Etailers suspend cash on delivery

Hit by the shortage of cash in the country, e-commerce companies have suspended cash-on- delivery option — the most popular delivery mode among risk-averse e-shoppers.

“To comply with the announcement (on demo-netisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes), we have temporarily stopp-ed Cash on Delivery (COD) as a payment method for buyers from November 9, 2016,” said Amazon India in its notification to sellers.

Those who have already placed COD orders can pay through valid banknotes or by debit or credit cards.

Other ecommerce companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal have set limits — Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 respectively — to the value of orders that can be delivered through COD.

According to industry estimates, about 70 per cent of the shoppers opt for cash while buying a product. Though the COD is highly inefficient in terms of costs, e-companies continue to offer this mode of delivery as it assures customers that they can pay only after seeing the product.

Though 98 per cent of its orders are paid through its payment wallet, PayTM has also temporarily disabled COD orders to avoid inconvenience to consumers at the time of delivery. Craft-svilla, the largest marketplace for ethnicwear, has suspended COD option and halted all undelivered COD orders.