Amazon said on Thursday it would offer a 50% waiver on commissions for small sellers on its platform till June.
This is part of efforts to bring back variety to its product listings and lessen the financial stress on small businesses affected by the nationwide lockdown. The company said sellers that earned less than Rs 10,000 in January and February would be eligible for the concession.
Gopal Pillai, Vice President of Seller Services at Amazon India, said the move was aimed at putting more money in the hands of small businesses to hasten their recovery.
Amazon’s chief rival, Walmart-owned Flipkart also said it was giving special offers on loans to small sellers through its Growth Capital programme. Under the programme, sellers who take loans during the current period will gan extended financial limit with a six-month moratorium.
“We are working with lakhs of sellers, small businesses and artisans across India and helping them prepare their business and workforce to make products available for consumers in this time of need as they continue to stay indoors,” said a Flipkart spokesperson.
Flipkart is also offering insurance against Covid-19 infections, to sellers. Snapdeal, which has yet to announce any specific incentive package for sellers, said restarting sales will inject liquidity into small businesses.
Its foremost priority is to scale up operations so that liquidity is restored as shipments are delivered and payments flow back to small sellers, it said. “We are looking at various measures for demand restoration so that sellers can grow their businesses,” a Snapdeal spokesperson said.
Amazon said it was also rewarding sellers to move more high priority products – food, groceries and medicines, through its platform.
Its priority wish-list programme, which will run till the end of May, will reimburse sellers Rs 23 for any product with a value less than Rs 250, Rs 15 for products priced between Rs 250 and Rs 500, and Rs 35 for masks and sanitisers.
“We realise that a significant amount of our seller partners are SMEs, women entrepreneurs, artisans, weavers who have been impacted significantly…,” said Pillai. “It’s important to support and stand by them and navigate through this challenge.”
Paytm Mall, too, has announced some concessions for small sellers. “Waiving off a few areas of service level agreement (SLA) temporarily is our way of easing the pressure they are under,” said Srinivas Mothey, Senior Vice President, Paytm Mall.
All these initiatives by e-tailers come in addition to them waiving off storage fees, fulfilment charges and cancellation fees for small sellers whose products were stuck in transit due to the lockdown.
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