Flipkart: merchants must now bear more discounting costs

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Mar 20, 2018

Flipkart will no longer be bearing such a large percentage of discounts offered on merchants’ products as part of sales promotions and will now be asking merchants themselves to bear 60 percent of discounting.

The Times of India (TOI) received correspondence from a seller informing that they will now be responsible for 60 percent of any discount on their stock where before Flipkart itself footed the majority of the bill.

E-commerce market places in India such as Flipkart and Amazon are not legally allowed to influence merchants’ pricing on their platforms but can run sales promotions with discounts across merchants’ products. Asking merchants themselves to be responsible for a larger portion of the discount could now be an emerging trend across such online platforms although there has been no official response from Flipkart on the matter as yet.

The TOI has also reported that Amazon will also bring in new regulations from April 19 that reduce the amount of commission it takes from sellers in a move to keep them on its platform and away from rivals. At present, Flipkart and Amazon are the two main multi-brand e-commerce platforms in India and are in an intense battle for the top spot, including in online fashion retailing.