Online shopping picks up in Valley

M Aamir Khan

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 4

Online shopping has finally resumed in the Kashmir valley after around three months of Covid-19 lockdown. Most of the top e-commerce portals have started delivering parcels and the courier companies are hopeful that other sites will start operations soon.

“We could not go out due to lockdown earlier and on top of that shops here do not open daily. However, we are glad that online shopping has started finally. While Myntra had started deliveries sometime back, others like Shopclues and Amazon, too, are delivering now....only Flipkart is not delivering right now,” said Sameena, a housewife.

Online shopping had earlier remained suspended for around six months after the Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370 on August 5 last year.

However, residents complained that lack of 4G service, which continues to remain barred since August 5, 2019, was giving them ‘nightmares’. “All do not have broadband connections and shopping at 2G speed is a nightmare. It takes ages for a website to load and it is also difficult to do online transactions in slow speed,” said another resident.

Though barring of phone and Internet services had caused suspension of online shopping earlier as well, courier companies say they are now fully prepared to deliver parcels.

Kashmir Courier Association (KCA) president Zahoor Qari said they had resumed delivering couriers and were hopeful that all e-commerce sites would start delivering in the Valley soon.