- // Update 1 (19/04/2020 1:00 pm) Flipkart is no longer accepting orders
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, India has been on total lockdown for close to a month now. This has greatly disrupted the working of e-commerce giants, who have just been restricted to essential deliveries. However, yesterday we learned that the government will allow e-commerce services to function normally from 20th April.
In line with the same, Flipkart has opened up its mobile store today and is now accepting new smartphone offers. I received a notification about it just minutes ago. The notification read, “We’re now accepting orders for your favorite smartphones!” So yes, it’s time to rejoice for all smartphone enthusiasts. You can access the mobile store from a banner on the home page of the Flipkart app.
Also, you can see in the screenshot above that deliveries will kick-off on 20th April, i.e Monday. Flipkart isn’t going against the lockdown orders by accepting new orders, for those wondering. It is simply giving users a chance to get their hands on a new phone right when deliveries kick-off.
I added a bunch of smartphones to my cart, only to find the estimated delivery date to be at least 25th April here in Delhi. Poco X2 deliveries seem to be further delayed, with the device reaching Delhi around 30th April. It appears like Flipkart will clear previous backlogs (first deliver all orders placed prior to the lockdown) starting Monday or the restrictions on movement across borders could also be a huge contributing factor to the delayed delivery.
So yeah, if you have meaning to get a new smartphone – be it Poco X2 or Realme X50 Pro, you can now punch in your orders on Flipkart. Before you do that though, don’t forget to check out the updated list of smartphone phones right here. The government increased the GST tax rate on smartphones from 1st April, making phones like Realme 6, Redmi Note 9, Poco X2 among other slightly more expensive.
Update 1 (19/04/2020 1:00 pm)
Following the Home Secretary’s orders announcing that e-commerce services will not be allowed to deliver non-essential goods from April 20, Flipkart has updated its app to reflect the same.
The company started accepting orders on Saturday, and is now saying that it will try to fulfil orders that have already been placed, but is no longer accepting new orders.