New Ecommerce Policy: Clampdown On Fake Items, Chinese Portals Soon, Small Sellers Rise & Shine!

We have reported the after-shocks of the new ecommerce policy which has been implemented effective Febriary 1st.

We have told how the new ecommerce policy has taken the air out of Amazon, and Flipkart, as FDI rules have restricted them severely.

But now, as the dust is settling, we are getting the true picture of the impact.

Action On Fake Items, Data Localisation, Chinese Ecommerce Portals

As per reports coming in, the new ecommerce policy will soon focus on two very crucial aspects: Data Localisation, and Counterfeit products.

It is being expected that very soon, Govt. will soon make a rule for all ecommerce portals to store their data inside India.

The draft document says, “In the future, economic activity is likely to follow data. It is hence vital that we retain control of data to ensure job creation within India”.

Hence, if this rule applies, then Amazon and other ecommerce portals located outside India will have to store their data inside India. This may lead to more expenses.

Besides, a policy to stop the sale of counterfeit and fake products will be incorporated, with the provision of heavy fine and penalty.

Chinese Ecommerce Portals Will Need To Register

As per another proposal, Govt. may soon mandate all foreign-based ecommerce portals to first register in India, and then sell their products.

Insiders are claiming that this can be done to restrict on Chinese ecommerce portals such as Shein, AliExpress and Romwe which are selling their products in India.

Once registered, Govt. can ask them to share information about the products sold, and how many of these products are being sold in India.

This is not a good development for these Chinese ecommerce sites. We had already reported how ordered products on these Chinese ecommerce portals will become tougher now.

Small Sellers Rise and Shine On Amazon, Flipkart

We had reported that due to the implementation of the new ecommerce policy, bigger sellers such as Cloudtail and Appario are not allowed to sell more than 25% of the overall volume.

Besides, Amazon cannot sell via their own entities.

This has resulted in a loss of sales, and revenues, and inconvenience for the consumers.

But not anymore.

As per fresh reports coming in, Amazon and Flipkart are now pushing smaller sellers, and enabling them to sell big.

Hence, a lot of smaller sellers have emerged, which are now selling hot selling products which were previously designated only for larger sellers.

For instance, Xiaomi’s Redmi 6 Pro, one of the best sellers,  is now being sold by both Appario and Meera-Enterprises, which is a smaller seller.

In fact, Meera-Enterprises is selling Redmi 6 Pro at a cheaper rate, compared to Appario!

OnePlus, which was an exclusive for Cloudtail on Amazon India, is now being sold by Rocket Kommerce, Darshita Electronics and #GreenMobiles, all smaller sellers, and they are selling the products at the same rate as that of Cloudtail.

Other smaller sellers such as TrueCom Retail and Omni-Tech Retail are now selling Xiaomi Mi TV on Flipkart, which is a new development. Smaller, and lesser-known sellers such as Vision Star, IndiFlashMart and Flashtech Retail are now selling smartphones from Redmi, Oppo, Apple and Honor, and the trends are certainly changing.

This rise of smaller sellers within the ecosystem of Amazon India and Flipkart is a piece of good news, or bad, only time will tell. But as of now, these smaller sellers are helping them to cope with the new e-commerce rules and helping the consumers with more choices.

A win-win situation for all.