Flipkart halts new order from Tuesday night, to resume in a few days

Flipkart, one of the two largest e-commerce platforms, will stop taking new orders on its site starting Tuesday night, according to internal communication sent minutes earlier.

“We want to first disable taking all orders and then start enabling categories in a sequential manner,” Adarsh Menon, senior vice president, Flipkart said in an email to employees.

The directive follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Tuesday announcement of a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

It comes hours after Amazon, the other large e-tailer, said it was suspending the delivery of non-essential products and prioritising household staples, packaged foods,