Coronavirus scare: Flipkart ceases operations across supply chain amid lockdown

NEW DELHI: Etailer Flipkart on Wednesday said it has temporarily suspended its operations and services - including grocery items -- as India enters a 21-day lockdown.

Although ecommerce platforms were allowed to provide essential goods and services in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation, Flipkart decided to halt all orders from March 25 for its three supply chains -- grocery, non-large goods and large items.

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"These are difficult times, times like no other. Never before, have communities stayed apart to stay safe! Never before, has been at home meant helping the nations!" the company posted on its website.

In an internal email sent to employees, Adarsh Menon who is senior vice president at Flipkart wrote that senior executives will "evaluate how to get supply chains back in consultation with government and stakeholders but as of now the platform will not accept any orders".

Ecommerce giant Amazon, in a blog post on Tuesday, said that it has prioritized available fulfilment and logistics capacity to serve products that are currently critical for customers such as household staples, packaged food, health care, hygiene, personal safety and other high priority products.

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"This also means that we have to temporarily stop taking orders and disable shipments for lower-priority products. For all pending customer orders on lower-priority products, we are reaching out to customers and giving them a choice to cancel their orders, and receive a refund for prepaid items," said Amazon.

The company said it will continue to work with concerned government authorities to ensure on-ground support that will enable it to offer a more expanded selection to fulfil customer needs.