Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar (NVI): Limited access and low-speed internet have affected the business of e-commerce sites in Kashmir as the losses in the sector pile up, leaving more than 4000 courier boys jobless.

Major e-commerce sites in Kashmir stare at an empty wall, with many of them blacklisted after the abrogation of Article 370 in August last year.

In the last few years, e-shopping firms like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, e-bay, Amazon, and Jabong have eaten into the market, leaving the local businesses high and dry. But the communication clampdown post abrogation of Article 370 has drastically affected their businesses.

Although the government has relaxed restrictions by restoring low-speed 2G internet, the e-commerce outlet owners, however, claim that their businesses have not reported any activity since their websites are not accessible to customers.

Zahoor Qari, the president of the Kashmir Courier Association said that nearly 4000 courier boys have lost their earnings as courier services in the valley have been affected due to the non-availability of the internet.

“The e-commerce sector has suffered badly with losses running in crores. Most of the online shopping sites stopped their deliveries to Kashmir,” Qari said.

According to Qari, they use to deliver more than 10 thousand products in a day to customers, but the number has gone down to 200 to 300 post communication clampdown. “Internet is the backbone of online shopping. When you have no internet services, you can’t run this business anywhere in the world. We have very little work these and big companies have stopped services to Kashmir,” he said.

When asked, whether any online shopping site has started services after the restoration of 2G services, he said though few sites have started shipping products, but on a pre-paid basis. “Some are delivering here now but you have to make advance payments for that. No cash on deliveries is applicable for this region for now,” he said.

Few e-commerce sites including global giant Amazon is functioning in the valley.  The majority of the e-commerce sites don’t function either due to the low speed or they have not been included in the whitelisted sites.

Umar Bin Ahmad, who ran an online venture `Modest Attire’ with global operations, said his business suffered more than 300 percent loss after August 5.

“The restoration of 2G internet proved more harmful for the e-commerce sector in Kashmir. We often get queries from our outside state-based clients, who blame us for not responding to them. Kashmir’s e-commerce mostly functions on social media sites like Instagram, which too is blocked in the valley,” he said.

Ahmad said he couldn’t update his website and android application on low-speed internet due to which he was losing his customer base.  “Normally I would get at least 50-60 orders which have now fallen to just one per day,” he added.

Haseeb Ahmad, who owns an online book shop Lal Chowk. in, said he has changed his mode of operation from online orders to SMS. “I would receive orders for almost 400 books every day. Now, I ship merely 100 books to different locations in Kashmir and other parts of the country. I now receive orders over the phone or via SMS,” he said.

Ahmad noted surprisingly, some global websites likely Swiggy and Zomato have been whitelisted despite the fact that they don’t function here. “Our sites do not feature in the whitelisted websites,” he said.

According to official figures, there are around 20,000 BSNL broadband connections in Kashmir valley and a majority of them are shut. Many of them provide internet services to offices, business establishments, shops and even government offices.