In these times of 100% lockdown, the cashflow situation has been the one major issue with most businesses. With the inflows practically coming to a complete halt, there are payables which cannot be stopped or delayed. Sellers on ecommerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart are stuck in a situation like that. Thousands of orders placed just before the lockdown began have since been cancelled as they are not covered under the ‘essential goods’ category.
As a first step, the e-commerce companies are trying to refund the buyers the amounts they had paid. Sellers are yet to get their payments, report Economic Times. Wherever the goods had been picked up and were in transit they have been recalled to the nearest fulfilment centre and a call may be taken later on how to go about it once things return to normal.
The sellers on these platforms are now anxiously waiting for their dues to be cleared. The All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) is now pitching for an exemption from payment of salaries to their employees for the lockdown period.
Flipkart has denied that there is any delay in settling payments to the sellers on their platform though this is not fully corroborated by some sellers. There are some customers also who say they are yet to receive the refund for cancelled orders.
The concern among most of the sellers is they expect that the restriction on movement of non-essential items may be extended beyond April 15, even assuming the lockdown is lifted that day. The latest hints from the government circles is that the lockdown may be lifted at the end of the 21-day period, but social distancing will be maintained and some restrictions will continue. It has not been clarified what these are.