For the first time, small sellers on Amazon and Flipkart, recently appointed to sell some fast-selling smartphones and electronics, are offering prices similar to or lower than those set by large, preferred sellers such as Cloudtail, Appario and OmniTech Retail.
Two senior industry executives said the country’s two largest online marketplaces have adopted this strategy by appointing multiple sellers for the top-selling products to comply with the revised foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for ecommerce. The policy bars sellers to have more than 25% of purchases from the marketplace entity or its group companies and wants smaller entities to have a level playing-field.
On Amazon, Xiaomi’s Redmi 6 Pro (64GB) is sold by both Appario and Meera-Enterprises at the same price. In case of Redmi 6A (32GB), which is one of the largest selling smartphone models in the country, Meera-Enterprises is selling it at Rs 100 lower than Appario. Before the February 1 deadline for the implementation of the revised FDI policy, Appario was the sole seller of these two models.
Similarly, Cloudtail used to be the preferred seller for OnePlus smartphones on Amazon, but now smaller sellers such as Rocket Kommerce, Darshita Electronics and #GreenMobiles are selling at the same price. The trend is similar for smartphones from Honor, Realme and Apple, which were largely sold by the large sellers.
In case of Walmart-owned Flipkart, Xiaomi’s 32-inch LED TV is sold by TrueCom Retail and Omni-Tech Retail. Smaller sellers like Vision Star, IndiFlashMart and Flashtech Retail are selling smartphones of RealMe, Xiaomi, Vivo, Honor and Motorola. For Oppo and Nokia, there are multiple sellers. An executive with a leading online-focussed smartphone maker said marketplaces are appointing multiple sellers or offering the best deal through the smaller sellers only for the top-selling smartphone or TV models.
“This will help the large sellers to comply with the 25% norms. The marketplaces can show that they are offering a level playing-field for all and they have no role in deciding the selling price or deals,” said the smartphone executive.
An Amazon India spokesperson said Amazon.in is a pure third-party marketplace with more than four lakh diverse sellers from across the country. “Our sellers have the absolute right to decide on their sourcing, selection and pricing,” the spokesperson said. Flipkart did not respond to an email till Wednesday press time. For the brands, however, there has been no change in business structure with the marketplaces. They continue to bill and supply either to the marketplace wholesale entities or large sellers.
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