E-commerce firm Flipkart has temporarily suspended its services as the 21-day country-wide lockdown began on Wednesday in order to curtail the spread of COVID-19 .
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The move comes after rival Amazon India on Tuesday said it was giving halt orders for non-essential products and was looking at prioritising customers’ critical needs.
“Consequent to the order issued on March 24 by the Ministry of Home Affairs announcing a 21-day lockdown across India to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19, we are temporarily suspending our services,” the Walmart owned firm said in a blog.
Also read: What will be available and what will be closed during the 21-day lockdown
It added, “Your needs have always been a priority, and our promise is that we will be back to serve you, as soon as possible.” A similar note is also on the Flipkart website.
Amazon India in a blog on Tuesday said a large number of districts/States are taking precautionary measures with extensive lockdown and restricted movement of goods and people. At the same time, the platform is seeing an increased demand for priority products and important services.
“To serve customers’ most urgent needs, while also ensuring safety of our employees, we are temporarily prioritising our available fulfilment and logistics capacity to serve products that are currently critical for our customers such as household staples, packaged food, health care, hygiene, personal safety and other high priority products,” it said.
“This also means that we have to temporarily stop taking orders and disable shipments for lower-priority products.”
Amazon India said that regarding all pending customer orders on lower-priority products, it was reaching out to customers and giving them a choice to cancel their orders, and receive a refund for prepaid items.
These changes, it said, were in effect from March 24, 2020.
“Amazon and our network of partners are helping communities around the world and in India to deliver much-needed supplies directly to the doorsteps of people who need them. We will remain focused on providing this vital service to people in India, especially to those most vulnerable, like the elderly or those without access,” it said.
Published - March 25, 2020 10:16 am IST
