Amazon Rubs Salt on Flipkart Wounds, Reduces Seller Commission On Electronics To Boost Sales
Flipkart recently introduced major changes in its policy by reducing return period from 30 to 10 days, and by charging more commission to sellers on the product listings. These changes led to a huge stress among the sellers and many of them even threatened to exit Flipkart.
It was also reported that Amazon too would hike its commission charges but the ecommerce giant has done just the opposite. It has reduced its commission rates that it charges from the sellers using its platform.
The new ‘referral fees’ will be effective today onwards and the sellers have said that they are likely to pass on the savings to the customers.
The Changes In Referral Fees
It is worth noting that Amazon had recently hiked its commission for some categories in April this year. The commission rates on mobile phone accessories were increased by 9% while the rates on luggage and shoes were increased by 2%.
Amazon recently sent emails to its sellers mentioning the updated fees. It will now charge 3% on PCs instead of 4%, and the referral fees on mobile devices and tablets would be reduced from 5% to 3.5%. The electronic devices would also be charged 4% commission instead of 5%.
The changes to the referral fees were sent to sellers on Amazon platform yesterday – Here is the mail.
Welcoming this move by Amazon, Sanjay Thakur, spokesman of ESellerSuraksha which is a group of about 1000 online sellers, claimed that the sellers would pass on this benefit to the end-customers.
This would enable the sellers to competitively price their offerings on Amazon and thus improve their gross revenue.
Please note that Flipkart’s increased commission rates would come into effect from 20 June while Amazon is implementing its new policy from today itself. This is likely to have a huge effect on the online seller community.
It is also worth noting that Amazon has recently put an end to its famous 30-day return policy and so did Flipkart by trimming it down to 10 days, but it looks like they did something wrong.
If you are an online seller then do let us know your thoughts about this. Do you think that this decrease in commission by Amazon would have a significant effect on your sales volume?
