Covid-19: Amazon India to deliver only essential products, halts sale of other items

Amazon India announced it will deliver only essential products and stop orders for low-priority products.

Amazon India announced it is making changes to its services due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (AP)

Almost the entire country has gone into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Stores across cities and towns have been shut but essential goods and services are still available. Amazon India has now made an announcement on how it is prioritising delivery of only essential products and goods.

Amazon India in a blog post said that the e-commerce platform is seeing a huge spike in demands for products. This is quite natural since brick and mortar stores are closed and people are asked to stay in. Amazon will continue its services however it is limiting them to certain product categories.

"We are temporarily prioritizing 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," Amazon India said in its blog.

Amazon India also said it will "temporarily stop taking orders and disable shipments for lower-priority products".

As for customers who have already placed orders for low-priority products, they will be given a choice to cancel those orders and receive a refund for the same. Amazon's new updates come into effect starting today. Once the coast is clear, Amazon India will resume normal operations, it said.

"We will follow all Centre and State Government guidance on this. We continue to work with concerned government authorities to ensure on-ground support that will enable us to offer a more expanded selection to fulfil customer needs," Amazon India added.