Coronavirus: Online shopping to be hit as ecommerce firms scale back operations

ecommerce operations are grinding to a near-halt in locked down areas, as per industry members, who say the police and local authorities have been forcing shutdowns of warehouses, stopping delivery partners and even roughing them up.

ecommerce companies such as Flipkart and Amazon are resorting to suspension of pickups of products from warehouses. The situation is forcing ecommerce companies to cancel deliveries over the next few days and postpone all existing orders.

Amazon India on Tuesday said it will only fulfill orders for critical products such as household staples, packaged food, healthcare, hygiene, etc. The company said it will temporarily stop taking orders for other items and is also asking customers to cancel pending orders for low priority items while offering refunds.

"These changes are in effect from 24th March 2020 and we will update when we resume normal operations," Amazon India said in a blog post.

"We are working with the local authorities to enable us to perform these important services providing safety for our delivery associates and allowing them to make sure those priority goods can arrive safely at our customers’ homes without any disruption," an Amazon spokesperson said.

Sources say Flipkart has shut its fulfillment centres, especially in North India as well as western regions such as Maharashtra.

"In light of some disruptions we have seen over the past few days in some states, our deliveries in certain areas have been affected, and we are offering extended delivery timelines. We continue to work with the state and central governments to showcase how we can be of service to the nation by leveraging our efficient and robust delivery network to make products available to customers across the country and support in this ‘Fight Against Corona’," a Flipkart spokesperson said.

Industry members said that in some areas such as Haryana, delivery personnel were also arrested for breaking the curfew. ecommerce companies said delivery personnel are now scared and are not turning up for deliveries, which is further leading to disruption of services.

What is also hurting operations is that the movement of trucks with essentials is also being stopped at several borders, given that several states have sealed borders.

Platforms such as Grofers are seeing a backlog of over 2.3 lakh orders. Grofers founder Albinder Dhindsa took to Twitter to say that even on Tuesday authorities shut the company’s warehouse in Faridabad and thus denied essential items to over 20,000 households.

MilkBasket, which delivers essential dairy products among other grocery items, also said on Twitter that its vehicles were being obstructed by the police, and the distribution centres were forced to shut down.

Bigbasket also took to Twitter to say the company is trying to fullfil orders but is awaiting clarifications from authorities.

The consumer affairs department had asked states to exempt ecommerce operations from prohibitory orders, which includes warehousing, logistics, wholesalers, vendors and delivery partners.

Following a meeting with ecommerce companies on Monday, the department asked nodal officers in states to work with and resolve issues for ecommerce

companies.

Vineet Mathur, joint secretary, consumer affairs dept, told CNBC-TV18 that he is hopeful of ecommerce operations improving soon.

“We have asked state governments to work with ecommerce companies, but local district authorities may take a call to clamp down all movement based on reports of cases in their area. We expect situation to improve for ecommerce operations in a few days,” he said.

On Tuesday, the central government, in its advisory to states to permit IT and ITeS services to be exempted from lockdowns, also mentioned that

states should allow ecommerce services on basis of evidence of order copies, invoices, etc.

While the central government continues to inform states on the essential role of ecommerce deliveries in the time of lockdowns, it may be a while before local authorities oblige.