- E-commerce players Flipkart & Bigbasket suspend operations while Amazon focuses on only critical orders such as personal hygiene, grocery, and eatables.
E-commerce becomes the latest sector to halt down operations for some time. Big players such as Flipkart and Amazon are shifting their focus from low priority orders to essentials.
Let’s look at what e-commerce websites are doing about it.
Flipkart
E-commerce giant Flipkart has temporarily suspended all of its services in India following a request from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a full shutdown to curb coronavirus spread. The sudden announcement by the Walmart-owned business came despite the fact that e-commerce services were listed by the central government as one of the critical services in its critical list notification, put out Tuesday evening.
Flipkart has labeled all items on its app and website’s search option as’ Out Of Stock.’
“Your needs have always been our focus, and our pledge is that as soon as possible we will be back to support you,” reads a message on Flipkart’s website.
Flipkart has yet to announce when its operations will resume. The statement reads, “These are tough times, times like no other. Never before have societies stayed apart to remain healthy. Never before has been at home meant supporting the country.”
The announcement comes one day after Amazon India said Tuesday it has temporarily stopped taking orders and disabled shipments of low-priority products as it focuses on delivering vital items such as household goods.
Many allegations of abuse by police officers in different parts of India of distribution partners of e-commerce companies like Grofers and Bigbasket have surfaced on Twitter.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday a three-week nationwide “full lockdown” from midnight on Tuesday in the largest such exercise in the world aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus that has infected 557 people and claimed 10 lives in the country.
Amazon
Amazon India said on Tuesday it would temporarily stop taking orders and disable shipments of lower-priority or non-essential goods to meet customers ‘ most urgent needs, as the country is grappling with the coronavirus(Covid-19) pandemic.
Amazon has immediately shifted its focus on the distribution of increasingly essential items such as household goods, prepared food, healthcare, sanitation, personal protection and other high demand items.
Such adjustments take effect from March 24 until the business resumes regular operations.
“We reach out to customers for all pending customer orders on low-priority goods and give them the option to cancel their orders and obtain a refund for prepaid items,” Amazon said in a blog post.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, consumers rely on us like never before and are steadily embracing e-commerce to help their efforts to separate themselves and to self-quarantine. We are working on providing the goods and services that our customers and communities need at this time at every level of our business, “he said.
BigBasket
On Monday, Bigbasket said it acquired a 100 percent stake in the DailyNinja daily milk delivery app located in Bengaluru. The acquisition will allow Bigbasket to consolidate its role, especially at the Bengaluru subscription delivery room.
Problems
India has taken e-commerce to be an essential service. Yet many online distribution companies are struggling to meet the high demand along with the restrictions imposed by the lockdown in many cities that have disrupted delivery services.
“In view of some delays that we have seen in some states over the past couple of days, our deliveries have been disrupted in some regions, and we are providing extended delivery times. We continue to work with the state and central government to demonstrate how we can serve the nation by leveraging our effective and reliable distribution network to make goods accessible to consumers across the country and support this’ Battle Against Corona’, “a spokesperson for the Flipkart Group said Tuesday.
E-commerce becomes the latest to follow the trail of suspending operations after the travel, aviation, and FMCG industry. Although E-commerce is under essential services and they will be delivering important items. Players such as Amazon and Flipkart will be playing an important role in upcoming days as India is under 21 days lockdown and deliveries seem to be a viable option in this time of crisis.
