(Yicai Global) Feb. 6 -- Amid the coronavirus epidemic, Chinese consumers staying home, putting restaurant staff out of work while e-commerce platforms run short of manpower as orders for daily necessities surge. A number have agreed to take on idled catering staff to work temporarily as couriers. A unit under Alibaba plans to recruit 10,000 delivery staff alone.

Alibaba Local Life Service, the e-commerce giant's regional distribution platform, opened an online recruiter today that seeks to enlist new couriers from the ranks of restaurant workers whose work has dried up due to the epidemic. Caterers can register their employees on Lanhai to become delivery personnel or serve as convenience store staff, the Alibaba unit said in a statement. They can return to their original employers when their services are needed again.

Lanhai has notified 100,000 outlets registered with Ele.me, a platform that offers online food delivery service. It has notified 200,000 supermarkets, convenience stores, and grocery stores to accept workers from the catering business. According to a partial survey, about 4,000 staff are interested in working temporarily as delivery men.

Online grocery store Miss Fresh recently linked arms with Xibei and Meizhou Dongpo, two large chain restaurants. The catering firms provide warehouses and hundreds of employees, which process dishes every day on a per-bill basis. At present, the two companies can produce 100,000 items a day for Miss Fresh in north China.

FreshHema, a supermarket owned by Alibaba, has struck deals with caterers Yun Hai Yao and Youth Restaurant to take on their staff. FreshHema has taken more than 400 people from them so far, and will pay their wages.

Editor: Peter Thomas