Etailer Flipkart on Wednesday said it has temporarilysuspended its operations and services – including grocery items — as Indiaenters a 21-day lockdown.
Although ecommerce platforms were allowed to provideessential goods and services in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to thenation, Flipkart decided to halt all orders from March 25 for its three supplychains — grocery, non-large goods and large items.
“These are difficult times, times like no other. Neverbefore, have communities stayed apart to stay safe! Never before, has been athome meant helping the nations!” the company posted on its website.
In an internal email sent to employees, Adarsh Menon who issenior vice president at Flipkart wrote that senior executives will”evaluate how to get supply chains back in consultation with governmentand stakeholders but as of now the platform will not accept any orders”.
Ecommerce giant Amazon, in a blog post on Tuesday, said thatit has prioritized available fulfilment and logistics capacity to serveproducts that are currently critical for customers such as household staples,packaged food, health care, hygiene, personal safety and other high priorityproducts.
“This also means that we have to temporarily stoptaking orders and disable shipments for lower-priority products. For allpending customer orders on lower-priority products, we are reaching out tocustomers and giving them a choice to cancel their orders, and receive a refundfor prepaid items,” said Amazon.
The company said it will continue to work with concernedgovernment authorities to ensure on-ground support that will enable it to offera more expanded selection to fulfil customer needs.