Flipkart Halts All Order Deliveries, Amazon Focuses On Essential Ones For India Lockdown

Flipkart has stopped taking orders through its portals in lieu of the nationwide lockdown imposed on Tuesday night. One of the largest e-commerce players in the country, Flipkart¡¯s decision follows the 21-day lockdown announced by the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on the evening of March 24.

Earlier, it was expected that e-commerce entities will be allowed to operate to provide essential services to the people locked in their homes. Flipkart, however, says that it will have to restructure its operations in order to be able to do so.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

The same was confirmed in a recent email sent to all Flipkart employees by the company¡¯s senior vice president Adarsh Menon. In the email, Menon stated that ¡°We want to first disable taking all orders and then start enabling categories in a sequential manner.¡±

For this, all the 3 supply chains for Flipkart, which are that of grocery, non large and large items, have stopped taking orders. In short, Flipkart is in a total shutdown state for now until further notice.

Flipkart¡¯s fiercest rival Amazon is facing the same challenge but has taken a slightly different approach to tackle the ongoing problem. Instead of bringing a complete stop to its operations, Amazon has suspended the deliveries of all non-essential items and is now focussing on getting the essential orders delivered.

The essential items mentioned above tend to include household staples, packaged foods as well as healthcare items. For all the orders not falling in this category, Amazon on Tuesday gave an option to the buyers to cancel their pending orders and claim a refund for the same.

A similar move was expected from Flipkart too. But the company¡¯s ¡°leadership will evaluate how to get supply chains back in consultation with government and stakeholders¡± first, as per Menon. Eventually, it is expected to follow suit with Amazon¡¯s decision and get its deliveries for essential items up and running as soon as possible.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

Easy venture?

Government allowed the operations of e-commerce activities in the country up until the start of this week. The stance was later changed to accommodate the delivery of only essential items.

That being said, reports of the delivery executives of these e-commerce services being harassed on their delivery route by the on-ground police have emerged. Without a clear mandate on whether or not the services are allowed and the delivery executives are allowed to roam around amidst the lockdown, the confusion upon the operation of such e-commerce entities will prevail, at least on the ground.