Amid the nationwide lockout and the uncertainty over when the coronavirus crisis will come to an end, e-commerce player Paytm has announced relaxations for the sellers on its platform. These largely cover the delays in fulfilling the orders they have accepted from customers, but the ordered goods could not be delivered due to the restrictions in place.

In many states, the e-commerce delivery executives were one of the worst to have faced the brunt of the police action. It took a couple of days for the police to allow the e-commerce delivery boys to carry on with their delivery duties. The issue is yet to be resolved as individual states have announced some kind of a pass system so that the police will be able to allow those carrying the passes to travel on the roads.

Coming back to Paytm, the company has a backlog of over 1 lakh orders which are pending to be delivered. The delivery deadline has since been extended till April 22, with the hope that the lockdown will be lifted with effect from April 15, and the sellers will be able to organize the deliveries within 1 week of that. There are service level agreements, where sellers who fail to register a certain level in terms of service will be penalized. This agreement will now be kept in abeyance during this unprecedented time and situation.

Srinivas Mothey, Senior Vice President, Paytm Mall said, "These are unprecedented circumstances and Paytm Mall's merchant support and communication teams are working hard to ensure all seller queries are resolved timely and updated information regarding order processing and fulfillment are shared with them regularly.”