If the first wave of ecommerce was about heavy customer discount and offering candies to lure them; the second wave of ecommerce seems to be about becoming pro-seller and quashing all previous customer expectations.
Snapdeal, which boasted about ‘no questions asked’ return policy has now cancelled this privilege for electronics items, and forcing the end user to show evidence that the product is indeed defective. Besides, they have also reduced commission charged from sellers, thereby becoming more pro-seller rather than pro-customer.
Evidence Needed For Returning Defective Products?
Snapdeal has sent an email to all sellers, and have updated their page regarding returns with this update: “Electronic items: We require a document from the brand/OEM’s service centre confirming that the delivered item was defective. We will carry out a quality check to validate the complaint before processing any request for refund/replacement. Returns/replacements will be accepted for only those items which are found to be faulty/ defective.”
As per some, Snapdeal posted this update days ago, but sellers are claiming that this was done on July 11th. With 10-12% of all electronic goods being returned due to various reasons, this new clause can prove to be a major hindrance for those customers who were used to seamless returns.
Sellers’ lobby is rejoicing on this new update, as obtaining proof and evidence of defectiveness would certainly deter customers from claiming returns, thereby increasing sellers’ profits.
Sanjay Thakur from e-Seller Suraksha Forum, who spearheaded the war against Flipkart for anti-seller policies, said, “The biggest change is removal of the ‘no questions asked’ policy and fixing seven days for returns. This will reduce irrational returns and frauds by buyers,”
Amazon has already stopped giving refunds for tablets, desktop PCs, cameras and laptops.
Commission Charged From Sellers Reduced by Snapdeal
In other big , pro-seller initiative, Snapdeal has reduced commission charged from sellers by 0.2% to 18% in some cases. Across 120 categories like electronics, women’s wears and FMCG products, this massive cut has been announced.
As per Snapdeal, this was done after ‘feedback received’ from sellers and helping them to conduct their business in a favourable environment.
Vishal Chadha, senior vice president, market development at Snapdeal, said, “We believe reduction in marketing fees will foster growth for our sellers. We have worked closely with our sellers and basis their feedback, we have made these policy changes to make them in-line with e-commerce industry best practices.”
However, for 30 odd categories, commission charged from sellers has been increased by marginal percentages between 0.5 to 5.5%.
Besides, from now on, Snapdeal will bear the cost of reverse pick-up and payment collection during return of a product or replacement and exchange, meanwhile sellers will bear the cost of packaging and shipping.
Considering that return of products, especially electronics items, would now slow down, this is indeed an excellent strategy to win back seller’s’ confidence and trust.
After Flipkart had increased commission charged from sellers and induced some tough rules for returns, they bore the brunt of sellers strike against them. It seems Snapdeal has learnt their lessons well, and they are clearly avoiding any confrontation by taking pre-emptive steps to keep sellers happy.
In a way, Snapdeal is following Amazon, which had immediately reduced seller’s commission after they resolved against Flipkart.
It would be interesting to observe how the ecommerce industry changes it’s course after these updates.
It looks good but it is limited to electronic goods right now. I had to stop selling online due to super easy return policy of ecom sites. They also require the seller to bear the cost of return shipping. It means the seller pays shipping costs of both sending and returning. For inexpensive and heavy items, it completely wipes out all profits. Every 6th order of an item is returned.