Amazon on Monday said the company is seeing demand for various kinds of smart devices and other products like electrical appliances, clothes and work from home enablers in the orange and green zones. The firm started accepting orders for non-essential items from May 4.
“Thousands of sellers have started receiving orders for the first time since the lockdown began in March and we are hopeful that this will help jumpstart the livelihood of many small sellers and their workforce,” Amazon said in a statement.
The ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Friday issued a notification allowing e-commerce firms to deliver shipments of non-essentials in areas apart from those designated as red zones even as the government extended the countrywide lockdown by two weeks. Online firms will continue to sell only essential items in red zones.
E-commerce firms have been urging the authorities to allow sale of non-essentials like smartphones, electronic and stationary items on the premise that access to the items have become necessary as corporate India shifted to work-from-home while students moved to online classes. Amazon last week said its India business had been the worst hit among its international operations.
“We urge the Government to allow an expanded list of priority products in the red zone as well, which will not only revive economic activity and serve urgent needs but will also ensure citizen safety in a high risk area,” Amazon said.