Ecommerce news India | E-Commerce Majors to shut down Operations - 21 days Nationwide Lockdown

India had its first day of the 21-day lockdown as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The lockdown has been announced so that the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) disease can be controlled. Due to the lockdown, many e-commerce businesses have been hit badly - Ecommerce news India

More than 600 people have been tested positive for the novel coronavirus in India and a total of 10 deaths have been recorded so far. Although, several business enterprises had to shut down their operations while others had to cut down the number of active working force employed so as to comply with the orders of the government according to Ecommerce news India.

The latest move by the government will expectedly affect the cash flow of all of the e-commerce companies sharply depending on the company to the company.

We are taking a glance at the key e-commerce firms that had to shut down their operations because of the 21-day lockdown in the country.

Flipkart

The E-commerce major Flipkart owned by US retail major Walmart made an announcement on Wednesday, 25th March about the suspension of its operations on a temporary basis.

The company said in a statement, “In Compliance with the orders that have been issued on 24th March 2020 by the Ministry of Home Affairs for a 21-day lockdown all over the country to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease-causing Covid-19, we are temporarily shutting down our operations,” They further added, “we will be back as soon as possible” - Ecommerce news India.

Amazon India 

Amazon India is another e-commerce major in India that made an announcement on Tuesday about their temporarily stopping of taking any new orders and has disabled their shipment of the low-priority products. This move by the company has been taken because they wanted to focus on the delivery of essential commodities including household items, hygiene as well as other high-priority products - Ecommerce news India.

For those orders that have already been placed by the customers, the customers received a message from Amazon that reads, “There is an increase in the demand for high priority goods as customers stay home to comply with social distancing. Additionally, several local and regional lockdowns are impacting our capability to deliver on time. This has resulted in longer than usual time to deliver your order. We request your patience as our team is working on serving customers in these challenging times.”

Grofers

Online grocery app Grofers has also been facing similar issues with its warehouse located in Faridabad, Haryana as per Ecommerce news India. The warehouse has been shut down. The founder of Grofers, Mr. Albinder Dhindsa made a tweet on Tuesday showing his concern about the sudden increase in the demand and the lockdown at the same time.

Some of the other e-commerce companies, including Milkbasket have been facing problems in the delivery of even the essential commodities to the customers. This is happening despite the fact that the government had announced that the delivery of essential commodities such as food, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment through e-commerce has been allowed.

Some of the e-commerce companies are making a request to the government for expansion of the inclusion of essential products beyond food products and medicines to include other goods such as cable and routers now that much of the population is currently working from home and these may be required.

PC: PYMNTS, The Drum, Entrackr, the financial express

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