Amazon stops cash on delivery, Flipkart restricts the amount

Priyanka Sahay Ecommerce firm Snapdeal and Flipkart on Wednesday put a cap of Rs 2000 for new cash on delivery orders, rival Amazon India completely stopped cash on delivery in their efforts to deal with the situation where Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes have seized to be recognised as legal tender."Currently, we have temporarily stopped cash as a payment option for new orders. Customers that had already placed cash on delivery orders before midnight 8/11 can pay for their orders using debit or credit cards or currency of valid denominations," Amazon said in a statement."For future orders, we are working on alternatives to make doorstep payments easier for customers by introducing a variety of electronic payment options. We will shortly reintroduce cash payment on delivery and also provide an improved selection of payment methods - both online and at customers’ doorsteps to offer a seamless experience," it added.Snapdeal too said that the the cash on delivery limits will get increased gradually over the next few days. The company is also giving customers who have shortage of smaller currency notes, an option to get their delivery deferred by a few days till new currency notes become easily available.In a bid to curb black money, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced that Rs 500 and  Rs 1000 denomination notes will not be legal tender.The move by Modi government came as a surprise to almost every industry especially a sector such as e-commerce which on a very conservative estimate gets at least 60 percent of its business through cash on delivery model. Of these a good chunk are high ticket size products such as electronics. For example the cost of a basic smartphone on an online portal is at least Rs 4,000.