The rate card, which comprises various forms of payments such as fixed fees, discounts, delivery costs, and collection fees, will remain the same for Walmart owned Flipkart sellers in the new payment model.
Flipkart consumers will now be offered a new payment option for their orders. In addition to prepaid, cash on delivery (COD) and EMI options, Flipkart will now give customers a partial payment option that will require them to pay a partial sum at the time of placing the order and the remaining through cash on delivery of the product or by online payment.
The change aims to reduce cancellations and returns which have been a challenging issue for e-commerce businesses. The new style, “helps (sellers) enjoy higher unit / GMV growth while maintaining low cancellations,” Flipkart said in an email that was sent to sellers.
Although COD remains the prevalent payment style, which “helps in higher units / GMV but (it) comes with higher cancelation fee costs,” the email says. For the new payment model, the rate card, which contains multiple transaction forms such as fixed price, discount, delivery charge, and collection cost, will remain the same for the sellers.
Although all payments will be levied once the buyer has made the full deposit, sellers will be levied the collection fee at 2 percent of the price paid by the consumer at the time of placing the order and another 2 percent of the latter deposit sum.
AIOVA group of online sellers wrote, “Too late, we have been promoting this for years. Yet enforced at the end. They are concerned if change suits other marketplaces? More moves like this were required to save Flipkart from its ruin.
An AIOVA representative in a separate statement said “this is a first step in making e-commerce entirely prepaid like it is in the United States, the EU, and developing countries. This move will lead to a 2-3 percent decrease in market prices because at present the costs of these undelivered orders have been factored as a cost.
Besides this, Flipkart has also started showcasing country of origin under the product specifications/details section on the product page for several products sold on its marketplace. Myntra, Snapdeal, Pepperfry, BigBasket have allowed country of origin for products that were modified by their respective sellers.
Amazon ordered its vendors to post the same on new and current listings by August 10. Failure to correct the details would result in “list termination,” Amazon said in an email sent to sellers.
