#Coronavirus Lockdown: Amazon, Flipkart, Grofers, BigBasket Will Deliver Your Orders Now

PM Modi on 24^th March announced an absolute nationwide lockdown for 21 days, starting from Tuesday midnight, in order to contain this war with coronavirus for all of the country’s 130 crore population.

While the nation goes on lockdown for its own good, the ecommerce giants Flipkart and Amazon decided the ecommerce giants Flipkart and Amazon. This is what we informed you yesterday.

Well, after  initial moments of confusion about  shutting down of warehouses by various police jurisdictions and district administrations, coordination between the central government and state governments have been cleared and most of the delivery services are back online.

Delivery Platforms are Back Online

Having suspended taking orders earlier on Wednesday, Walmart-owned Flipkart said it will resume delivery of groceries and other essentials later today.

In fact,  Amazon, Grofers, BigBasket, Dunzo and all other similar platforms have showed their presence online.

However, this comes with a star mark that these delivery services will only be operative for the delivery of groceries and essential services, as of now; as companies attempt to minimise the number of individuals that are required to be on the ground and in warehouses.

You Will Have to Wait Some More for Legit Online Shopping

With India locking down for  straight days now, to fight against novel coronavirus, online stores are still not sure about how to procure supplies, how to deliver them to your home and what the specific guidelines for those processes are. 

There are multiple reasons why this is happening with the online shopping stores.

1. India is in a first of kind lockdown state to keep 1.3 billion of its population indoors.
2. No clarity on what comprises of “essential services”.
3. On line and offline stores aren’t exactly sure how the supplies for essentials would come in.

Panic Buying Increases

After PM Modi’s announcement of nationwide lockdown for 21 days, people have gathered around in public places and have involved into comprehensive panic buying, despite the state and central government’s assurance of arrangements made for the supply of essential items.

Due to a surge in panic buying in a very short span of time, shopping websites and their delivery partners have been put under tremendous weight to deliver the order while supplies may be restricted.

What is ‘Essential’ & ‘Non-Essential’ Not Clarified

India has counted e-commerce as an essential service category. But several online delivery firms have been struggling to meet the high demand because of restrictions following the lockdown.

Amazon stated that in regards of serving its customers’ most urgent needs, while also ensuring safety measures, the company will temporarily prioritize its current 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.

However, since the platform cancelled an order comprising of vegetables and groceries on March 23, we still aren’t sure of what would classify as essential items in most definitions.

Delivery Execs are Ill Treated

Over the past couple of days, delivery executives of online firms have reportedly faced police brutality in various cities despite e-commerce firms being exempted from lockdown rules.

Online delivery service MilkBasket, reported that their employees were harassed by authorities for “being on the road” on March 23.

As many gated communities and apartment complexes didn’t allow the MilkBasket delivery team to access the residents’ homes, the company claims they had to dump as much as 15,000 liters of milk and 10,000kg of fruits and vegetables. 

Authorities need to step in at some point to smoothen things out.  The Government has assured citizens that basics such as vegetables, fruits and medicines will continue to be available during the lockdown.

We will simply have to take their word for it, and not stress the system even more. Someone who really needs vegetables right now may not get it because some of us are stocking up a bit too much.