Amazon has resumed operations in India and is currently accepting orders for groceries and other essential household items through its Amazon Pantry service. The service is currently available only in select PIN codes in the cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, but will hopefully be expanded to more locations around the country. The company also said that it is prioritizing deliveries of existing orders, while delivery of new orders could take 7 to 10 days.
The news comes just days after the company had temporarily halted its services in India because of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. With delivery personnel finding it difficult to make deliveries because of a multitude of roadblocks and checkpoints, most e-commerce outlets, including Amazon and Flipkart, suspended their services in the country last month for an indefinite period.
However, in an official update earlier this week, Amazon announced that it was now fulfilling existing prepaid orders in select PIN codes of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Chandigarh, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mohali, Mumbai, Mysuru, Nagpur, New Delhi, Noida, Panjim, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.
With people from around the country stocking up on groceries and other essential items in fear of a protracted lockdown, Zomato this week launched its grocery delivery service in Delhi, Punjab and Kerala. Called Zomato Market, the hyperlocal grocery delivery service is eventually expected to offer both groceries and fresh produce as part of the service, but for the moment, it seems to be restricted to rice, flour, lentils and other daily essentials.
