After 6 months, online shopping picks up

M Aamir Khan

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 14

After over six months post the abrogation of Article 370, online shopping has finally started to return to the Valley. Though sites like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Shopclues are still not delivering to Kashmir, orders can be placed on other popular shopping portals such as Amazon, Myntra and Decathlon. Stakeholders say online shopping will resume fully once the Internet is completely restored.

A large number of courier boys were rendered jobless after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year when normal life was thrown out of gear.

“For the past few days, I have been able to place orders on Myntra and Amazon. I even received a parcel from Myntra. However, deliveries are available mostly in Srinagar and not all districts. We hope other online shopping websites also start delivering to Kashmir,” said Shagufta Amin, an online shopper.

“We also hope 4G and broadband service are restored at the earliest. Placing online orders on the 2G network is not easy and paying though net banking or credit and debit cards is more difficult,” said Shagufta.

Mobile and landline telephony and Internet services were suspended after the abrogation of Article 370 last year. Though the postpaid mobile services were later restored on October 14 after around 70 days, the limited access 2G services were restored only from January 25 this year.