Flipkart has today announced its newly revised return policy on most top-selling products on the platform. In the new policy, the company has narrowed the window for returning products from 30 days to just 10 days.
The new policy with reduced days for accepting returns seems to be aimed at reducing logistic and operational costs. Along with that, the company has also announced that the seller on the platform will have to pay higher commissions starting June 20, eyeing to increase revenues. Since the seller commission is increasing, the prices on the platform are speculated to rise by around 9%.
However, the new return policy is not applicable across the entire platform. It will be applicable on categories such as electronics, books and mobile phones, which are the major category for sales on Flipkart. The 30-day return policy will remain only for clothing, footwear, watches and eyewear, jewellery and fashion accessories, as well as large appliances.
With the no questions asked return policy of the e-commerce companies, the logistics and operations costs gets increased. When an user requests for return of a product, the company has to bear logistics costs.
By revising the policy and allowing shorter period for returns, the request for return of products on the platform will be reduced, lowering company’s spending on such services. Also, since the product returns are going to reduce, the company is also hoping to attract more sellers onboard.
Commenting about this, Flipkart spokesperson said,
The impact of this change should come into effect from July. The revised structure across shipping, commission and returns will enable sellers to have predictability and better manage their online business. The standardisation has been designed to encourage sellers who offer superior customer experience, and is thus a win-win for both our customers as well as our customer oriented sellers. Our commission and fee structure remains competitive and in many categories better than other marketplaces. Flipkart is closely working with all our sellers to ensure a smooth transition.
Flipkart is also discontinuing the Zero+ Commission Policy which stopped charging commission from certain groups of sellers, instead asking them to advertise on its platform for a fee. It also barred sellers from charging shipping fee from customers. But now, the sellers will be allowed to pass on shipping cost to customers.
However, Flipkart is not the only e-commerce company in India to have revised its return policy. Recently, Amazon India had announced that it will end its return policy for mobile phones. As per the new policy, only defective or damaged mobile phones will be eligible for replacement, and that too, only for 10 days from the date of delivery of the mobile phone.
