Karachi:The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has urged the prime minister (PM) Imran Khan and all the provincial chief ministers to allow e-Commerce companies to function and deliver all essential and also non-essential items to customers at their doorstep to revive the businesses of the SMEs which is suffering because of the lockdown due to Coronavirus.
President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said it is important for the federal and provincial governments to be on the same page and facilitate the businessmen. Since the ecommerce companies are already abiding by the social distancing protocol for permitted items and would follow the same protocol for all the items as well if allowed.
Thaver said by allowing the ecommerce companies to function they would be saving many businesses from losses and collapse as businesses have suffered due to lockdown. Many countries of the world have allowed ecommerce companies to function and they are delivering goods to the buyers at their doorstep for online orders placed by the customers.
Thaver said we fail to understand the wisdom of the government in only allowing few selected essential items only and not all items as the concept of deliveries at doorstep is the same and social distancing is the aim. The idea is to discourage gatherings of customers at malls, shopping centres and shops in markets and in the case of ecommerce all this is avoided and secondly the staff in the warehouse is compelled to follow hand washing and sanitization and also standard operation procedures fully.
It is pertinent to note that holy month of Ramadhan is fast approaching and believers will need to do their shopping of many items in good time which they can conveniently do online. India has also allowed ecommerce of all items effective from 20th April 2020 and likewise many other countries are also allowing one by one. It would be wise of the governments both federal and provincial to immediately allow e-Commerce of all items and promote business activity in full swing under social distancing protocol.