Abstract:
In contemporary times, the world is confronting a third wave of COVID -19. The disease that originated from
Wuhan, China, gained its pace and quickly spread across different countries. This led to the closure of major
business activities across the globe and resolutely innovative work practices emerged, including social
distancing, virtual meetings, and work from home. All these practices have turned into new standards which,
at the same time, are perceived as blessings for many industries and workers, but simultaneously possess a
threat to the distribution industry by impacting as a negative stimulus.
The distribution industry is the most physical interaction-based industry in the country where Coronavirus and
altered business practices have imposed innumerable working limitations on this industry. As distribution
workers and suppliers need to visit the shops frequently, hence, there is a high risk of getting exposed to the
pandemic. Secondly, small vendors are less educated. Hence, they avoid online transactions for various reasons
and prefer cash transactions that create a high risk of being exposed to the disease. In the distribution business,
coordination and face-to-face interaction is important because order bookers' job description is designed for
physical checking of stocks and inventory of shops to obtain new orders. This study aims to explore issues and
challenges confronted by the distribution industry of Pakistan during the COVID – 19 pandemic and
accordingly develop/ recommend a roll out plan to cater to these challenges to perform the tasks more
effectively. Along these lines, this research work endeavors to explore how the distribution industry handled
this pandemic situation, specifically how to make coordination measures more effective, completion of desired
tasks and targets at an appropriate time, implementation of new systems for order management etc.
This research projects aims to explore the various issues and challenges confronted by the distribution industry
of Pakistan, some developments within the system and see the recommendations to cater to these challenges
to perform the tasks more effectively and efficiently.
