Rs 500, Rs 1,000 note ban: Amazon's cash on delivery orders back on track

New Delhi: E-commerce giant Amazon today said it has resumed cash on delivery (CoD) service for customers, two days after it had halted the option following the government’s move to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Apart from cash, Amazon India will allow customers to pay using credit and debit cards at the time of delivery of the order. [caption id=“attachment_2621582” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “As of November 11, we are re-introducing CoD to enable options to pay at the time of delivery. This accommodates customers who face challenges of paying online, but are still able to use electronic instruments at delivery,” an Amazon India spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that the delivery agents have been trained to help customers who opt for card payments at the time of order delivery or valid currency notes, including the newly introduced Rs 500 and 2,000 notes. About digital payments on the platform, the spokesperson said electronic payments at doorstep have gone up by a factor of 10x in the past two days. “This clearly indicates that customers are able to adapt to electronic payment methods when cash is constrained. We continue to focus on incentivising and helping people shift to making payments electronically online, aligned with the government’s focus,” the spokesperson added. The company has launched a new offer to incentivise customers to make cashless transactions. Customers can load their Amazon gift card balance and get an incentive of 15 percent/Rs 300 (maximum) discount at checkout. Following the government’s decision to demonetise, firms like Amazon and Paytm temporarily halted the cash on delivery facility for customers. Some companies like Uber and BigBasket have issued advisories urging customers to pay in lower denominations while others like Flipkart and Snapdeal set limits to the value of orders that can be delivered through CoD. According to industry estimates, about 70 percent of the shoppers opt for cash while buying a product.