About 1,000 sellers have formed the eSeller Suraksha Forum to convey their concerns and one vendor has even sent a letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to draw his attention to the problem. The sellers, none of whom wants to be identified, complain that the marketplaces are not sharing logistics costs or returning commissions in case a customer opens the package and then doesnt want the item.
They put the entire blame on us, saying that we shipped fake or faulty products leading to return, said a forum member., indiatimes.com reports.
The ecommerce platforms function as marketplaces that connect buyers with sellers. They cant sell directly to customers as Indias overseas investment rules dont allow this. The rising trend in returns cited by the sellers — the ecommerce companies deny this is happening — comes as marketplaces look to shore up finances after having focused on heavy discounts to win customers. This means online bargains are declining, which seems to be resulting in pain at the business end of the ecommerce retail chain, the source cites.
Amazon uses the A-Z claim to safeguard buyers not happy with a product. Once filed, Amazon will investigate the matter and try to resolve it within seven days, the source cites. Sellers say the return rate has increased by up to 50% in many categories including electronics, mobile phones, mobile accessories, apparel and jewellery since July 2015. This means losses for sellers that are mostly small and medium-sized vendors. Echoing the sellers concerns, Arvind Singhal, chairman of consultant Technopak Advisors, said the return rate on ecommerce platforms has gone up and could go up further.
However, Amazon denies such statistics saying: Unfortunately, its difficult to comment on your numbers as we dont know what specific sellers you are talking to, said Gopal Pillai, director, seller services, Amazon India. But we dont see it anywhere close to 50% — it is significantly lower. the source cites.
Flipkart also said its returns were lower than the average. Our returns process is designed to create a win-win situation for both our customers as well as sellers, a Flipkart spokesperson said. Majority of our sellers have significantly lower return figures compared to the industry. We have an easy return policy for our sellers which ensures prompt returns as well as exchanges., the source cites.
Flipkart said it has invested in creating a returns dashboard that provides details of operations, status, payments and customer details for sellers. A dedicated team monitors and handles return requests.
In its turn, Snapdeal said returns had declined. The returns on the Snapdeal platform have steadily gone down over the last one year due to introduction of various technology upgrades and tighter monitoring of quality aspects, a Snapdeal spokesperson said in an email. The returns are today less than 10%, which is unarguably the lowest in the industry in India. There may be some outlier cases where a seller may have seen higher returns for reasons specific to such a seller.
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