Electronic gadgets including mobile phones, laptops, and other appliances will not be available for sale online for some time due to the restrictions in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases across the country.

Share Market Live

NSE

Several state governments including the worst affected Maharashtra and Delhi among others have imposed restrictions to contain the rapid surge in COVID-19 cases. During this period, only essential items like food items, groceries, medicines, and other daily use household products are allowed to be sold both online and offline.

The electronic goods do not fall under the list of essential items and hence cannot be sold online during the lockdown.

The customers had an option available to shop online for electronic goods during the lockdown when the physical stores remain shut. But many state governments have imposed restrictions to ensure a level playing field for both online and offline businesses.

Presently most of the online retailers have stopped delivery of all non-essential goods across several states to comply with the new guidelines during the lockdown.

The move is to ensure that the delivery person does not become unintended vectors of the COVID-19 virus due to the high volume of deliveries for non-essential products.

At the beginning of the month, the Confederation of All India Traders had asked the Union government to ensure that online retailers and e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart did not have an unfair advantage by being allowed to provide non-essential goods wherever lockdown or curfew has been imposed.

Even brand online stores have stopped their deliveries by not accepting orders to pincodes of states with lockdown or deferring delivery dates to after when the lockdown has been lifted.

Amazon, however, in a statement urged the government to allow the delivery of all products as long as deliveries maintained a safety protocol. The e-commerce giants said it was difficult to have a single, static list of essential items and people can require a variety of items that are not on the list of essential goods, the Gadget360 reported.