Flipkart to tweak seller fee structure for orders below Rs 500

This is expected to translate into lower prices for customers in categories such as books and apparel.
Flipkart to tweak seller fee structure for orders below Rs 500
Flipkart to tweak seller fee structure for orders below Rs 500
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There are again reports of revisions being brought about in the fees being charged by online retail platforms from their sellers. This time it is Flipkart and according to an Economic Times report, Flipkart plans to revise the seller fees on orders of value Rs 500 and below so that sellers feel no inhibition in putting up such goods on its site and pass on the price benefit to the customers. It is learnt that these include items such as books and clothes and even phone covers.

The changes in the seller fees may be implemented from next week when rival Amazon’s lower fee schedule will also get implemented. These exercises are largely seen by observers as attempts to protect their turfs and keep the fees at same levels so that sellers don’t leave the platform and join the rival’s.

Such lowering of seller fees has become a regular affair with Flipkart having carried out similar exercises in March and November last year. Now, Rs 500 and Rs 300 are being seen as threshold levels and the exact quantum of revisions is yet to be announced.

While Amazon had begun as a books-selling platform online, Flipkart is trying to push this category on its site as well to compete with Amazon. This is one of the reasons for looking at lowering the purchase cost for books by reducing the seller fees. Besides seller fees shipping charges collected from the customers may also be revised to make it more attractive.

In the previous attempt Flipkart had revealed that its policy in the matter would be to encourage local sellers so that delivered within the cities could be made cheaper and where it is beyond the city to cover the region or if the product has to travel across the country, then the charges could even be increased.

The trade body All India Online Vendors Association, however, is not happy with the unilateral decision being made by these Ecommerce giants without holding any consultations with them. They also complain that the decisions are made and implemented without allowing any time in between.

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