"These are unprecedented times for everyone of us," Amazon India's Amit Agarwal told NDTV.
Amazon India is prioritising on delivering existing orders to its customers and the focus, at the moment, is on delivering the "most essential items", the e-commerce giant's India head told NDTV, amid a nationwide lockdown to fight coronavirus. Most e-commerce companies have been facing crippling disruptions in services since the 21-day lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.
"The first priority is the safety of our workers. We have implemented new rules in our fulfilment and delivery centres, to keep at least two metres distane so that we can adhere to social distancing... Amazon remains focussed on delivering essential product orders right now," Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President, Amazon India, told NDTV. He said the company also had to ensure that its delivery agents in all districts had curfew passes to travel for deliveries.
"These are unprecedented times for everyone of us," the Amazon India chief said.
While the government has allowed delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment through e-commerce, several major online platforms, including Amazon India, have been facing disruptions in delivery to their customers.
"We have been extra careful and want our executives to be safe, "Amit Agarwal said, adding that it was delivering products to customers were tough when the agents did not have curfew passes. "We took the conservative route to not start operations in such a situation."
"We are slowly and steadily starting operations in several cities... It is a tough time for businesses that sell on Amazon," he added.
Amazon had said that it was working with government authorities to enable it to deliver essential items.