side to it. Customers are also increasingly found complaining of wrong or faulty items delivered to their homes. While some companies such as Daraz offer to help their aggrieved customers, provided they file a complaint within 24 hours of receiving the packets, in many cases the customers don’t know what to do. Also, they find going to the consumer courts inconvenient.

It has been observed that instead of properly registering trackable companies, many dealers are taking advantage of social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to sell their products through all kinds of retailers. Some of them are believed to have shifted their business from one platform to another in a matter of minutes.

Ali Zain says that his superstore has “introduced an open-box policy whereby customers can check their orders before paying to the rider for delivery. Many others in the field are following this trend, because some customers want to see their goods physically before making the payment.”

As regards customers’ complaints, he says they can always take a dispute to court and claim their compensation.

The Lahore deputy commissioner urges the citizens to also consider lodging their complaints about any fraud with the Prime Minister’s Complaint Cell.

The writer is a city reporter at The News