Amazon And Flipkart Stumble Upon Supply Chain Issues

The two biggest e-tailers of India, which is Amazon and Walmart’s branch Flipkart, are clambering to decrease the negative influence of Covid-19 on their supply chains of smartphones and large appliances. As said by insiders who pay much attention to the issue, these two categories comprise approximately half of their sales. By mid-April, the capacity of consumer goods on these shopping websites would be affected by this pandemic. Moreover, the coronavirus may cause a high increase in prices, according to the sources.  

Both Flipkart and Amazon, including their private labels such as MarQ, AmazonBasics, and Solimo also sell large appliances that are usually needed for this summer. The thing is China is the main manufacturer that provides these kinds of products; however, with this ongoing spread of the virus, smartphone launches are predicted to be postponed.  

Another problem causing this concern is that plenty of established large appliance brands are from South Korea, where the Coronavirus affects the worst outside China. These companies are now managing to hit new markets to recharge from the inadequate supply from China; meanwhile, they are still making progress to persuade the sellers to supply goods for their private branches instead of selling them as a third-party brand. 

Even when e-tailers have not increased the cost of products to buyers yet, the process of shipping products to India will take more time, which causing limitations in the availability. Specifically, it takes about 20 days for goods to be delivered from China, depending on their factories’ locations. 

Flipkart and Amazon both claimed that they are observing the developments of the virus. While Amazon confided in their right steps to solve current problems, Flipkart only revealed that it still kept in touch with its seller companions. Added by a spokesperson from Flipkart, they had not seen any serious impact then. 

Another person predicted that the clearer result would emerge by next month because the time being has observed enough inventory. However, with the speedy spread of the virus around the world now, many payments and agreements between manufacturers and buyers would be halted, which need much more time to materialize, and it would create counter-effective results for private labels, according to a senior executive at an e-commerce firm. 

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