Amid the stringent refund policy introduced by Flipkart, Amazon India has stepped up to create a new policy that will provide its sellers to have a damage allowance to cover for potential damage in transit. Known as ‘Seller Flex’ programme, the sellers are required to pay a fixed percentage of the selling price of the unit parcelled.
“We have introduced damage allowance in ‘Seller Flex’ for certain categories as part of our endeavour to continue providing a good seller experience on this channel,” said an Amazon India spokesperson, as mentioned on ET.
As many e-commerce companies were providing flexibility to its buyers, the sellers had complained about the transit and refund policies, as the accumulation of the total expenditure used to re-pack and send the parcels made it a costly affair for them. Therefore, after receiving flak from the sellers, some companies like Flipkart and Amazon have decided to revise their policy.
Transitioning Transit
The e-commerce platform will now include products from apparel, shoes, watches to luggage categories. Basically, the sellers need to fall under the ‘Seller Flex’ bracket. The program – Seller Flex basically replicates its warehousing practices such as inventory management, quality control, packaging and shipping at the facilities owned by third party sellers.
The program is intended to cut the cost of shipping inventory from its sellers’ premises to Amazon’s warehouse.
As per an email sent to its sellers, Amazon has said: “We would like to inform you about the upcoming changes to Seller Flex Lost and Damaged Inventory Reimbursement Policy, which will be effective May 14, 2017, onwards for all units fulfilled using the Seller Flex programme.”
Flak to Fair
The e-commerce platform had noticed a sudden slump in the seller’s distribution versus the profit noted, therefore some companies were already in talks to change its transit and refund policies. The policy shift by Amazon is appreciated by many of its vendors.
As per, All India Vendors’ Association, a group of 2,000 sellers, said this is a positive change brought about by the company and sellers on the platform can draw the maximum benefits.
“Such policies define Amazon’s reformist approach to seller experience and is very positive to boost seller trust on the platform. This eliminates all the hassles which sellers used to face to claim reimbursement on time. We hope this policy is started for general sellers as well. Other marketplaces should follow suit,” said an association spokesperson.
