E-commerce giants face disruption in operations amid lockdown: Report

The Indian e-commerce platforms are facing crippling disruptions within three days of the nation-wide lockdown imposed by PM Modi to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The government had, however, assured the e-commerce companies that their operations would not be disrupted due to the lockdown, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

On one hand, there is differing state and district level regulations alog with the state border shutdown, on the other, there is difficulty in getting curfew passes for their delivery personnel. Industry executives said that local authorities have not uniformly followed guidelines and stopped delivery staff and company warehouses from operating.

Since Wednesday, when the lockdown bega, most of Amazon India's 60 plus fulfilment centres across India were shut, and the company is still in talks with state authorities to swiftly reopen warehouses, sources said.

Only a "miniscule" number of Amazon warehouses were operational in the country, even when operations do begin to partially normalise amid the lockdown, it will only be restricted in major cities, another source added.

The large-scale disruptions highlight the implementation woes faced in ensuring the supply of essential goods to 1.3 billion people during the nationwide shutdown. So far, India has reported 724 cases of infection so far, and 17 deaths.

Meanwhile, several users sought help from Amazon on Twitter about ordering essential items, and the company responded saying it was unable to deliver due to local restrictions.

On Thursday, trade minister Piyush Goyal held a meeting with e-commerce executives, and said later the government was "committed to ensuring that essential goods reach the people."

Walmart-owned Flipkart, has also been hit by the shutdown. While some grocery items appeared available from its site on Friday for delivery in New Delhi, it was not clear how far its operations remained disrupted, as the same were not on offer in Mumbai. One source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that Flipkart had been able to reopen grocery warehouses, even as its other warehouses remain shut